Meet Kenzie Young, clay’s seventeen-year-old Engagement Manager! She was born in Arkansas, but her family moved to Turkey when she was almost 8, and they have lived there for the last 9 years. When asked what her favorite thing about Turkey was, she said she loves the people there because they are very hospitable and welcoming. Antalya is by the Mediterranean coast and gets pretty hot, but since they are very close to the coast and to the mountains, Kenzie loves to go swimming in the summer and skiing in the winter.
Kenzie has three younger siblings, two brothers, and a sister. She and her siblings have been begging their dad to get a dog for the past two years, but so far he hasn’t budged. She said she doesn’t want a big dog, more like a smaller or medium sized dog like her grandparents have. They have a Shichon named Murphy who she loves.
This will be her third year at TPS, as she started two years ago when the pandemic started, and she will finish out high school here. Technically this should be her senior year, but she is going into 11th grade instead. When she first moved to Turkey, she tried going to school there as well as homeschooling and learning the language, which didn’t work out so well.
She enjoys reading, swimming with her siblings, and photography. She also loves watching movies with her family, and also occasionally she will spend part of the day re-watching episodes of Gilmore Girls. Her love of photography started when she took pictures with her grandparent’s old camera, capturing images of nature and playing with the angles and lighting. She decided to sign up for clay because she thought it would be a really great way to interact with TPS students and make some new friends.
Her favorite food is the Turkish breakfast called kahvaltı, which consists of a giant spread of foods that differ from region to region. She describes one dish as having honey and cream cheese in it, and another that has bread with cheese in the middle that was special to Antalya. Kenzie loves the Harry Potter series and the TV show Gilmore Girls, which she described as a show that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Her favorite color is teal blue, and her favorite place to be is anywhere with her friends or at her grandparents’ house in Chattanooga, TN, which is one of the coolest cities she has ever been to.
History is her favorite subject in school, and she loves reading historical fiction. The most recent book she’s read that she found really good is Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict.
If she could be any animal for a day, she would choose to be a cat because it would be interesting to see what they could see and climb trees. Also, cats are treated well where she lives, so that would be nice. It’s a hard choice though. If she could live in any historical time period she would probably choose the 80s and 90s because of all the music and TV shows in that time period. If she could go back and tell her younger self anything, she would say that everything happens for a reason; what you think is hard right now will probably turn out for good. Her favorite Bible verse is Philippians 4:13; it reminds her that no matter what happens, God is in control, and He is with her.