presentations

 JOSEPH KAZANCIOGLU'S PRESENTATION

Hi, everyone!  In this presentation I will speak a bit of who I am. I will talk about where I am from, my family and my schooling. Even though I am 22 years old, I have had many unique experiences that I am grateful for.

First, I want to talk about my hometown. My hometown is Allendale NJ. It is a suburb in New Jersey. It has a population of 7,000 people, and so it very small. However, we are surrounded by a lot of other towns, so it’s not isolated. New Jersey is the most densely populated state so it has a lot of people.

New Jersey has a bad reputation of being ugly, but I don't think it'sd true. Here are a couple of pictures of New Jersey. The first is a map of the state. I live in the North. The second picture is of a deer, an animal very common in New Jersey. They walk all over the suburbs. That picture was taken in my backyard, right behind my house. The picture below the deer is me in a sunflower field thai is in New Jersey. The last picture is a New Jersey beach. As you can see from the map, New Jersey has a large coasline, and it's very common to spend summer at the beach. New Jersey has all four seasons, so that is always pretty! I find winter to be too cold and dark, though.

Of course, the best thing from North New Jersey is that I live next to the most important city in the world. The first picture is the directions from my house in Allendale to New York City. It only takes me 30 minutes to go to NYC from my house. The second picture is me and my friend walking. The picture on the bottom is me and my friend Ally sitting at the Brooklyn bridge, a famous landmark between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The last picture is me and my best friends from high school at a restaurant. The building in the back is the Empire State Building, another famous landmark.

This picture is a few more pictures from my hometown. There is a picture from my high school. This is where I went to school from ages 13-17. My high school was public and had strong academics. 95% of the students of my high school went to college. The picture on the right is a picture of the Celery Farm, a nature reserve in my town. It's very pretty and my family and I like to go on walks there when the weather is nice.

This is a picture of my family. This picture was taken on my high school graduation, so it's five years old. My family has four people in it: me, my brother, my mom, and my dad.

This slide is about my brother. He is only one year older than me. I am twenty two years old and he is twenty three years old. We are very close because we grew up together and we are so close in age. People used to think we were always twins when we were young. Alex went to college for Business in the Midwest of America and also lived in Milan, Italy. He is much more shy than me. He also really likes cars and different cultures. He worked for BMW this past year. My brother, like me, loves different cultures. This picture on the right is my brother in Brazil, when he visited me.

This slide is about my dad. My dad is very unique because he is from Turkey, which is not very common in New Jersey. He is from Antakya, a small city in southern Turkey. It is very close to Syria. He also is Greek Orthodox, which is a religious minority in Turkey. He moved to America without his family at age 26 and met my mom. He loves to cook, and I included a meal that he made for me and my family. He is a really good chef and is always making Turkish food for my whole family. I also included pictures of his hometown and pictures from my parents' wedding day. The picture on the top-right is a picture of a church in his hometown. It is one of the oldest churches in the whole world!

This is my mom. An interesting fact about my mom is that she moved to America when she was four. When she moved to America, they changed her name! When she was born, her name was Immacolata, but they changed it to 'Margaret' when she immigrated. We don't like the name Margaret, so now my family calls her Mirella. She is from southern Italy, in a region called Calabria. I included a picture of her birthday, a small mountain called Luzzi. When my mom moved to the States, she moved to Northern New Jersey. She works as an English teacher for people who have just immigrated. It is very close to her heart because she is also an immigrant. My dad is a teacher as well, but he teaches math. I included more pictures from my parents' wedding day as well.

Here is a bit of my university. I attended school in the nation's capital, Washington DC. It was fascinating living in the same city as the president and all the government officials: I really like DC.

At George Washington University I studied public health. My major was about understanding different aspects of health care systems and how to improve them for everybody. I have included pictures of me and my friend, Brianna studying in our public health building. Also, on the right side, you can see what the public health building looked like at my school. It was very new and nice.

At a part of my university, I was able to study abroad. I lived in Rome, Italy, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was such an amazing experience. I love living abroad, and that's why I wanted to come to Spain.

My plan for the future is to be a dentist. I want to affect people's health in a positive way. Next year, I will go to school for four more years where I will learn how to be a dentist. It is very intense schooling, so I'm so glad to have this opportunity in the meantime. I'm so happy to be in Spain, and I know this year will be so wonderful!