Turkish & Ottoman Studies Program | Near Eastern Languages & Civilization | University of Washington
Turkey in Seattle : an Oral History Project
Bengu Bostanci was born in Akṣehir, Turkey in 1976. She completed primary/secondary schooling in Akṣehir and moved to Ankara to attend Gazi University, where she obtained her degree in the Education Faculty, Science Teaching. Sometime after starting her teaching career, she met Hakki Tunc Bostanci and due to his new job at Microsoft, they decided to move to Seattle, WA after getting married in Turkey. Bengu continued to work as a teacher in the Lake Washington School District before giving birth to her two daughters. In 2015, she was asked to teach at a newly founded Turkish school called American-Turkish Academy of Washington (ATA-WA) and later became its director. Bengu continues to visit her family in Turkey during the summers as she has very close ties to her home country and always chooses to identify as being from Akṣehir.