Fikret is pursuing his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice at the University at Albany. He is in his third year in the School of Criminal Justice. He is focusing on restorative justice and community change. Basically, he is studying different ways of looking at the criminal justice system, such as looking at alternative punishment methods. He is also studying ways to bring together the local, state and federal criminal justice systems.

I had wanted to come to CTG for a long time. I originally heard about CTG when I was a Masters student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. I was looking up information on my field of study and came across the CTG web-site. Upon learning what CTG does, I realized that I could do exactly what I was interested in through this organization. In fact, I mentioned CTG in my letter of intent when I was applying to the Ph.D. program at the University at Albany. Once I had been accepted into the Criminal Justice Program I paid close attention to any job openings that might be occurring at CTG. Finally a graduate student position opened up and I became an integral part of the CTG staff.

Before even coming to the United States I worked at the Central Crime Lab in Turkey. Here I was basically a tech person, trying to create and keep the labs newly created networks running. What made things even more interesting is that the Turkish National Police were trying to connect eight countrywide laboratories, including the one I worked for, together onto one network. While working with the Turkish National Police I received a scholarship to obtain my graduate degrees. This brought me to the School of Criminal Justice at John Jay University to get my Masters degree. Upon completion of this degree I came to the University at Albany to obtain my Ph.D. and to hopefully gain a position at CTG.

Because I have only been with CTG since February 2003, a little more than a year, I have only really worked on one major project. This project, entitled Modeling Interorganizational Information Integration or MIII focuses on two main governmental systems, the health system and the criminal justice system. I have been working on the criminal justice aspect of the project. I am studying how different criminal justice systems share information with each other. In addition the MIII project, I have worked on a few minor literature reviews.

The scholarship that I obtained in order to come to the United States requires that I return to my job with the Turkish National Police. When I return to Turkey, I would like to teach at the college level. I would not like to focus solely on teaching though, I would also like to be able to do some research, but know that my ability to do this depends on the conditions.

Because I would like to go into academia in the field of criminal justice my work at CTG is very pertinent to my future. Being at CTG has given me the opportunity to do much research within my field, especially in working on the MIII project. Both qualitative and quantitative research types are important in criminal justice, and I think CTG provides an excellent opportunity to develop qualitative research skills and that will be very helpful in my dissertation and any other future research projects. Another benefit that CTG has provided me with is the amount of hands-on research that I am able to do. Because of the programs I am involved with through CTG I feel that when I return to the Turkish National Police I will be integrated directly into a project. I believe I will be knowledgeable and ready to handle anything that I will experience when I return.

I love aviation and model airplanes.