Name: Ekin Baris Ozenir
Major: Computer engineering
Classification: Sophomore
Graduation date: Spring 2026
Hometown: Mersin, Turkey
Extracurricular activities: “I play chess. Actually, I’m part of the UTRGV Chess Team.”
What are the differences between your hometown and the United States? “Pretty much everything. I can say the rules [and] how people live. The only thing similar is the weather but the rest is just different.”
What is on your bucket list? “Oh, my goodness. I want to travel. This is something I want to do. I started traveling in the summer, since I started college. I went to [the] Czech Republic, Spain [and] France so far. I would like to continue traveling. I want to see Portugal; that’s a place I want to go.”
Who is your role model? “Since I was a kid people were asking me, like, when I did interviews about chess and stuff, but I didn’t really have a role model in my life. Like, there were people of course. I tried to be like them, but [they were not] a role model to me. It was just like I see people doing some good things. I was, like, ‘OK, there’s a good thing I can try to implement in my life.’”
Why did you choose computer engineering as your major? “In Turkey, we have a university exam in which you don’t really get to choose [a] major … but when I applied here, I realized I can choose anything I want. So, like, I wanted to do engineering, but I didn’t know which one I wanted to do. So, my mom had some friends and I went to talk to them. There was one guy who was doing computer engineering. There was an electrical engineer and when I talked to them I realized computer engineering will be good for me.”
What advice would you give other international students? “I think it’s important to just, you know, engage with the people in the community. It’s a new place, but when you get together with people then it’s more enjoyable and the university has a lot of possibilities to do a lot of things. So, it’s just like using them is always good and kind of important. My opinion is using all the resources that they have here. They are really useful. … They’re good to use.”
–Compiled by Fatima Gamez Lopez
