Delmar senior Mustafa Kilicarslan, Jr. likes to be challenged. Next spring he will walk the stage at two graduations, at Delmar High School and Wor-Wic Community College, after moving to the United States with his family in 2018. The native of Turkey did not speak English when he moved here.
Mustafa, who scored a 1530 out of 1600 (99th percentile) on the SAT, was accepted to Wor-Wic Community College in ninth grade through the Maryland U-16 Gifted and Talented Student program. He is looking to complete an Associate Degree in STEM Engineering at the same time as he is pursuing his high school diploma at Delmar.
Kilicarslan
“It’s pretty challenging but at the same time it’s pretty rewarding,” Kilicarslan said. “I had to take so many classes but in the end it’s going to pay off.”
Balancing high school work while meeting the 60 credit college requirement has been time consuming, to say the least. As he says, his day consists of “get up, go to school, study, chill, study and repeat.”
“I’m basically living the life of a high school student and a college student in one semester,” he said. “I was kind of scared at first (when he enrolled in college as a freshman) but my parents assured me if I had it on my mind I could do it. They’ve (family) been very supportive of me.”
Moving from a city in Turkey with a population of two million people to Sussex County has been a bit of a culture shock, but Mustafa likes not having to wait in long lines at the grocery store.
He spent a year rigorously studying English after he moved to the U.S. He said the students at Delmar were friendly and he was included in activities even when he didn’t speak the language.
Following his two graduations, which will take place over two weeks, Mustafa is looking to transfer to a four-year university to study electrical engineering. MIT is his top choice.
From there he is looking to get into medical school then combine the two fields through AI to develop personalized medicine for patients and improve diagnostics.
Kilicarslan got his first taste of the corporate world this summer when he did an MAPA internship at ExxonMobil Turkey, the corporation’s distributor in Turkey. He was able to get a hands-on experience in Human Resources, technology and marketing including software management and also went out in the field with the sales team.
“It was a very great learning experience, my first experience in the business world,” Kilicarslan said.
Mustafa started playing chess when he was in seventh grade and represented the Turkish national chess team at the 2015 European Young Chess Championship in Greece. He founded the chess club at Delmar and worked with Wor-Wic President and the Director of CEWD Skilled Trades and Manufacturing Training to start an annual chess tournament at the school. He placed first in that tournament as well as the Wicomico County Recreation, Parks and Tourism tournament.
“I’m hoping it’s (Wor-Wic tournament) going to be a tradition in the future,” said Kilicarslan.
As for his experience with the college program, Mustafa feels that such programs are underrepresented due to attendance and transportation issues. Delmar administrators had to go to the Delaware Department of Education to amend laws so he could attend the Maryland college.
“The students that are trying to get into these programs are not getting the support that they should because of lack of agreements (between schools),” he said. “Fortunately I got the support and the chance to do it.”