I will never forget the first time I got on that blue bus at the last stop of Emek 8th Street. After I got on and walked through the students, when I looked outside, I felt like everyone was looking at me. I was proud of myself.

In those years, studying abroad or even studying at a private university was not an affordable option for my family, like many other families. METU was the highest point where my academic goals and my family's means met, and I was able to reach that point. My academic adventure had met with the METU logo in the middle of the red and white stripes.

Nearly 35 years later, the principle I have adopted while serving as a study abroad counselor is the same: Bringing together the goals of young people and the means of their families at the highest point.

This is not always easy. Exam preparation marathons come into play in order to keep the goals high, and scholarship searches come into play in order to keep the means high. However, I do my best to make the young people, whose adventures I am involved in, feel as I felt on the blue bus on the first day of their university education.