In addition to earning my Bachelor's in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 and working as a web/database developer, I recently completed my Master's and teaching certification from the University of Pittsburgh this past June. I am also currently working on finishing the English Learner Authorization required for certification in California before I begin teaching high school math full-time.

Last year during graduate school, I was tutoring mainly SAT and ACT prep as well as several other middle and high school students in subjects from Pre-Algebra through Pre-Calculus, even Life Science, and helping one student organize and prepare a book report presentation. While I have honestly loved them all, I am most passionate about Pre-Calculus and Trigonometry, and I actually taught two classes in that material during my internship. Since it is such a departure from the type of mathematics students are used to before they get to that level, I really loved serving as their guide to open their minds to a new perspective with the help of my progressive graduate school training. I could not have asked for better students, and we even went out as a group to lunch and a local amusement park after the year was over.

Part of my inspiration is to help all students of differing performance and interest levels since I truly feel that we are all capable of having a logically-developed mind, which is what mathematics really is. Of course, many people think that they hate and are bad at math, but this is often more due to a teacher not showing them the beauty of it and how everything makes sense. It is not like other fields that facts from history are disproven with new technologies.

I am from Philadelphia, so I am a huge Flyers fan, and I love hockey in general. Being a Turk, I also love soccer (futbol) and watch as many EPL and MLS games as I can. I'm also a big classic metal fan, such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath. While it might seem odd that I also love geeky things such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and board games, many of the old metal bands now look like they could fit right into a LOTR movie.