Adil Baguirov in Dayton

Education runs in Adil Baguirov's blood.

Baguirov, who last year was elected to the Dayton Board of Education, is really a veritable open book on subjects including education policy to the annals of the Ahiska Turkish community in Dayton, where he's one of many rising leaders. He's also a teacher at several universities, including University of Dayton. Adil Baguirov in Dayton

The well-traveled educator says the freedoms he's enjoyed in America have continued to amaze him, even when the mountainous terrain of his native Caucasus region occasionally make him consider home. Born in a the main Soviet Union today known as Azerbaijan, Baguirov loves the small things in Dayton, from the open hours of restaurants to his favorite local spots like Press Coffee, where he met me for drinks and cake.

Q: The thing that was it like visiting America?

A: I was supposed to visit law school in Moscow when I graduated from high school. I was 15, and I already was preparing for the entrance exams, and the outcome came that I was accepted into one of many schools within the United States. I jumped for joy and told my parents I needed in the future here, although it was an inferior university in Michigan and I'd planned for just one of the greatest universities in Moscow.

That has been the early ‘90s, and I didn't only want to study law, I needed to learn about business and I thought the curriculum here could be better.

Ever since, something resulted in another, I transferred to a school in Los Angeles, lived in Washington D.C., and I had a good experience coast-to-coast and traveling around the country. I got to learn more of America and different experiences here, different accents, expressions and I really like it. When you go to European countries, I always bring samples of exactly how we do things in America, typically either in operation aspects.

Q: What do you like best about living here?

A: Freedom of speech that is enshrined here. It's hard to sue a person simply because he expressed his thought, and that's very different even for advanced companies in Europe. You can be easily sued for something. Oahu is the little things I find. The stores open 24 hours, that's so awesome. In Europe and in the big cities, if you wish to have lunch after 2:30, you're out of luck. They shut things down until dinner. Here you are able to go have a meal at almost any time. Everything from something high around something very practical. I, as an immigrant and naturalized American, find a lot of little such things as which can be better, although I already knew Europe very well and I knew the culture. Adil Baguirov for County Recorder

Q: How's the culture different?

A: Parents are happy for the successes of the children. They cut them a lot of slack, they desire them to take pleasure from life. Our grandparents had harsh lives and bad conditions and they would like to make sure their children are able to enjoy life and get things they were incapable of get, such as for example education, and the capability to enjoy freedoms and earn money like they were incapable of do when they were persecuted.

We've proven it, with eight years in America and the impact we've had here.

Q: Would you keep whatever reminds you of home?

A: Definitely. I'm a mountaineer myself, entering mountains, skiing, flying. I enjoy snapping pictures and post them. They're just mountains, but I enjoy them, they're so beautiful.

I enjoy the culture and history of that the main world. I studied it, even when I studied business and political science and international relations. I've published several historical articles in peer-reviewed journals so I'm type of an amateur historian, too. I enjoy history. It's why I teach that program at UD and I do it at several other schools including George Washington University in D.C. and some others.

I like the annals, and the culture, I've great appreciation for them and I locate them interesting, from the cuisine the dances the costumes, and so on. I've been active in the nonprofit sector, most of them in Washington, so I put my passion into use and action. I'm very proud to own earned some pretty big things that way.