Ashkan Sobhe
editI was born on November 9, 1986 in Tehran, Iran. I lived in Germany for a while when I was four years old; I went to kindergarten there and had a lot of fun learning a bit of German. Then, my family and I traveled to England and stayed there for a while. After that, we all moved back to Iran. I spent most of my life in Iran except for some travels to Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai.
My elementary, junior high, and high schools were all private schools; my father was also an active member of PTA during all these years. He holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Southern California (U.S.C.). My academic grades in elementary and junior high were straight A's.
After taking several tests and exams, and going through a few interviews, I was accepted by one of the top-four high schools in Iran; therefore, my parents bought me a classical guitar to show their appreciation for my hard work. Now, composing music, writing songs (lyrics), and singing is my favorite hobby, and I practice playing guitar at least one hour per day.
I loved horses since I was a little kid. I enjoy being in the nature and spending my time with such loyal animals. One day, my father came to me and said that he had found a Horse Back Riding Club next to his Rug warehouse which was in the suburbs of Tehran. I saw my dreams coming true. Five years later, I found myself in the 5th place in a nation wide horse jumping competition.
My family and I moved to the U.S. in September 2003; we resided in New York City for the first 10 months. Last year, a huge earthquake hit the city of Bam in South Iran. Many people died; lots of houses were torn down; almost everything was destroyed. I really felt bad for the kids who had lost their parents in that natural disaster. I could feel how they felt because I was living without my dad during that short period of time too. So my brother Khashaiar, who was 11 years old at that time, and I, made our minds and decided to pick up the phone and call our father in Tehran and ask him to donate our 3 horses to the kids of Bam who had lost their parents and had no place to live in and no shoulder to cry on. A couple of days after that, my father sent me an e-mail which had a copy of a newspaper attached to it. That newspaper had mentioned my brother's name and mine for our big donation.
While attending my 11th grade in a private high school in New York City, I was asked to be in charge of sound systems and the computer section during the International Day. My job was playing the national anthems of each country. 26 nations were represented by the students. In the same year, I also was part of our school soccer team. I played there as a defense player, and had a few competitions with other high schools in the city. We won all the matches. I was also selected to go to a United Nations Conference representing my school along with seven other students. I became the student of the month for a couple of times.
My family and I moved to Los Angeles in late June, 2004. I did not want to waste my summer time, so I took a pre-calculus course at UCLA and earned a B grade. For the fall of 2004, I enrolled in Beverly Hills High School, and I am glad I did so. I received a wonderful education and a whole rounded experience there. My "Teenage Problems" [www.drsobhe.com] research started with a simple project for my English class with Dr. Ramsey, my senior year at Beverly Hills High School. Later on, I thought, it would be a great idea to publish this information on a website, so all the teenagers from all over the world could use them. This is why I designed and built www.drsobhe.com . A few weeks later, the radio station "670 AM, KIRN" invited me to go there and have a live show and talk about my website and teenage problems. It was such fun and hopefully I will have more shows on the radio in the near future. Sometimes, I write poems and one of them was chosen and published in this year's, "Voices Around The World" magazine.
I love reading books. I worked during the summer of 2003 in a bookshop back in Tehran. Now, I work at the Beverly Hills Public Library as a homework helper. I do this with love as a service to the community, in which I live. In addition, I work at Hawthorne school in Beverly Hills, as a math mentor for 8th graders. I love Math, Computer Science and especially Computer Networking. When I was in Iran, as an extra curriculum activity, I took the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, (MCSE) Course. In its final exam, I received the best possible grade, 1000 out of 1000. I also took some English classes after my regular high school classes in Tehran. Besides English, I speak two other languages; Farsi, and Turkish.
Now, I am attending California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and my major is Computer Science. I would like to continue my studies until I receive a Ph.D. It is my goal to have my own company in Information Technology and Computer Security Systems. I would also like to keep working on my website and develop it more and more. I Hope it could be a help for teenagers, as it has been in the past. Most of the books, articles, and websites on teenage problems are prepared by adults. I believe teenagers, can help themselves as well or maybe even more, if we open the way and prepare the ground for them to communicate with one another. The teenagers of today, will be the leaders of tomorrow. We should believe in them and give them the opportunity to prove themselves.
Ashkan Sobhe
ashkan@drsobhe.com