Born in 1976, Dr. Tuba Agartan grew up in the Turkish capital of Ankara with her mother, father and

Born in 1976, Dr. Tuba Agartan grew up in the Turkish capital of Ankara with her mother, father and older sister. When she was in third grade her family moved to Izmir, on the coast, and her college years were spent in Istanbul. Growing up Tuba felt connected to the rest of the world because her father would travel frequently around Europe so she would hear his stories and receive “beautiful different toys” from various places. She remembers eating cornflakes for breakfast, as that is something he would bring back too.Tuba had ambitions of completing a PhD, but was advised by her professors she needed to go to Europe or the United States in order to secure a position at a decent university. Her father, who completed his PhD in Philosophy in Edinburgh, was more than supportive in her choice to go the United States. At the age of 25, Tuba arrived into JFK airport with her boyfriend from Turkey. Both had been accepted to study sociology in Binghamton, upstate New York. While Tuba found New York City to be as glamorous as Hollywood portrayed and found many big city similarities to Istanbul, she still felt a sense of emptiness due to being in a new country. “…You sort of wake up the first morning in a very strange country and…you feel an emptiness. It’s kind of like such a feeling of being in a very foreign place.”Her ability to speak English and having her boyfriend (now husband) helped. Also, having a close-knit Turkish community to be there for them and making friends with other immigrants from around the world made the transition much easier.“…But [the emptiness feeling] went away very fast because it was a very tight knit Turkish community and there were such great people”.In the last year of her program she Tuba gave birth to her first daughter, which she recalls as one of her happiest memories in the United States. Once her daughter was old enough to fly she returned to Turkey for family support and to finish her dissertation.  It is a Turkish custom to keep the baby at home as much as possible and to have a mother’s helping hand. Due to limited resources in Turkey, Tuba and her husband felt it would be best to seek job opportunities in the United States. Soon after, she interviewed for a position at Providence College, where she has since been teaching in the Health Policy and Management department.Tuba loves the relaxed atmosphere in Providence and especially enjoys being near the ocean in Newport. Keeping Turkish traditions and customs as part of everyday life in her household is important. Although they find it difficult to partake in all Muslim religious holidays, she speaks Turkish at home, eats Turkish food and teaches Turkish customs to her two daughters. She has also found herself embracing new traditions such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Halloween and the tooth fairy, mostly because it is something her daughters enjoy doing.For Tuba it is important that her daughters have friends from various backgrounds as she feels it will help and encourage them to embrace their Turkish heritage.“They’re too young right now to do that but I’d like them to be proud that they have Turkish parents…To make sure that that happens they should have friends that are from different backgrounds, families from different countries…But I have admitted that they’re going to identify as American first. The older one has already started asking ‘Am I American, Mom?’, ‘Am I Turkish?’, ‘You are Turkish, right?’ She was born here so she’s trying to figure out where those things fall and what they mean for her.”When the time comes she hopes she and her husband can apply for United States citizenship. After having invested so much of her life here she wants the security of knowing she is able to stay. She often jokes about her “non-citizen” or “alien” status but she also strives to achieve “fullness” by developing new roots here while nourishing her deep connections to her home country. She feels grateful to have friends, colleagues and neighbors who appreciate her difference and she hopes to contribute to her community by teaching and talking about diversity and respect.Written and compiled by Sarah Collins and Mark Folan -- source link
Tumblr Blog : welcomingrhodeisland-blog.tumblr.com

More pics about