Looking at Lone Star College-North Harris up close reveals more than 1,100 employees fulfilling the college's mission at LSC-North Harris and LSC-East Aldine Center. Their collective experience and dedication make the college a standout in higher education. One of those employees is Figen Bekisli.
Bekisli, an LSC-North Harris physics professor, has gone through an ambitious journey to bring her where she is today. Along the way, education was the driving force that brought Dr. Bekisli to the United States, and ultimately, to teaching at LSC-North Harris.
Originally from the town of Nazilli near the west coast of Turkey, Bekisli grew up with her parents, an identical twin sister, and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
All around her, including her mother, the women were housewives and parents, but they always encouraged the future Ph.D. student to “study, get a higher education, find a good job and be free,” Bekisli shared.
That encouragement, along with the motivation to seek her own financial freedom, helped instill a tremendous work ethic that followed Bekisli throughout her school days.
“I was very hard-working and ambitious at school,” she said. “I was a straight-A student and top of my class.”
Bekisli followed her passion and became a physics teacher, but she still had an urge to achieve more. Looking to further advance her education, she arrived in the U.S. to pursue graduate studies at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
As a child coming from such a low-income family, the thought of achieving a higher education degree seemed like merely a hopeful wish, but that’s where her work ethic and commitment set her apart from others.
“It was very difficult to even dream about higher education,” Bekisli said. “I was the first person to get a Ph.D. in my extended family, and I am also the first person to do this abroad. Dreams can come true if you believe in yourself and work hard.”
It wouldn’t be long after her graduate work before she found herself at LSC-North Harris. Bekisli joined the faculty in August 2014, once again following her passion to teach.
She loved how her new opportunity allowed her to “reach and help students from many different diversities and backgrounds. If I can be a role model for at least one student every semester, then I feel successful and satisfied,” Bekisli said.
Originally, she felt it would have been impossible to end up with a Ph.D. and following her passion of teaching at an institution of higher education. And yet, here she is setting the precedent for her students that there’s no reason to believe your dreams are too far out of reach.
“Nothing is easy, but nothing is impossible either,” she wants students to hear. “Just work hard and dreams will come true. Aim to be a lifetime learner. That’s my key.”
Lone Star College offers high quality, low-cost academic transfer and career training education to 99,000 students each semester. LSC is training tomorrow’s workforce today and redefining the community college experience to support student success. Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., serves as chancellor of LSC, the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area with an annual economic impact of nearly $3 billion. LSC consists of seven colleges, eight centers, two university centers, Lone Star Corporate College and LSC-Online. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.
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