about

I am Priya Bhatt, from Champaign, Illinois and went to University Laboratory High School located on the University of İllinois campus. I am living in Aydın, Turkey for the 2014-2015 school year. Last year I recieved the Kennedy-Lugar YES abroad scholarship to study ın and create good relationships with Muslim countries.

I have been involved in service projects in the US and South America. For the past 4  years I have volunteered at my city’s Special Olympics swim meets timing and helping out the swimmers.  I also went to Ecuador for 3 months ummers and worked as a teacher/helper in a summer school in the rural town Lumbisi. I have also volunteered in Nicaragua making solar cookers and panels for a rural town that had no electricity.

I have also run cross country two seasons in High School and been involved in school projects like interning at my local radio station. My intern group interviewed people from different groups (veterans, intellectually disabled people, and people in intercultural/LGBT relationships) that we found in our city and another group compiled the stories to make 3 different documentaries that were aired on the radio.

What I have missed most is dancing. I danced for 12 years at the Christine Rich studio cross training in ballet, jazz, tap and acrobatics. This is an accomplishment that I can share with my friends in Turkey. I also have played Piano for 10 years and have played for my host family and their guests several times.

I will be staying in Turkey for ten months, it there are any questions about the culture or my experience on YES abroad you can e-mail me here: phb9963@gmail.com