Ozlem Kucukoruc was born in Istanbul, Turkey, where her family still reside. After completing her university education in literature, she focused her studies on innovation management, linguistics, and creative writing. She has worked with gifted and talented teenagers, held leadership roles, and taught IB language, literature, and TOK courses at international schools since 2006.

A certified teacher trainer, Ozlem organized and conducted training programs on skills development and creativity for several schools and educators. Her areas of interest also include extracurricular activities that help increase young people’s wellbeing and empowerment. As an educator, she believes that schools have the responsibility to teach critical thinking skills to students in all disciplines and encourage them to develop the awareness and practice to apply these skills on to their lives outside the classroom as well. 

Having been an avid reader all her life, she is also an aspiring writer.

In the past she’s met or taught several students who became UWC alumni all around the world, and she herself has been a proud member of UWC CSC since 2020.