Who I am

Hi I'm Defne,

I am 18 years old and am a student in Lyon, France. I used to study in Istanbul until 2 years ago my family and I decided to move to Lyon so I could study in Europe.

I am American so my native language is English and my second language is Turkish, I speak both of them fluently.

I have enjoyed being around children since a very young age, I used to volunteer in hippotherapy classes for mentally challenged kids in Istanbul, now I give English lessons at Le Grapillon for mentally challenged students, I have been babysitting for a year and I also volunteer as help in art lessons for the 4th grade class in my school.

I genuinely adore preparing and playing educational games with the kids, they get to learn in a fun environment while enjoying themseleves. I can also give English classes, go over their homework, check their assignments before they hand it in, or simply babysit them, pick them up from school...etc.

When and if I'm teaching kids I try to approach it in a very positive matter. I try to take this wonderful concept of discovering new things and learning and rather than completely ruining the atmosphere with judgement and suppression of creativity I try to help the kids appreciate being educated and informed.

All of the extra curricular/volunteer work that I do I have to be constantly watching over my class and making sure that they are listening and paying attention to me. Or for example where my qualities also come in handy is when I'm helping in the 4th grade art class by assisting the teacher.

I believe that these activities that I do on a weekly basis give me certain attributes such as being a responsible, trustworthy, organized, reliable and an overall principled person.