Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement

My name is Jessica Scott. I am English as a Second Language teacher at a small university in Fairfax, Virginia. I also am a phonetic editor for a computer company, and I also teach English through two voluntary organizations in Virginia, umm, so teaching English is my passion. My husband and I, our goal is to go to overseas one day; and he studies conflict resolution; I teach English, so we hope to help the people in the future. When I came on this trip, I came with an open mind. I didn’t know what to expect. I have a lot of Turkish students who gave me lots of recommendations and things to see, names of foods to try, umm, they told me all the baklava here definitely would be better than what is in America. Now I can go home and tell them that I agree. What I am most excited about for my trip home, when I return, is the fact that where I grew up everybody looked the same, and there wasn’t a lot of diversity. So people that are my friends, my family have never met people from Turkey. They haven’t met people that are different from them, and when I talk to them and tell them your ideas, your stereotypes of people from different religions or different backgrounds aren’t right; you know these are the same as us. If you are a good person, you are a good person. It doesn’t matter what your religion or your culture is. So I am excited to go home and say you can take me seriously now because I have been there, I have met those people, I have been to that sort of country, I have been with those types of people like you say are this way, and now I can say, I am an authority on this subject because I have been there and experienced it. So I live for to being sort of an ambassador for Turkey when I go home, and tell the people that are close to me how great an experience I have had here. It has been too short of a trip. I would like to stay longer. I hope to come back seriously and stay much longer and hopefully teach. Thank you so much!