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VOA Turkish Blogger Explores the American Dream


VOA's Yenal Kucuker interviews student Rebecca Barr for his multimedia blog "American Dream."
VOA's Yenal Kucuker interviews student Rebecca Barr for his multimedia blog "American Dream."
You might say VOA Turkish Service blogger Yenal Kucuker has been living the American dream since he moved to the United States as a high school student in 1998.

Now, he is the man behind the new VOA blog, American Dream, which caters to students and young people in Turkey who are hoping to come to the U.S. to study or work.

“America is still the land of opportunity. Therefore, our audience is interested in a variety of topics such as success stories, educational opportunities and living in America. We get a lot of emails about the education system and academic opportunities. So there’s certainly a demand for that and I’m going to try to cover those issues for them,” Kucuker said.

Kucuker, who started working at VOA last September, is no stranger to life in the U.S. Since he immigrated with his family from Lüleburgaz, a small city west of Istanbul, he has studied as an undergraduate and graduate student, taught at a community college, worked for a software company, interned for the U.S. Congress, and worked at the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, before landing a job at VOA.

For his first VOA blog post, Kucuker featured a video interview in Turkish with an American exchange student who studied in Turkey for a year and a half. The student shared stories from her time in Turkey, and how it developed her interest in the country, its language, and culture.

Kucuker says he is planning future blogs that profile Turkish-American professionals from various backgrounds, whose stories can guide and inspire readers. He has already lined up interviews with a famous Turkish automotive designer, and the founder of an educational institute that assists high school students who are applying to college in the United States.
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