Turkish & Ottoman Studies Program | Near Eastern Languages & Civilization | University of Washington
Turkey in Seattle : an Oral History Project
Aysel was born in Ankara in 1956 and immigrated to New York with her family in 1960. She attended school in New York and went to Cornell University to major in microbiology. After briefly living in Texas to attend medical school she did her residency at the University of Maryland and studied plastic surgery at the Medical College of Virginia. She then moved to Seattle in 1991 with her ex-husband and is now a plastic surgeon. She is a member of the Turkish American Community of Washington, which allows her to keep Turkish traditions alive and interact with other Turkish Americans. She feels more comfortable speaking English but practices her Turkish when she goes back to Turkey to visit relatives. She feels comfortable living in the U.S. and recognizes the opportunities it has given her.