GoldenKey Spotlight: Aline Castillo Moreno, Ozgur Erkan and Roberta Grossi

It’s the final installment of Beyond the Golden Key Map where we profile students who have joined Golden Key from countries where we do not have chapters established.  Read part 1 and part 2 to see what you missed!
In this final part, we interviewed Aline Castillo Moreno, Ozgur Erkan and Roberta Grossi.

Aline Castillo Moreno

Aline joined Golden Key in March 2010 when she was attending Tec de Monterrey at Estado de México. She grew up in Mexico. When she was 15, she decided to learn German and thought the best way to do that is traveling there, so she did a Rotary International exchange year in Darmstadt, Germany.   After that she was contacted by Envision and returned to Germany a year later and then went to one of the Envision conferences in Wien-Prag-Budapest. She loves languages (she knows some German, Italian, and French) and travelling. She has a bachelor’s degree in International Business.  In the middle of obtaining that degree, she studied some courses on Intellectual Property with the WIPO online and decided to start with an Engineering career online too. She has since graduated and is still living in Mexico. Now she is working in transport and logistics engineering. Her proudest academic accomplishment is she was named the best scholar for her bachelors degree with the best final note in the whole group of 60 people.
How did you hear about Golden Key?
I heard about it through the GYLC, GYLS and UPIC conferences that I attended in the past years. I sounded interesting so I decided to join. I thought it was a great opportunity to get in touch with other people with similar interests and some day apply to the scholarships it offers.

Ozgur Erkan

Ozgur joined Golden Key in February 2010. When he joined Golden Key, he was studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  He was born in Istanbul, Turkey where he attended a German-speaking high school.  He aspired to study in Europe where he believes there are better job opportunities for his future. So after high school, he left for the UK, to study at the London School of Economics and got a BSc in Government and Economics. Due to his love of politics and institutions of the European Union, he stayed for one more year and obtained a MSc degree in Politics and Government in the European Union. His proudest academic accomplishment is becoming the class valedictorian in his MSc. degree. After thinking about pursuing a PhD, Ozgur changed his path and currently is pursuing an MA in Counter Terrorism and Homeland Security at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel.
How did you hear about Golden Key?
I heard about Golden Key when I was browsing the student union websites of different colleges in the US. Once I heard about Golden Key, I went onto the institution’s website, read about its membership advantages and simply enrolled in. I became aware of the network provided by Golden Key to its members, in terms of their future job prospects and potential scholarships for graduate school. Since I was planning to go to the US for a PhD at the time, I thought that joining Golden Key would be a vital asset for my future.

Roberta Grossi

Roberta joined Golden Key in March 2011. She grew up in Italy and Brazil.  Then she lived in the US, Spain, Finland and eventually ended up in Paris where she resides today. She studied in the US at University of Richmond where she graduated with a BA in Journalism. She worked for a couple of years and then went to Oklahoma State University where she earned a MA in Speech Communication. After that Roberta started to work as a management and communication consultant. A couple of years later, she was able to fulfill her dream of working on her own and started her own consulting business. She then completed an executive MBA in Paris at Saint Xavier University, a Chicago-based university that had opened a branch in Paris. As a consultant and trainer she continued her learning with an online MA in Adult Education and is pursuing a PhD in Adult Education and Elearning online with Trident University.  Roberta says her proudest academic accomplishment is “the ability to have studied in different countries in the world in different languages and always passed with very high grades regardless of the efforts required to adapt and often to be discriminated against for being a foreigner”.
In 1998, Roberta became the founder and president of a small private university based in Paris, France called Horizons University.  Roberta says, “Horizons University is a on-campus and online university based in Paris, France with students from all over the world and offering programs that meet new trends of thought and at the most interesting tuition fee levels.”
How did you hear about Golden Key?
I joined Golden Key when I was browsing the net for an honor society to join. I liked it for two reasons: first it’s open to everyone that qualifies without having to go through the university chapter, so I applied directly. Second, it is the fact that it offers membership to wide variety of majors. This is great and so inviting. I think honor societies are great motivators.
Thank you to all our members who shared their unique stories in this blog series.