Bosphorus Chronicle May 2016 - Robert College

Transcription

Bosphorus Chronicle
Established 1959
Volume 58, Number 4
MAY 2016 ISSUE
Monday, May 16, 2016
Robert College’s Hidden Second Library: Önder Kaya
By Tayfun Gür,
GUEST WRITER
M. Miraç Süzgün & Ezgi Yazıcı
SENIOR EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
BC: Firstly, since the student body
usually gets to know you in their junior
or senior year with history classes, can
you briefly introduce yourself to us?
Of course. I was born in Istanbul on
the 13th of December, 1974, born and
raised in Aksaray, Fatih. I say this very
often, my future students will learn the
term suriçililik, as in being from the historical peninsula that is surrounded by
the walls of the old city that was conquered by Mehmet the Conqueror. I’ve
been in this profession for sixteen years
and have been a history teacher here for
about ten years. I have a somewhat longdistance relationship with the English
language but I can read Ottoman script.
BC: What started your interest in
history?
My interest in history goes back to
primary school. Actually, my grades
in the elementary social studies class
“Hayat Bilgisi” were lower than average.
Then in third grade, we started learning about Ottoman history, and my upstairs neighbour’s daughter gave me
some old history magazines. They often involved the very neighbourhood I
grew up in, with its old mosques, cemeteries, buildings… As kids, we had spent
our days kicking balls and playing tag
among them. I think it was for this reason, combined with my disposition to
look into things in detail, that my curiosity for history was formed. By the
time I was in high school I already knew
what I wanted to study, and I went on
to study history at Marmara University. In truth, teaching wasn’t something I
considered too much, I was thinking instead about staying in academia. But I
realized I could do the teaching and the
academic work together, and also that I
actually liked teaching. It is a nice profession to tell people about things, to
help them shape themselves, and I am
content at the moment.
BC: You already mentioned Fatih
even before we asked, so what is your
neighbourhood’s importance in your
life, your personality?
I grew up in Fatih right in the middle
of its breaking point. I was six years old
on September the 12th, 1980. The 80’s
in general were the Turgut Özal period,
so interestingly there was a lot of progress and growth on many fronts, yet it
was also a time during which the suriçi
got emptier. In the first years of the republic, suriçi was a place where the elite
people of İstanbul lived. From there on
though, there have been some cracks.
Following the Varlık Vergisi (capital
tax) of 1942, the events of September
6-7, 1955, and the like, the non-Muslim
population living there started to move
out. They were replaced by the immigrants coming in from Anatolia, who
formed their own ghettos, and what was
called the old İstanbul culture started to
dissipate little by little. I was born just in
time to catch up with the last remnants
of it, we had our old neighbours, aunts
and uncles, very cultured and thoughtful
people. To this day some of them bake
lokma at home and bring some over to
us on the night of Kerbela, some restaurants are closed throughout the month
of Ramadan because their owners view
it as bad manners to stay open, there
are others who call me on every kandil (holy nights of Islam) to ask how I
am doing. I mean there are many interesting people, it is one of the last places
where that old neighbourhood culture is
left. Playing tag, hide-and-seek… I remember we used to curse when an Anadol passed the street every 10-15 minutes. These days maybe 20-30 cars pass
the same street every minute. Of course
change is inevitable, what we call “being from İstanbul” in the old sense of
the words is something that is only left
in movies and old sayings now. It’s all
but gone.
Önder Kaya Looking Good
my interest in popular history started 14 years ago when I was working
in the Şişli Terakki High School. Back
then the journalist Murat Bardakçı had
a history supplement for the newspaper
Hürriyet, and I started writing some articles on popular history there. Then I
realized I was leaning towards the subject of İstanbul, since there is just so
much material to be found there. The
cemeteries, türbes (tombs) of sultans,
this and that, they’re all over my neighbourhood.
I am also a person who is interested in
cultures outside of the one I come from,
and in time this was reflected in my circle of friends, among whom there have
been ones of Jewish and Rum (Greek)
descent, Catholic Armenians and Gregorian Armenians. I’m interested in
learning about their ways and eventually got curious about their history as
well, that is actually how my 2002 book
Tanzimat’tan Lozan’a Azınlıklar (The
Minorities from the Tanzimat to the
Treaty of Lausanne) was published. I
try to balance my personal works with
the popular history, I go to symposiums,
write for magazines. I’ve written for Radikal and the magazine called Müteferrika. My articles about the Jewish community are published in the newspaper
Şalom. The ones about Armenians,
Rums, other minorities are published
in the Paros magazine. My travel writing in Gezgin. Recently for instance,
my family is from Ordu, so I asked myself why don’t I write about Ordu?And
now I’m doing so in a magazine called
Kuzey Yıldızı. Of course, this isn’t a very
systematic method, you end up having
some knowledge about everything but
a deep understanding of very few subjects.
———————————
continued on page 5.
BC: You focus on the history of
İstanbul and the minorities in Turkey.
How did you decide to focus on these
areas?
I actually did my master’s thesis on
Medieval history and the Ayyubids,
News & Opinion ........ 2
Tech & Sports ............. 7
Features ...................... 9
Arts & Entertaint. ..... 11
Food .......................... 12
State of Sound ........... 13
Farewell ...................... 14
Seniors ........................ 20
A New Tradition
in BC:
“SENIOR
SECTION”
—————
Please see
page 20.
EVENTS
Sectıons
Önder Kaya
RC Orchestra Concert
May 26 - 28, 2016
Fine Arts Festival (FAF)
May 28, 2016
Graduation
June 28, 2016
PAGE
2
NEWS AND OPINION
Bosphorus Chronicle • May’16 Issue
Dance Evening
By İlayda Orhan
JUNIOR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those
who could not hear the music.”
On April 29th, the International Dance
Day, Suna Kıraç Theatre trembled with
the rhythmic footsteps, swayed to and
fro with the synchronized dance moves,
and was enchanted by the loud, creative
souls of Istanbul University State Conservatory Ballet and Pantomime Departments, Adapazarı Enka Schools and
RC Modern Dance Club.
Tickets for the event sold out as fast
as Lise Live XXXIII tickets; the audience was as excited to watch the performances as the dancers were, presenting a whole year’s work. Although it was
enough to please the eye to just watch
how gracefully the dances were done,
each performance had a meaning to it, a
story that not only fascinated the audience but also made them feel what the
dancers felt.
Öykü Özaydın caused distress among
the audience when she hanged her-
self in the pantomimic piece “Ab-ı Toprak.” Her innocent act of sitting on the
ground and playing happily with dirt
turned so quickly to every inch of her
body twitching desperately that it reminded the audience yet again Et in Arcadia ego (Latin for “Even in Arcadia
there am I [death]”).
In Camilla Gavagni Cattaneo’s “Yolculuk,” it was impossible for the audience
not to connect with a person being worn
out by life itself. Just as the baby takes its
first step, it is blocked by a small stone,
then another one, a bigger one. Then another. Then another… Until the adult
can carry these stones no more…
The helplessness a housewife feels, how
clueless she can be when left alone with
a baby to take care of combined with
other burdens she has, the constant demand for her to hide her sorrow, her
pain, her anger was portrayed beautifully by Müge Saut’s “Uyusun da Büyüsün.”
The audience went wild after Adapazarı
Enka took the stage, not just took it but
owned it. Dancing to Caucasian melodies, they were fast, eloquent, and in
sync. Jumping all over the stage, they
made this difficult dance seem so easy,
which earned loud cheers and a stand-
Courtesy of Berfin Altıntaş
ing ovation.
were so beautiful, so graceful, so fragile
but at the same time so strong. It was as
if you weren’t asked to watch the dance
but rather forced to by your own eyes.
All of them were familiar faces: faces we
have all seen but haven’t noticed walking
down the hallways. Now, as they were
shining brightly on Suna Kıraç’s stage,
the realization of how talented they are,
how unique in their abilities sank in. For
some, this was the last time they would
ever dance on this stage, which made
their performance more meaningful
both to them and to the audience.
“Yapamam” with Mastering Music, a
tribute every RC student would recognize from miles away.
there is just something that ignites the
rebellious spirit in everyone when they
see Mr. Welch throwing cards around,
singing to “Ace of Spades.”
The atmosphere changed drastically into an almost ethereal one whenever Deniz Akarslan, Berkay Günay, Melisa Ayanoğlu and other members of the
Ballet Department took the stage. Their
turns were elegant and effortless; their
balance was impeccable; so was their
timing. They never wiped those smiles
off their faces, making the audience feel
the warmth. Of course, each time the
real owners of the stage, the RC Modern
Dancers, stepped in, time stopped. They
Lise Live XXXIII
By Nisan Şele
STAFF WRITER
The lights of the theater darken, anticipation fills the air, and Ms. HopeBrown enters the stage to gracefully start one of the most exciting events
in RC: Lise Live. If there is one event
guaranteed to sell out as soon as the
tickets are available, it is Lise Live. Every semester students can hardly wait
to hear their friends sing on the theater
stage, and the wait is worth it.
Lise Live XXXIII took place on April
21st 2016, with a packed audience. Instead of sticking with the new procedure of a late evening performance at
7 PM, it was back on its regular schedule, at 3.30 PM, just after classes ended. However, while time aspects to Lise
Live tend to change, there is always the
constant restless crowd creating a wall
of flesh in front of the gates, waiting for
them to be opened, so they can grab the
best seats in the house. Not only students, but the limited number of guests
also join the line, participating in one
of the most fun yet stressful aspects of
the show.
The first half of Lise Live is usually when the slow songs and the pop
songs shine, the metal and the rock is
reserved for the second half. The songs
may have been slow, but they were in no
way lacking in quality. Yorgan Mafyası
delivered a great version of “Beggin’,”
Tayfa Prep was a force to be reckoned
with as they turned the beloved alternative “Pumped Up Kicks” into a successful rendition. Ayliz Onur’s voice really shined in Ayliz & Özge’s version
of “Knee Socks,” so did Elif Coşkun’s
in “My Immortal” delivered by Elif &
Emre. All this talent was complemented by the Mushroom [Umut Fidan]
with his EDM, and Can Sapmaz’s regular but never boring dance moves. Last
but not least, the first teacher made an
appearance on the stage when Mr. Pulathaneli took his guitar to perform
The second half to this kind of first
half could’ve been disappointing, but
once again, RC students exceeded expectations. Night was innovative as
they combined the beautifully sung lyrics of “In The Night” with dancing. It
was almost like witnessing the birth of
an amazing idea, there is no doubt others will follow this new combination.
As the end of the show approached,
the classic Turkish rock songs started
appearing. Dosya Masrafı Yok chose
a great song, Seksen Dört’s “Ölürüm
Hasretinle,” to perform to the audience. People had already started clumping in front of the stage by that point.
That performance was followed with
Tefeci’s “Hadi Gel İçelim,” and everyone was having a blast. These poignant
and well-played songs were followed by
the teacher-dominated bands, Geezers
and Lemmings. While every student
loves seeing their teachers on the stage,
Lise Live XXXIII - Courtesy of Eslem Soylu
And so, the last group arrived on the
stage. Igros Kookli performed two brilliant songs, “Arap Saçı” and “Bir Kadın
Çizeceksin.” Everyone, screaming the
lyrics, reached to the stage to touch the
hands of their classmates. The theater
was one voice, singing one song with
unity.
The event was over, too soon for
something that was this anticipated. The students filled the foyer, grabbing their bags to go home, the music
still echoing in their heads, memories
still seeming present. And those memories will drive them to the same theater again and again, listening to different songs perhaps, but experiencing the
same emotions.
So, the wait for Lise Live XXXIV begins.
NEWS AND OPINION
PAGE
3
An Inside Look at FAF 2016
Bosphorus Chronicle
Established 1959
EDITORS IN CHIEF
Muhammed Miraç Süzgün ’16
Ezgi Yazıcı ’16
İlayda Orhan ’17
SECTION EDITORS
Arda Başaran ’16
Burak Tunahan Ekincikli ’16
Melis Şingin ’16
Rabia İdil Demirelli ’17
Ali Çataltepe ’18
Melisa Saygın ’18
LAYOUT EDITOR
Muhammed Miraç Süzgün’16
WRITERS
Batu El
Ege İşkesen
Evin Cemre Sönmez
Gülengül Coşkun
İsmail Talha Aktaş
Mehmet Reşat İslamoğlu
Nisan Şele
Oktay Şen
Özsu Rişvanoğlu
Şeyda Zeynep Ünsal
Simay Yazıcıoğlu
Yağmur Güngör
Yasin Alper Kızıloğlu
Zeynep Nehir Türkarslan
ADVISORS
Carolyn Callaghan
Robin Carnegy
Bosphorus Chronicle is published quarterly during the academic year by Robert College students.
We welcome letters to the editor, feedback, and articles by students. However, we reserve the right to edit all materials for reasons of appropriateness of length.
Give your submissions to the advisor or
one of the editors or send it to us via email. All photographs published are taken by the writer unless otherwise credited.
How to contact us:
By e-mail: bosphoruseditor@gmail.com
By mail: Robert College, Arnavutkoy, IST.
By Simay Yazıcıoğlu
STAFF WRITER
The Fine Arts Festival is the last major event of Robert College, and therefore it is a festival where the school
spirit is at its peak. It is also an event in
which the RC community celebrates
the upcoming summer while enjoying
the fresh spring vibe. For more than
three decades, the FAF tradition proceeds with various performances, activities, exhibitions, workshops and estimable guests. Here is a look ahead to
FAF 2016 for the ones who wonder
what FAF will bring this year.
A great change will occur this year in
the number of bands that will perform.
Until this year, FAF has welcomed one
big music band each year. However, as
the President Ekin Gülen (RC’17) indicated, Student Council members are
working hard to arrange more than
one band for the upcoming FAF. They
aim to maximize the enjoyment for us;
therefore, they are considering multiple bands that are widely liked by
the student body. So, which bands are
the candidates for performing in FAF
2016? The president said that “We are
talking to Teneke Trampet, Adamlar
and Büyük Ev Ablukada for the concerts.” At the time of this BC publication, it is not certain if these bands will
be playing; the negotiations are still in
progress.
Secondly, there will be changes in the
Interactive Games this year. The good
news is that the popular games from
last year such as Human Foosball and
Funnyball will be again available to all
participants in the plateau. In addition
to that, a game station will be set in an
area by a firm called GramGames. This
means that there will be a plethora of
opportunities for those who would like
to enjoy FAF in different ways.
Lastly, SC members want to improve the art section of the festival by increasing the diversity of the
workshops. Possible additions to the
arts section are Terrarium and Snow
Courtesy of Ekin Güler
Globe workshops. The RC community is pretty sure that this section of the
festival will be up to par or even better.
We hope everyone in the RC community enjoys the Fine Arts Festival it’s always a fun day!
Racket in Turkish Theater Company
By Rabia İdil Demirelli
FEATURES EDTOR
& Zeynep Ünsal
STAFF WRITER
On March 23, the Turkish Theater
Company opened their curtains with
Ayışığında Şamata (Racket in Moonlight). After 7 months of hard work,
they finally got the chance to display
their talent to the RC community. The
play consists of two acts, which are opposite versions of the same story. The
play is based on the lives of Çalışkur
Apartment’s residents. It criticizes
modern youth for being degenerate and
having disrupted family relations. After the production, the team continued
to meet on Wednesdays, and they were
kind enough to answer The Bosphorus
Chronicle’s questions about their play!
BC: Did you improvise in any of the
plays? If so, how did it affect the play?
Zeynep Deniz Atacan: Yes, the plays
were never the same.
Ozan Geyik: On Thursday (the second act), İsmet and I were backstage.
According to the script, we were to stick
our heads out of backstage to stare at the
people on stage. Just before sticking out
our heads, İsmet told me he was going
to improvise something, which had just
come to his mind 2 seconds ago. Then
he got on the stage and just did it. It was
really amazing and people laughed at it
because it was funny.
İsmet Enhoş: When you impersonate
your role genuinely, the rest is easy. We
started to become our characters.
Yiğit Temel: When we improvised, it
was hard to not laugh during the scene.
BC: Did anyone help you during your
preparation? How did you prepare?
Beste Bilen: Görkem Örskıran
(RC’13) was our main guy for that. It
was very kind of him to volunteer to
help us. We are really grateful to him;
without him, we wouldn’t have been
Racket in the Moonlight
this successful. Since he was watching
us while we acted on stage, he had a different perspective, which helped make
the play more appealing. We also played
some games that Görkem taught us. He
didn’t only help us prepare for the play
but he also helped us improve via some
theatrical activities.
Emre Akşehirlioğlu: Görkem taught
us how get into character and improvise.
Eylül Küçük: He also helped us with
regie.
BC: Throughout the year, what is
your funniest memory?
Küçük: Whenever we made a mistake in any of our rehearsals, we always
turned back to a specific scene which
starts with ‘Pastan harika olmuş Beyhan’
(Your cake seems amazing...)
BC: How did you feel when it ended?
Beste Bilen: We’ve been preparing this
play for seven months, and when it ended, I fell into a feeling of emptiness.
Eylül Küçük: In March, our whole
lives revolved around the Theater Club.
We were using our homes as if they were
hotels since we spent most our time in
the theater.
Bilen: We thought about cancelling
the play because of the bombings. It
was demoralizing. We couldn’t have a
rehearsal.
BC: Can you reflect on this experience? Struggles you had, skills you ac-
quired, any last comments?
Bilen: When you are on stage, you
shouldn’t just think about the moment,
you should also think about the background. That was the hardest thing to
do when we were on stage because it’s
hard to create a story that is not written in the play. So, we thought about the
backgrounds mostly, thanks to Görkem,
who made this possible for us.
Kaan Demir: Görkem asked us weird
questions about the characters’ lives,
and somehow those questions managed
to make us be those characters. Like:
“What do you like to eat and why do
you like to eat it?”
Bilen: Hande Hoca made big sacrifices for us. She left her children at home,
and she gave us helpful feedback.
Küçük: She made us believe in ourselves. When we lost faith in ourselves,
she supported and motivated us.
Bilen: Before every play, she came on
backstage and motivated us as a coach.
BC: Which version of the role was
more enjoyable to act? Why?
Yağmuray Sarı: The first one was more
enjoyable to act. I really like the role and
enjoyed playing a villager woman.
As BC staff, we want to congratulate them again on their play and thank
them for the interview. We are looking
forward to watching them perform in
the upcoming years.
PAGE
4
NEWS AND OPINION
A Philosopher’s Guide to Traffic and First Aid: Mehmet Göral
By M. Miraç Süzgün
SENIOR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
& Tunahan Ekincikli
TECH & SPORTS EDITOR
Mehmet Göral is the Traffic and
First Aid teacher of the Social Sciences Department who is also one of the
two philosophy teachers at the school.
However, we bet you don’t know what
Mehmet Göral studied before philosophy. Chances are you also have no idea
what he does on weekends or where
he worked for 30 years. But don’t worry! As the Bosphorus Chronicle, we interviewed Mehmet Göral for this issue
in order to shine a light on his teaching history, favorite philosophic era, and
hobbies.
BC: Can you please introduce yourself briefly?
I am Mehmet Göral, one of the two
philosophy teachers at RC. I have been
teaching for more than 35 years. I was
born in Çatalca, which is one of the
smallest towns in İstanbul. It is known
for being one of the two peninsulas of
İstanbul. After my high school education in Çatalca, I graduated from
İstanbul University with a degree in
philosophy. I can say that the period that ended with my enrollment in
İstanbul University was quite adventurous. I took the university entrance exam
twice. After the first test, with the influence of my friends and family, I chose
to study management, an unknown
and new profession to many people in
Turkey. Management was so new that,
in fact, İstanbul University had only 4
graduates. After studying management
for nearly a year, I realized that what I
dreamed of and wanted to do was not
related to management. Therefore, I
took the entrance exam again and got
into İstanbul University to major in
philosophy.
BC: Did you get a high score at the
first exam?
Yes, I got a high score at the first test.
Since management was a new major in
Turkey, its minimum score to accept
students was pretty high. Before a management degree, engineers were leading the businesses. While engineers had
the theoretical knowledge in sciences, they did not know much about accounting, business management, working psychology, working sociology, and
productivity. Just like management, industrial engineering is a new major and
it is very popular.
BC: What happened after you enrolled into Istanbul University?
Philosophy major did met my expectations in many ways and did not meet
in some ways. I was a university student during late-1970s, and there was
a political disturbance in Turkey. Students were divided into groups based
on their political views. Violence was a
part of the daily lives in universities and
streets. In such an environment, getting
proper education was very challenging.
Schools were closed due to violent acts.
For example, after an attack on İstanbul
University, the university board decided
to close the school for two years. Despite this chaos, I had a chance to study
with wonderful and valuable philosophy
professors like Macit Gökberk, Nermi
Uygur and Vehbi Eralp. I always see this
as a chance.
BC: Why did you decide to study
philosophy?
To be honest, I was not thinking of being a teacher while studying philosophy.
In fact, I did not have a pedagogical formation for a long time. I enrolled in the
pedagogical formation certification program after a friend advised me to take
it. I was aiming to study academically
in philosophy, publish papers, and maybe even write books. Later on, I realized that I needed to have a proficiency in German since there were only a
few philosophy sources translated into
Turkish. I say German especially because reading and understanding Kant,
Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche is important. In
the end, I changed my mind about having an academic career in philosophy.
BC: Did you work at a military high
school after graduation?
I worked at a military high school under the control of Turkish Naval Forces.
After I graduated, adventitiously I read
in a newspaper that the high school was
looking for a new philosophy teacher.
Thinking that there would be many advantages of being a part of such a community, I applied to the school as a
teacher and got accepted. For around 30
years, I served as a philosophy teacher.
Later on, I also worked as an academic
headmaster for a few years.
BC: How did you start teaching at
RC?
When I retired, I felt tired because of
working for 30 years. I thought that being a teacher for such a long time would
be enough for me. However, after a short
while, I started to get bored. I had a list
of things that I wanted to do but did not
have a chance, and I did everything on
that list in only a few months. I mostly
met and talked with my old friends and
visited new cities and museums. I had a
friend in Üsküdar American Academy,
and he told me that RC was looking for
a new philosophy teacher. I passed the
interview at RC successfully and in the
end was selected as the new philosophy
teacher.
BC: Which period of philosophy do
you like to teach the most?
I believe that the most colorful period
of philosophy is the ancient age. Most
of the topics that we discuss even today
are products of the ancient times. Many
researchers think that philosophy is actually the footnote of what two of the
great thinkers, Aristotle and Plato, of
the ancient age wrote. It means that Aristotle and Plato discussed every topic possible and did not leave any other
topics to work on. I agree with this saying because until 1800s, for more than
two thousand years, philosophic discussions were mainly based on what Aristotle and Plato said. Even today, opinions of Aristotle and Plato are valued.
BC: Considering the new points of
views that they brought to philosophy,
which philosophers do you like?
My undergraduate thesis was based on
Nietzsche. As a result, I had the chance
to concentrate on and appreciate his
studies. Secondly, I like Karl Marx. He
believes that philosophy is not some
nonsense that is to be discussed only
by intellectuals. I believe that philosophy should change humans and com-
Mr. Mehmet Göral While Writing a Poem in the Poetry Week
Courtesy of Staff Photographer
munities. Thirdly, I like the works of
John Bodviller. He analyses communities and figures who leads these communities really well. Last but not least,
I tried to read about opinions of some
of the known French philosophers. Yet,
since I don’t speak French, it is a little
bit challenging to fully understand their
work, since there are many key terms
that are needed to be known. Currently,
I am trying to read and understand articles in foreign languages.
BC: Do you have any other interests
besides philosophy? What are your
hobbies?
I like jogging a lot. I believe that as I
sweat, I get rid of the negative thoughts
in my mind. I try to jog 4 times a week.
I am also interested in music. I believe I
have a musical ear and I actually regret
not enrolling in a conservatory. While
I am not a master at them, I can play
bağlama, tanbur, and violin. I aim to develop my playing, however, I do not have
a chance because of the school work.
Furthermore, I enjoy reading, and I read
books related to different fields: cooking, sports, classics, poetry... My favorite poets are Refik Durbaş and Küçük
İskender. Exploring the backstreets of
İstanbul is another interest that I have.
On weekends, I select a neighborhood
in İstanbul that I don’t know much
about. Then, I go there and try to understand what it feels like to live in that
place by eating in the local restaurants
and talking to people. After 5 years, I
have successfully seen many different
places in İstanbul.
BC: When did you start giving Traffic and First Aid courses in RC?
When I started teaching at RC, philosophy lessons were taken by the seniors. Over the years, the school decided to put the Traffic & First Aid into
the senior lesson program to make the
senior’s work load as low as possible and
let them study for university entrance
exams. I think they also put Traffic &
First Aid into the curriculum of seniors
to help students get a driver’s licence
more easily. When the school selected
me as the Traffic & First Aid teacher,
I asked them to send me to a first aid
course so that I could learn about first
aid. Now I have a certificate for first aid
and I can explain details of first aid to
students more effectively.
BC: What do you think makes you
one of the most beloved teachers by
the seniors?
I can feel empathy with the students.
I try to understand how students feel
and act accordingly. I sometimes even
think that I feel way too much empathy
with people and therefore have trouble
explaining my own thoughts and feelings. I also feel empathy for other people. For example, if I am in a cab and see
traffic ahead, I guess that the taxi driver must be seeing the traffic as a huge
waste of time. So, I get out and walk.
While feeling so much empathy hurts
me from time to time, I keep thinking
about people.
BC: If you were an RC student, which
classes would you take?
I would probably prefer mainly social
sciences: history, sociology, psychology,
and literature. Orchestra would be another class that I would take.
BC: You stated that you wanted to
write a book when you were a student.
Do you still have that goal? Are you
currently working on a book?
As I mentioned before, what prevented
me from making academic research was
limitation of philosophy sources that are
translated into Turkish. I did not have a
chance to learn a new language. Since
I don’t want to write something solely
based on sources in only one language,
I am not currently working on a book
or paper.
BC: Would you like to add anything
else?
Teaching again at a different school after 30 years could be a very painful and
tiring experience. However, RC students and the community have always
motivated me to work harder. Spending
time with students who understand and
discuss philosophy very well pleases me.
I feel very energetic when I walk into a
classroom to teach.
NEWS AND OPINION
PAGE
5
Interview with Esra Sezer (RC’17)
Treasurer. Did that one.
By Cemre Sönmez
STAFF WRITER
Student Council is one of the biggest student organizations at Robert
College. Although people are used to
see SC members selling Senior Sweatshirts and FAF tickets, the real work is
much greater than that. SC organizes school events and serves as a bridge
between the student community and
the administration. To get an inside
look at SC, Bosphorus Chronicle interviewed Esra Sezer (RC’17), last
year’s Treasurer.
BC: Did you have any leadership experience from middle school?
No.
BC: So, what fueled your passion to
join the Student Council?
Back in my day, when I looked at the
members of SC, all I saw were male
residential students. It was and still is
very easy for boarding students to get
elected. So I told myself that I would
give it a shot and beat the boarding
students. My dream was to become the
President. My first step was to become
BC: What is the most challenging
thing you have faced so far in the SC?
Finding sponsors.
BC: When you were Treasurer?
Yes. It was a very busy period.
BC: How does it feel to have so
much responsibility? What kind of
responses do you get from students?
Students often criticize SC members
for not taking their jobs seriously or
for not changing anything at school.
But the thing is that we work a lot. For
example, the SC didn’t have a lot of
money before, but now we have the financial power to organize a well-prepared FAF.
BC: What were people’s reactions
to FAF?
Mostly negative, and that’s okay. But
what’s not okay is that they didn’t appreciate our work.
BC: Could you tell us about the financial background of FAF?
We sign contracts with the companies who agree to sponsor us. We send
them our banking information, and
SC 2015-16 - Courtesy of Yasemin Kiriscioglu
they send us money. All the income
tax and stuff that’s factored in makes
it pretty complicated. Then, their representatives come to school and ask
for an individual area. Things get
messy then because not everyone gets
the place they want, so we try to calm
them down. There’s also the part where
we calculate our income and expenses.
BC: That is a lot of work...
And that’s not the end of it. Keeping track of the money is the hardest.
As you know, we sell tickets from the
booth in the canteen, so there has to
be someone in charge there. We write
receipts in order to be able to balance
our books.
BC: Were there times when you incurred a net loss?
During my period, surprisingly, no.
BC: So overall, can we say that SC
places a big burden on you?
Definitely.
BC: Thank you for your interview.
You’re welcome.
Robert College’s Hidden Second Library: Önder Kaya
continued from page 1...
———————————
Nevertheless it feeds my teaching
splendidly, jumping from topic to topic, always including interesting details… In the end that’s what makes the
student passionate about the subject,
makes them connect to you, respect you.
BC: Are there any historical periods
that particularly interest you that you
enjoy teaching in your classes?
I mostly enjoy talking about Istanbul
as a general theme, especially the periods of Mehmet the Conqueror and Suleiman the Magnificent, not the period of growth or anything, because these
are the sultans who made Istanbul the
Istanbul we know. I am also culturally interested about minorities in Turkey, cemeteries, sahafs (sellers of second hand books and other curiosities)
and collectors. So when it is the right
place, I try to squeeze those topics into
my classes as well.
BC: Exactly for this reason the things
you say sometimes make us think,
“Where could Önder Hoca have
learnt all of these things?”
Önder Kaya and His Wife
In the past, there were different places of knowledge transfer and exchange
in Istanbul. Among them were books
shops and some coffeehouses - for instance you might have heard of Küllük
Kahvehanesi, a coffeehouse in Beyazıt.
In the 1950s, professors from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Istanbul
University would come to Küllük after school hours and have conversations
about literature and history, while their
students could simply grab a chair and
sit with them. Many topics that weren’t
explored too much or simply not talked about in a formal classroom environment would instead be discussed
by the professors here, and many students picked up a considerable amount
of knowledge this way. Unfortunately these kinds of places no longer exist,
only a few of them are left but people
don’t know about them. And the people who do know are very careful about
keeping them hidden, since not many
people are left today who have that kind
of good manner and culture of discussion.
BC: Can you share one of your memorable moments with RC students?
Honestly I cannot remember a specific anecdote, but I can say that I really
enjoy going to trips with my students.
I would actually like to have more of
these trips to the historical sites of Istanbul in the future, except it can be difficult to find the time to arrange them
and also logistical difficulties because
of where the school is located. I like
how the considerably more formal student-teacher relationship in school give
way to a friendlier and more interactive
learning environment during such trips.
For instance two years ago, I took a couple of my students from the History
Club to the 7th Beyoğlu Sahaf Festival
in Taksim, Miraç was there too, where
we had a chance to chat with the wellknown sahafs in İstanbul, while buy-
Önder Kaya’s Famous Facebook Profile
ing some rare books and antiques from
their stands. These experiences, overall,
are very delightful for me and I prefer to
focus on this part of my job, where I can
reach the students in a more special way.
Otherwise a curious student can get the
information I give from a book or other
resources as well, so I also want to take
them to the sahafs, the auctions, or the
conversation environments I mentioned
before and introduce them to people.
But usually, since I am a more spontaneous kind of person who gets out of
the house in the morning and makes
plans afterwards, I sometimes have
trouble organizing such collective activities with other people. I do my best to
keep in touch with my students though,
that is actually the reason I got into this
Facebook trouble to begin with and now
I have become a frequent user of sorts.
For an anecdote, now that I think, I
had a student once who kept getting
62 in his exams. When he finally said,
“Hocam, this is the third time I got a
62. What should I do with all these
62’s?” I responded, “My son, make rabbits out of them, that is the only thing
a 62 is good for.” and we both laughed.
Or I don’t know, sometimes my students joke about my English speaking
skills. Sometimes as a joke, when some
students forget to write their names on
their exam papers, I write on the board:
“Don’t ill me, write your name.” Some of
them don’t understand it, some of them
do. Also once while having lunch, I remember there was an American teacher
among us. When she stood up to leave,
I told her: “Sit down please, we haven’t
cut watermelon yet!” She gave a little
shriek and didn’t understand what was
going on. I asked one of my colleagues
who was there, Esin (Pulathaneli) to
translate it but she said that there wasn’t
a real equivalent in English. Meanwhile
all the other teachers at the table were
laughing.
BC: Are you considering writing a
book about Robert College history in
the near future?
I actually started writing one, it is at
around 25-30 pages right now but what
I prefer more is writing articles about
Robert College. The school has a wonderful archive, and making use of that as
well I’ve been writing the biographies of
some of the teachers who have worked
here in the past. For instance I wrote an
article about Vahram Çerçiyan, a calligraphy and math teacher here who designed the famous signature of Atatürk,
and right now I’m writing about a history teacher named Recep Ülke. Maybe
in two years’ time or so I might publish
a book, but for now I am trying more to
direct the students in the History Club
to write about the history of the school.
For instance in the latest magazine Ezgi
wrote about İsmail Cem, some others
wrote about the school’s third principal Dr. Gates and the Grosvenors’ relationship to RC. These kinds of things
accumulate a memory, I actually have a
project in mind where enough of these
articles can be put together into a book
of sorts, maybe through the Alumni Office or some other venue. I think such a
book could be a better gift than plaques
for visitors and keynote speakers, as a
memory of the school and the work of
our own students.
PAGE
6
NEWS AND OPINION
Terrorism History and Future
By Batu El & Alper Kızıloğlu
STAFF WRITERS
The recent attacks in the various
countries in the world and the terrorist incidents in our country have once
again drawn people’s attention towards terrorism.
In 2015, the institute of economics
and peace published the third edition
of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI).
The GTI is a source which “provides
a comprehensive summary of the key
global trends and patterns in terrorism”. In the third edition, the main
subject is the increase and the changing trends in terrorism since 2000, for
162 countries. The results are wintry.
In 2014, terrorist acts caused the
death of 32,685 people. This means
that terrorism increased by 80 per cent
compared to the prior year, which is
the greatest yearly increase in the last
15 years. In 2014, 9 times more people
died because of terrorism compared to
the year 2000.
Looking at the Global Terrorism
Database(GTD) collected from studies done by the University of Maryland, the majority of these terrorist
incidents are concentrated in 5 countries: Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. The deaths in those top
5 countries are responsible for 57 percent of all the terrorist attacks and 78
per cent of the total deaths caused by
terrorism in the world. The two deadliest terrorist groups, ISIL (also known
as ISIS) and Boko Haram in Nigeria,
caused 51 percent of terrorism deaths
in the world.
Among the deaths caused by terrorism, only 0.5 percent of worldwide
numbers have happened in western
countries when 9/11 attacks are excluded. In the western countries the
situation is the opposite. Instead of organized terrorist groups, the majority
of terrorist attacks are caused by small
groups. These percentages may change
for the next edition of GTI, which is
going to include the attack in Paris attributed to ISIS where 130 civilians
are killed.
Turkey has the 27th place in 124
countries in Global Terrorism Index
Reports. The GTI puts Turkey in the
3rd group where terrorism is in the
middle level, but by being a border
with Iraq and Syria, Turkey is on the
firing line.
Once again, unfortunately, this is an
article about terrorism and recent terrorist attacks. People may think terrorism has already been addressed in The
Bosphorus Chronicle, but in our country and in the world, terror attacks are
still targeting innocent people. We are
writing and protesting against these
horrible attacks once again because
terrorism should never be a daily and
normal concept in Turkey. If we don’t
talk about it and protest against it,
terrorism will be a regular thing and
it will show that we become accustomed to these attacks. People are angry about the fact that there is nothing we can do after seeing these terror
acts in the news. We are not soldiers
or politicians that can help to prevent
terrorism, but we are society, and consequences of these attacks harm us the
most. What we can do is feel sorry
for every loss equally, without differing between the ethnic groups or races involved in the incident. We should
not support even a single idea said by
terrorist groups. When the ISIS attacks first started, some people were
suggesting that it could be beneficial
for the politics in Middle East. Today
we are all watching ISIS targeting our
own country.
We decided to write about and denounce terrorism after the unfortunate incident happened in our capital
city for the third time in five months.
Within a week once again we heard
about the deadly attack in Taksim,
which is the most popular square in
Turkey. All of these attacks in different parts of Turkey were committed by
different terrorist groups, and targeted
different people, but this doesn’t mean
we should feel sorry for our loss differently. Every single life is important
and those lives will be at stake as long
as terrorist groups exist. Terror has no
morality and they are targeting innocent lives.
A tourist in a Belgian airport or a
family having fun in an amusement
park in Pakistan were not guilty of
anything to deserve to be killed by a
suicide bomber. If we stop talking and
no longer feel sorry for these losses
and see these crimes against humanity as a regular thing in our country,
Turkey will be the next chaotic middle
eastern country. If someone doesn’t say
‘stop’ to these things and people keep
turning their heads when they hear
about these terrorism incidents, it is
inevitable for us to see Turkey climbing up to the first places in the charts
like our borders Syria and Iraq.
The influence of terror incidents also
has a major effect on people living in
the cities that these incidents happen
more than one time. Robert College
is an important example of this effect.
Our school temporarily stopped ordering food delivery to campus because of
safety issues. One of the most casual concepts such as ordering food became a safety problem because of the
terror incidents. Residential students
were unable to leave campus when the
Taksim bombings occured. Terrorism
targets people’s freedom. People have
started to go out less and they try to
not be in crowded places. The terrorists’ aim was to change our daily lives
and they are becoming successful at
it. We can’t advise people not to be
afraid because we are afraid, too. Obviously we need to be afraid. And be angry. And be sorry. But we should unite
and everyone should have the same
thought: terror needs to be over.
Works Cited:
“More People Died from Terrorism
Last Year than Ever Before-and Mostly in These Five Countries.” Quartz.
N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.
“Global Terrorism Index.” (n.d.):
n. pag. Institute for Economics and
Peace. Web.
AP Exams at Robert College
By Ege İşkesen
STAFF WRITER
Advanced Placement examinations
known as AP exams are taken by lots
of students every year. There are a variety of AP exam topics, and students
choose which exams to take according
to their interests. For example, since I
want to study business in college and I
am interested in economics, I am taking micro and macroeconomics exams
this year. This AP exam is not the most
important thing to write on your resume while you are applying for colleges, but it is still important, especially
if you want to study in England. Most
of the students in our school are taking these exams, and there is one main
goal for everyone: earning a good score.
Hence, these AP exams should be taken seriously.
To be honest, I have not yet started
my study for the AP Micro-Macroeconomics so far, and even though it is
partly my fault, I am not blaming myself. Our school is providing the opportunity to take this exam in our school
and that is an advantage, but that’s all.
Unfortunately, there are no more advantages provided by our school. You
give 150 dollars to take an exam and
you are on your own. As you might all
agree, RC school work is already tough
to do and to be successful constantly. Adding a self-study process to that
workload is making things far harder. You need to spend lots of hours in
order to be successful both in AP and
RC school work. This means a big part
of your free time is gone. You need to
commit your time to achieve the goal
you set for yourself, but it is not that
easy.
It is not my absolute desire to spend
all my free time to studying. All of the
teachers are always stating that we need
to learn the course material during the
class-time. So, how do they expect us
to finish an AP course by self-studying
for it? I admit that it would be hard to
open a course for all the AP classes, but
it would be really useful if there were
courses for the common AP exams taken by most of the students, such as psychology and micro-macro economics. I
feel like I am throwing my three hundred dollars away, spending one hundred-fifty dollars for each exam. With
less than a month to the exam, I will
try to learn the concepts by taking private lessons. But I still wonder why I
don’t have the opportunity to learn at
school rather than outside of class. Can
Otluçimen (RC’18) says: “Doing selfstudy AP work while doing my schoolwork, I don’t have any time to rest; it is
a struggling process for me.”
So, wouldn’t it be nice if RC fully prepared its students for overseas study?
Courtesy of CollegeBoard
TECH & SPORTS
PAGE
7
The Cool Basketball Girls
By Bilge Tatar
GUEST WRITER
The glorious year of basketball has
come to an end. We have witnessed the
best possible combination of girls basketball players together, seen a lot of
great games, and listened to their stories of the Paris tournament. They have
had a hard time finding teams to play
for the past three years and have always
complained about it, yet they could
never have imagined that one day we
would leave Istanbul, and go abroad to
play. Twenty-seven friendly people are
on the team, one of the largest teams
in the school, and we say our goodbyes
to five of these really cool girls. Four of
them are going to be 12th graders next
year, and we hope to run into them during school. One girl is going to graduate this year and will be going to a really good university in the US. We have
plans to meet each other in her dorm
in the US - we’ll think about the details
later. In the meantime, we say farewell
to these amazing players:
Duygu Özkan (RC’17): She was like
our second coach with her enthusiasm,
ever smiling face and her great tactics.
She lifted our heads up when we were
feeling down and told us, “Girls, we can
do this!” When she saw us during the
school day, she would stop and have a
small but uplifting talk with us. Even
though she couldn’t travel with the varsity team to Paris, there were moments
where we felt like Duygu was there
making the whole team laugh.
Ece Naz Erülker (RC’17): Oh captain, my captain. The best captain of
Robert College, what are we going to
do without you? With her sweetness,
even the most stressful moments of the
matches could be solved very easily. As a
captain, she never put unnecessary pressure on us; as a player, she entertained us
with her beautiful voice singing Queen
on our way to the matches; as a friend,
she shared the delicious halva her mom
made and saved us from dying of hunger after our matches. Owner of two
MVPs and our hearts, she is going to
stay a legend years after she has graduated.
Nesli Türker (RC’17): The feeling of
passing the ball to Nesli and knowing
for sure that her shot was going to go
in is an indescribable feeling. Her most
sincere smile can be seen right after
Nazlı tells her “Good luck, Nesli!” before the jump ball. Known as a silent
person on the team, there is no way you
won’t be pumped up when she shouts
during the game when she gets excited.
Nesli, aka ‘soft fingers’, will be spreading positive energy, except for the times
when you ask her to wait for you (she
usually has programming homework
and has no idea how to do it).
Nazlı Yurdakul (RC’16): We stopped
believing she was human after she spent
all night chatting with us and then took
the history exam the following day. She
got a hundred, with a smiley face on the
paper. She is the best scorer and known
for her “Nazlı move,” which is passing
three people on the court and shooting
the ball inside the lane from far away.
People have no idea how it goes in every
time. The only 12th grader on the team,
an indicator of her determination, she is
the pride of the team with her successes
both on the team and outside.
İrem Akçal (RC’17): She almost faces death in every MEB match when she
forgets to take her growing pills. She is
there to make us believe in ourselves, to
show her great love for Fenerbahçe during the games from the very back row of
the stadium (where the court is smaller than a box) and to take care of ordering the brand new team sweatshirts.
She always reminded us where to shoot
the ball in the beginning of the game
and the second half. We hope we don’t
score in the wrong hoop in the absence
of Irem. Nevertheless, she is the most
devoted teammate one can imagine.
The team will not be the same without these girls. But we hope to see all
Mr. Jones and the Cool Basketball Girls
of them in our practices and in next
year’s Dave Phillips Cup (if we have
one) whenever they are free. Lastly, none of these things would be realized if Coach Jones wasn’t our coach for
this two year time period. We wouldn’t
be playing so hard, smart and together
if it wasn’t for him. He showed us what
is possible with a team shorter than average, motivated us with his funny comments before the games, and supported us no matter what. If we wrote down
our valuable moments, it would certainly take more than a book! They are all
going to be missed!
Fencing: Interview with Burcu Tulpar
rolled me in the fencing club his son
was in. That is how it all started.
By Yağmur Güngör
STAFF WRITER
The sport of fencing incorporates
strength, coordination, and timing. As
well as physical activities, mental activities are also very important in fencing because fencing is a sport that needs
significant intelligence. It’s both a physical and tactical challenge between two
opponents. The sport of fencing features
three different levels that are categorized
by the type of weapon used in each level.
The weapons used include the epee, foil,
and the saber. We’ve interviewed Burcu
Tulpar (RC’18), a student in RC, who is
a very successful fencer.
BC: How and when did you get into
fencing?
When I was in 6th grade, my basketball coach saw a spark in me. He told
me that my work discipline, aggressiveness, and drive to win showed that I
would thrive in an individual sport. His
son also was a fencer and my coach en-
BC: Is it hard to get used to the
equipment?
At first holding a sword in your hands
needs some getting used to. The first
time you do a match with someone, you
instinctively know how to defend yourself, so the equipment isn’t that hard to
use. To use it efficiently and technically is the harder part and it requires years
of practice.
BC: What’s the hardest thing to learn
in fencing?
The hardest thing to learn is definitely learning to control your reflexes. The
key in fencing is to react smartly, not to
everything your opponent does. So if
you are jumpy like me, controlling your
reactions can be very challenging.
BC: Have you ever had any accidents
while fencing?
Yes, fencing accidents happen all the
time. Especially in the summer, when
we don’t want to wear the heavy pants
and wear shorts instead, we get many,
many bruises and cut marks caused by
the great impact of the sword tip hitting you.
BC: Do you have other girls fencing
on your team? Are they successful as
you?
Yes, there are 3 girls in our club. The
other two are 5 years older than me, and
they are very successful. In the case of
fencing, practice makes perfect and the
experience they have from going to international tournaments is phenomenal.
I hope to achieve that someday.
BC: How did your life change after
you started fencing?
Fencing is very time consuming. I used
to have a lot of free time, but after fencing all my free time goes to practice.
Since I have always done sports, I don’t
feel exhausted, but a lot of my friends
who have just started fencing usually
complain of the crazy practice hours.
BC: How did you become successful
in fencing? Can you tell us more about
your story?
I am not that successful. The place I am
at now was achieved through hard work
and a lot of failure. I believe that you
should push through all the difficulties
life throws at you, which in fencing are
a lot. There were a lot of tournaments
where I was on the verge of quitting and
feeling that I wasn’t good enough, but
I came out better after those tournaments. I also had a lot of support from
my coach; he was the one who helped
me to get through everything. I can say
that he is the reason that I am still interested in fencing; the motivation he gives
me is out of this world.
BC: Do you see yourself on the national team in the future?
I am already a B class national fencer and plan on being on the class A national team in the near future.
Works Cited:
“What Is Fencing?-Olympiad Fencing Club.” What Is Fencing? – Olympiad Fencing Club. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
In memory of
Our Managing Faculty Supervisors
Carolyn Callaghan and Robin Carnegy...
Thank you!
PAGE
8
TECH & SPORTS
The RC Roboteam and the FIRST Robotics Competition
By Ali Çataltepe
NEWS & OPINION EDITOR
If it exists, there’s usually some sort of
competition involving it, whether “it”
be sports, science, or even simply gorging oneself on some hotdogs. Naturally, this holds true for robotics as well.
The annual FIRST (For Inspiration
and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC)
is one of the biggest robotics events,
having been around for 25 years, and
this March the newly-founded RC
Robotics Team took part in the NYC
regionals. After a hard-fought battle, they brought home the prestigious
Rookie Inspiration Award, defined as
“celebrating a rookie team’s outstanding success in advancing respect and
appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school, as well
as in their community,” for their members’ involvement in projects, events
and educational ventures by Microsoft
and CoderDojo and the RC Makers,
Google Glass, AR/VR and Android &
iOS App Development clubs, including the RC Makers maker faire last
year and Code Week earlier last semester. Bosphorus Chronicle interviewed
some of the members of the RC Roboteam for an inside view of the whole
process.
The theme of the competition this
year was called “Stronghold.” “The deal
with ‘Stronghold,’” explains Oktay Şen
(RC ’16), the Roboteam programming
group leader, “is that it’s a medievalthemed contest.” Teams are grouped
into alliances, and each alliance has a
central tower and 5 defenses protecting
that tower. The setup involves some audience participation: one of the defenses is chosen by the spectators, while another is a permanent part of the playing
field. Robots are tasked with breaching the defenses, picking up boulders
from the ground and shooting them at
the towers, like a catapult. Teams gain
points based on the successful completion of these objectives.
Given that this is the team’s first year,
their efforts make for a far more interesting story than their results. Egemen
Güray (RC ’16), one of the team captains, explains the team admission process:
“We believe that innovation doesn’t
just come from attracting the most intelligent, highly skilled individuals;
it comes from creating environments
where different ideas can connect under the same vision. So when we started the RC Robotics Team admission
process, our philosophy was to attract
people from different backgrounds
in hopes of finding the ones who see
things differently. To do that, we designed discrete questions like ‘Design
an evacuation plan for RC,’ ‘Describe
a problem and how you solved it,’ ‘Describe an experience that most affected
you,’ ‘What is wrong with this world,
and how would you change it?,’ ‘What
five words best describe you?’ ”
The team leaders then announced to
the forty most promising candidates
that they would be interviewing them,
but instead split them into groups and
had each group design a robot, then redesign it with half the original budget.
After this process, they ended up with
a very diverse group of students for the
team, among them “musicians, basketball and soccer players, MUN and EYP
students, visual art enthusiasts, art and
film history gurus, photographers, and
STEM enthusiasts.” Despite this variety of interests, or perhaps because of
it, the team had no problem staying
solvent:
“Since we managed to create such a
diverse environment united under a
single vision, we easily dedicated ourselves to do our best in collaboration
while ending any internal rivalry before it began.”
Even so, getting the robot ready was
no cakewalk. States Elifnaz Önder
(RC ’20), from the team’s robot mechatronics division: “The time we had
was limited; we needed to build the robot in six weeks. The theme Stronghold
was very fun but also very hard indeed,
so we had to design many different
parts to the robot in order to complete
the missions.”
Ali Kaan Duranyıldız (RC ’17) adds:
“As a rookie team we had no experience, which slowed us down a lot because we had to determine what caused
problems and what worked well on our
own. We also had to build everything
from scratch and take note of what
parts we needed, as it was our first time.
Other teams had parts and pieces that
they had saved from earlier competitions.”
According to Egemen, the team’s
lack of financial resources due to how
late they secured funding prevented
The Team Hard at Work - Courtesy of Mehmet Özdemir
The Stronghold, Robots and Defenses - Courtesy of FIRST
them from building a full-scale replica of the playing field to test their robot, but they overcame this hurdle by
making their robot “as modular as possible.” They also had to work overtime on the robot, sometimes even for
48 hours straight, as two of their six
weeks of building overlapped with Finals Week. Oğuzhan Yılmaz (RC’ 16),
the team’s vice captain, states how they
coped with the significant amount of
work this left them during the competition:
“There was constant action at the pit:
some of us were working on the robot,
some were making presentations, and
some were doing both and more. We
maintained this overall spirit throughout the competition just like we did
in the months leading up to it and it
helped us overcome the challenge of
having a limited amount of time to
complete so many tasks quickly and efficiently.”
The competition itself was also
fraught with difficulties and unforeseen complications. Even so, “gracious
professionalism,” one of FIRST’s core
concepts, saved the Roboteam from the
worst of them, as the other teams were
surprisingly welcoming towards a foreign opponent. Oktay states “the other, more experienced teams helped us
with our issues regarding the robot.”
The P.R. division did a stellar job in securing this aid too by “making friends
among the other teams and providing
moral support.” Egemen would like to
thank “all teams for all their support
and their gracious professionalism.” Of
course, the Roboteam returned the favor many times over.
The team is undaunted by the challenges they have faced this year. As Ali
Kaan points out, “nearly all the schools
that were in the competition were
technical schools that trained kids to
work in the automotive industry or
other such fields. As a private college
I believe we did a great job among
such schools. We should be more concentrated as a team. As we now have
some more experience, we know more
about design. After this point I believe
we can build robots much more efficiently.” Oktay’s outlook on the future
is positive:
“Since this was our first year, mistakes
were to be expected, but we learned a
lot from them and we hope to be better and stronger in the next competition. We are proud to have earned the
Rookie Inspiration Award, and I would
like to thank my teammates and mentors for all of their support and hard
work during this process.”
However, what should always be kept
in mind is the raison d’être of the competition itself. As Egemen states:
“We believe technology is the magic of the modern world, and that the
magicians of this century will be the
ones who shape the future. Hence, our
main purpose has always been to inspire and train the magicians of the future, by building science, engineering,
and technology skills that inspire innovation while nourishing curiosity, creativity, perseverance, risk-taking, openness, self-confidence, communication,
and leadership.”
We wish the Roboteam as well as all
our other technical clubs the utmost
success at following this principle, and
would once again like to congratulate
the team on their perseverance and
professionalism during the FRC and
their well-earned award.
The Roboteam Represent - Courtesy of Mehmet Özdemir
FEATURES
PAGE
9
The Culture Hidden in the Colors of India
FEATURES EDTOR
& Zeynep Ünsal
STAFF WRITER
“All of my relatives and friends told
me not to go to India because I would
get murdered or kidnapped there.
When I came back from India, I told
them they were half right. I wasn’t
murdered, but I was kidnapped. I was
kidnapped by love,” says Zubin Sharma, founder of Project Potential, a social enterprise located in the rural areas of India, in his RedStudio Talk. The
same thing happened to us 9 students
and 2 teachers wanting to go to India:
We were warned several times by our
friends, relatives and even parents that
India would not be a suitable place for
us. Keeping their warnings in mind, the
Social Entrepreneurship Club traveled
to Mumbai, India between the 23rd
and 28th of April to participate in the
“Global Entrepreneurship Summit” at
the American School of Bombay.
“The Global Entrepreneurship Summit” (GSES) is a place where concerned scholars come together to
brainstorm and prototype their innovative ideas, trying to solve social problems.
By creating a diverse environment
with people from the USA, India, Africa, Jordan, and Turkey, the summit
helps passionate high school kids find
others who share their concerns and
find solutions by leading them through
the design process. At the end of this
year’s summit, there were ten prototyped projects ready to be discussed
and improved with social entrepreneurs. During this process, everybody
in the summit got a chance to learn
how to efficiently plan a social entrepreneurship project and make it real.
Spending three days intensely working on a project was challenging. Spotting a problem and getting to its initial cause was the hardest part for most
of the groups. Anticipating our struggle, GSES also invited different social entrepreneurs from all around the
world to enrich our projects with their
experiences. From day one, Suzie Boss,
Karishma Galani, and Zubin Shar-
Buses Without Doors
Courtesy of Evsen Güleç
ma were there to support us and share
their experiences. Karishma Galani,
the main organizer of the summit, introduced us to the design thinking process. We followed the steps given to us
to come up with a sustainable solution
to a social problem.
On the first day of the summit, we
were asked to choose between three
topics (Waste Management, Small
Businesses, Communities and Education) and sit accordingly. Depending on our subjects, we started to form
groups with people with the same concerns. The first step we took was to get
an idea of everyone’s views, lifestyles
and concerns. So, with these groups, we
went on a tour in Dharavi, one of biggest slums of the world. Walking the
streets of Dharavi was a unique experience because even though the place
was dirty, crowded and compact, everybody welcomed us with warm smiles.
Even though Dharavi is a “slum,” it
has its own design. Dharavi lies in Maharashtra, Mumbai and has two main
districts. One part of the slums is the
part where people live. They pay rent
to live in those slums like we do for
apartments. The wide area of Dharavi is owned by one person, who is the
“landlord” of Dharavi. That landlord is
rich enough to move out from Dharavi,
but he prefers otherwise. The same desire is also found in the residents: many
of them live there because they want
to. According to law, if 70% of a district agrees, the government can build
two apartments in that district: one for
old residents to live in and another to
Elephanta Caves
Courtesy of RCSEC
Elephanta Caves Photo Courtesy of RCSEC
sell. Dharavi residents have not accepted this offer because they like to live
with their neighbours in a close environment. When we got the chance to
see Dharavi firsthand, why they chose
to stay together was clear: They had a
very strong communal spirit. Compared to us, their life standards may
have seemed low, but they were actually fine and content with it. What
they wanted was not a lot of money,
big houses or expensive cars. They just
wanted to stand together as a strong
community, in which everyone is valued individually.
During our trip, a local woman hosted us in her house and had a conversation with us. At the beginning, we
were shocked because even though we
were just strangers to her, she was happy to welcome us into her own house.
She told us her daily routine and her
place in the community. When she
started talking about the problems in
her life, she said that her only problem
was multitasking because she needs
to cook, clean, etc. at the same time.
This also affected us very much because we all thought that she was going to say the problem was water cuts,
houses being too small, or public toilets being filthy, but she didn’t. These
are the things we see as “problems,”
but for them, they were not problems
at all. While planning our projects, we
realized that when we choose a problem that we wanted to solve, we should
also consider whether it is a problem
for our target audience or not.
being done in a place without high
technology standards, when even hightech places neglect to do it. Some social entrepreneurial spirit was also obviously present in the city: A guy in a
wheelchair was using it as a car in some
dense, Indian traffic.
After the Dharavi trip, we, in groups
of 2-5, defined the problems we observed in Dharavi and wanted to solve.
Then we brainstormed and came up
with lots of solutions. After that we
trimmed down the number of solutions and decided on the solution most
likely to solve the problem. Lastly, we
prepared our prototypes, meaning we
created a presentation of the structure
of our projects and presented them to
our friends and other social entrepreneurs.
Contrasting the common view of India as an underdeveloped country, India is a country with a strong sense of
culture and colors. Instead of having
high-tech machinery and wealth, India
has a strong community that allows the
people to support and value each other
rather simply making them happy. The
Global Social Entrepreneurship Summit gave us this unique opportunity to
see the diverse culture of India by communicating with local people. The experience we got from GSES will surely influence us in our future projects
in the Social Entrepreneurship Club.
Many thanks to people who made this
dream come true; it was a life-changing, amazing adventure for us.
The second part of Dharavi was where
people worked: one of the biggest recycling systems in the world. There, all the
trash from India and countries around
is collected and separated. There were
countless workshops for glass, plastic,
card boxes and aluminum to be specifically recycled. Workers in the workshops were paid 200-300 rupees ($4)
per day, our tour guide informed us. In
the plastic recycling workshops, plastics were sorted according to their color and quality.
When all the plastic was sorted, they
ran them through a machine to cut the
plastic into smaller pieces. The pieces
were then washed, dried and sold to
companies as raw material. Aluminum
is recycled in a different way: Aluminum collected from trash is melted in
a small room where people work without any masks. Then, the aluminum is
poured into a press machine to be reshaped. Both of the processes we observed were mainly done using manual
labor instead of high-tech machinery.
It was so interesting to see recycling
‘Flowers Bazaar’ Courtesy of Evsen Güleç
PAGE
10
FEATURES
The Jane Page Writing Contest 2016: In Review
By Ali Çataltepe
NEWS & OPINION EDITOR
The pen (or keyboard, in this case) has
been proven mightier than the sword
yet again, but pens are only as great as
the stories they write, so whose is the
mightiest? The results for the Jane Page
Writing Contest are in, and the lineup
of winners by category consists of Kenan Sarp Çelikel (RC ’16) in Dramatic Script, Ezgi Okutan (RC ’18), with
honorable mentions to Zeynep Soydan (RC ’20) and Mehmet Tüfek (RC
’19) in Poetry, and Veli Barış Heybeli (RC ’16), with an honorable mention
to Mehmet Doruk Eliaçık (RC ’18) in
Short Story. The Bosphorus Chronicle
would like to congratulate them all on
their authorship, and thank all entrants
for their participation.
Most probably already know about
the contest itself, but why and how did
it start, and who is Jane Page to begin with? The answer to the latter, surprisingly, is not “the teacher who organized the competition.” The truth lies
on a placard mounted on the wall opposite Gould 119, for the “Jane Page
Teaching Award.” The award is in honor of Jane Nichols Page, who served
as an RC trustee for 55 years, and was
awarded to Maura Kelly of the English
Department in 2009. Along with the
award came a sizable sum of money, and
Mrs. Kelly decided to use the money for
something which would encourage students to write more, and thus contrib-
uted it as the prize for the competition.
Although the money ran out after the
first 2 years, the competition has survived to this day thanks to the generous
contributions of alumni, the parents of
students, and the administration.
Now that the introduction’s out of the
way, let’s get to reviewing the winners
(no spoilers, of course, look for the entries themselves in this month’s issue of
Kaleidoscope):
Dramatic Script Winner: Panopticon by Kenan Sarp Çelikel (RC ’16):
This surreal drama takes the eponymous concept, proposed by Jeremy Bentham (whom the protagonist is named
after), of a prison (or any other institution) where subjects may be watched by
guardians without their knowledge, and
knowing this, moderate their behavior
as if they are always being watched, and
turns it into an opportunity to comment
on the “normalization” of non-conforming individuals in society in the most
absurd way possible. Jeremy, the protagonist, semi-voluntarily commits himself
to the “Panopticon,” a circus-cum-madhouse where he risks coming out worse
than he came in. As the judges say, “The
writer frequently goes on the attack and
doesn’t take any sides. Amongst his targets are the drug-loving psychiatric industry, the justice system, and the family. He might even attack thoughtful
readers.” The play is built upon many
layers of philosophy, from 18th century utilitarianism to Rumi’s (yes, Mevlana himself has a significant supporting
role) Sufi mysticism.
Jane Page Ceremony 2016
Poetry Winner: “Rhymes and Papers” by Ezgi Okutan (RC ’18):
We all love ourselves a meta-commentary on a medium, but it takes a special
understanding of the process of creating art to work. “Rhymes and Papers”
achieves its objective with poetry by focusing on a very specific example: Emily Dickinson, the renowned 19th-century American poet. The poem is itself
a veiled examination of Dickinson’s relationship with her work and how it affected her identity. By describing her
writing her name similar to how she
writes a poem, “Rhymes and Papers”
shows the reader how a true poet –indeed, any true artist– cannot divorce
their selves from their work.
Poetry Honorable Mentions: “Requiem Black” and “The Complaint” by
Mehmet Tüfek (RC ’19):
Poetry is not all whimsy and flowers,
it can be visceral, violent, and psychological. “Requiem Black” shows itself
definitely befitting of those three descriptors as it shows how madness and
morality may affect, and even transform
each other. It achieves this by personifying the two concepts, and describes
their relationship as akin to that of the
id and superego: Morality, like the latter, keeps madness, more like the former, in check. The subject matter of
“The Complaint” is more societal than
psychological, highlighting how despite
many noble ideologies being cheapened
and corrupted over time, people will still
find something to struggle for.
Poetry Honorable Mentions: “Fish
on a Hook” and “Yellow Eyes” by
Zeynep Soydan (RC ’20):
It is a time-honored tradition in poetry to spin a seemingly innocuous event
into something profound. “Fish on a
Hook” does just that, turning a routine
fish catch into a symbol for the transience of human life itself. We all leave
behind regrets when we die, “things unfinished/things never said,” begging for
the chance to complete them just as a
fish gasps for air. “Yellow Eyes” comments on how we view ourselves due to
how we believe we are viewed by others. It likens the negative emotions generated by how we view others view us to
unnaturally yellow pairs of eyes, which
appear in a sequence mirroring how a
child establishes their relationship with
the world.
Short Story Winner: “La Vie en
Rose” by Veli Barış Heybeli (RC ’16):
There naturally exists an enmity between any free-spirited and creative
writer and the necessary but soul-crushing bureaucracy of the society he lives
in. “La Vie en Rose” (lit. “Life in Pink,”
i.e. “Life Through Rose-Tinted Glasses”), is a crushing satire of bureaucracy
in the vein of Gogol and Kafka, made
even more biting by the contrast between the whimsical tone of the narrator and the monolithic and threatening
army of clerks and forms before him.
The narrator, on a journey to report his
taxes, struggles with traffic, a negative
balance, and a labyrinthine structure of
forms, checks and balances before his
journey, in true absurdist fashion, comes
to naught as he becomes a financial victim of government corruption. It also
brings a unique perspective to the matter in a way only a student can, highlighting the tragic unfeasibility of “just
studying what you want” due to the
crippling debt caused by student loans.
Short Story Honorable Mention:
“Edward’s Bar” by Mehmet Doruk
Eliaçık (RC ’18):
Humanity continually strives towards
a utopia where no-one goes hungry and
all are content. “Edward’s Bar,” however, paints a picture of a post-scarcity economy nobody wants, where society, having relegated all meaningful jobs
to robots, has now come to a standstill,
where the only jobs left for humans are
more style than substance (doctors only
deliver diagnoses to come across as less
unfeeling than a robot, bartenders don’t
mix drinks but make small-talk and offer advice, etc.). Even the news is taken
as a pill. The increasing automation of
society has also made it more totalitarian, with clandestine executions of “traitors” by agents not even aware of what
they are doing becoming commonplace.
The overall theme is that it is continual change and struggling that gives life
meaning, and one of the symbols emphasizing this is the continuous usage of the word “knowing” as opposed
to “thinking,” “learning,” or “feeling,”
showing how a spoon-fed populace is
an unthinking one.
Kickboxing with Yağmur Güngör
By Cemre Sönmez
STAFF WRITER
Are you looking for a sport that is
one of the most beneficial sports in the
world? If you are, then you should continue to read this article! Don’t let stereotypes change what you want to do.
Or, if you are female, don’t just pass
up this article without reading it, because this sport is as unisex as most of
the other sports. Taking kickbox classes provides lots of advantages to your
body: It helps you to defend yourself,
to improve your balance and to increase
your flexibility. Boshorus Chronicle interviewed Yağmur Günör (RC’18),
who is very passionate about kickboxing, to learn more about this sport.
BC: When and how did you decide
to start kickboxing?
It was the beginning of second semester of my prep year when I was on
holiday in Thailand. We went to a big
muay-thai match of the year, and I was
really stunned by the atmosphere of
the event. After the holiday, I decided
to attend kickboxing classes.
BC: Were there a variety of kickboxing courses in Turkey?
No, actually most of the classes were
held in places with bad conditions, and
the atmosphere was suburban, so my
family didn’t want me to go there.
BC: Where did you start your first
lesson?
I started kickboxing in Istanbul Technical University (ITU); they had a pri-
vate fitness room where we had our
training sessions.
BC: Were there also girls like you
who were passionate about kickboxing?
Actually, most of the people were
studying at college and there were only
a few girls besides me. I have been the
youngest person there for the last two
years.
BC: Why do you think that girls are
outnumbered?
In my opinion, fighting is stereotyped
in our society as a boy’s job, but what
I am doing is much more than fighting. It is not only a sport of violence as
most of the people think.
BC: How often do you train? And
can you give us specific information
about your training?
In my first year, it was twice a week,
but then it increased to four days a
week. My exercises often start with
stretching; then I start shadow-fighting, which is the exercise where you
fight as if there is someone in front of
you even though there isn’t. After being warmed up with quick exercises, I
start the rounds. I work on the punching bag for four rounds that last two
and a half minutes. At the end of the
training we spar (fight) with each other once a week, and one day of training
is only for condition-training, and to
strengthen.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
PAGE
11
Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice Fanboy Wars Review
By Berke Nuri
GUEST WRITER
“Batman v Superman” was one of the
most hyped up and awaited movies of
2016. It grossed almost $200 million on
its opening weekend, which made it the
seventh biggest opening of all time. Despite its decent score on IMDB, it received a score of 44% from Metacritic
and a pathetic 28% from Rotten Tomatoes. The movie seems to have failed to
meet people’s expectations.
Actually, the movie’s plot was interesting for the first half, but then it turned
into a dull, Marvel-like superhero movie. The first half of the movie is about
the tension between Batman and Superman. Superman is accusing Batman because he is fighting criminals
in an illegal, dangerous way, and Batman is accusing Superman for destroying the whole city as if it were a sand
castle while fighting General Zod, all
while Lex Luthor –the villain who acts
like my 7 year old brother after eating
an entire bag of family size M&Ms—
turns them against each other more and
more. Seeing heroes judging each other’s actions and thinking about the outcomes of their actions and powers was a
new and interesting concept to watch.
It seemed more realistic and felt different because the world wasn’t just watching, clapping and glorifying the heroes
anymore.
On the other hand, everything
changed in the second half of the movie. During the anticipated showdown of
the movie, Batman and Superman real-
Hair of Steel
Head&Shoulders-Smooth and Straight
Hulk Gone Wrong
(Courtesy of blastr.com)
(Courtesy of screenrant.com)
(Courtesy of express.co.uk)
Bad Armor Choice
A Journalist
(Courtesy of Independent)
(Courtesy of IGN)
perman’s girlfriend are as useless as solar flashlights and just seem to be in the
story to make the plot seem less empty like the cooking recipes at the back of
the newspapers. The cool graphics of the
movie are quite entertaining but only
make the movie interesting enough for
elementary school kids. If you are a person who watches Ben10, listens to Taylor Swift, wears phosphorous shoes and
plays with action figures, then this movie is for you.
has changed through your odyssey at
Robert College.
can throw in your face.
ize their mothers shared the same name,
and they decide to become BFFs to save
Superman’s mommy. This situation
makes Lex Luthor angry, and he decides to revive General Zod. Like most
of the antagonists, General Zod turns
out to be an ugly monster; looking like
Hulk, covered with Neşeli Tavuk sauce
and 7th grade acne. The rest of the movie is just about heroes fighting against a
common enemy.
(SPOILER ALERT) Unoriginally, the movie ends with heroes’ victory,
and when it finally decides to surprise
the audience with Superman’s death
to at least have a remarkable ending, it
doesn’t. Superman revives but hides it
and forces the audience to watch his annoying girlfriend cry for another 5 minutes.
Overall, the movie has some promising scenes, but it is still a waste of time
like most of Adam Sandler’s movies.
Characters such as Lex Luthor and Su-
Expectations vs. Reality
By Kaan Tarhan
GUEST WRITER
Expectations vs. Reality...
After a very exhausting Monday, you
enter your room, your mouth reeking
from all the bitter stuff you kept in the
whole day. You expect the “Mastering”
to keep you busy for ten more minutes:
you really think you will get that essay done promptly this time. Copying
down some geography notes couldn’t
possibly take hours, could it? Neither could finishing those leftover algebra worksheets... and you could, in
fact, finish two books over the weekend and maybe finally take a look at
your two-weeks-overdue-YHP, while
scrambling from practice to practice
either for your music band or for your
team. Not to forget the community involvement project (CIP) that occupies
your Fridays, and the weekly AP study
hours on Wednesday, and the endless
lab reports that take up your Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and many other things
we can add there…
In reality, you lay down after the third
question that had parts A, B and C,
all with calculations. You are dreaming about sleeping off the exhaustion
of the previous months with a tinge of
hunger in your poorly nourished stomach. While postponing studying for
your Advanced Physics test and find-
ing an excuse to go to the last events of
the year, you will hopefully get another week over without dying. But here
comes the question: Is this what you
were expecting when you decided to
come to RC? When you were young
and beautiful, you perhaps had higher
hopes for life, and actually for yourself.
You believed that you were smart, talented, social,--and even special! That
feeling, however, is probably rotting
over in some corner of Feyyaz Berker Hall, and the stink is made worse
when coupled with the leftovers from
your dignity and self confidence. What
happened?
Let me tell you exactly what happened. “Robert College, Fount of
Knowledge”. Sniggering, you can
count more things than we can possibly hope to fit in this small corner,
things that made you ache really deep
inside. Blaming is not the answer. Was
it that cynical comment about your
art that started it? Was it the vulgar
backlash for showing some backbone
against injustice, bias and inequality?
Was it the nonsense criticism you got
that blunted your scientific inquiry?
Was it the constant reminder of integrity from people that lack even the basic understanding of the concept that
forced your hand into a little bit of
data temperament and dirty tricks? Or
was it something entirely different, an
assault on your personality or your beliefs? Either way, something inside you
Placing the blame on a person does
not usually resolve the actual conflict. If
needed, you should perhaps discharge
your anger and tears in the Counselor’s
Office. Though it may not always solve
your problems, it will definitely create
a short-lasting sense of satisfaction.
You may also want to rant about your
issues all around school--and through
homegroup sessions for further gratification. Obviously there may come a
point where you simply cannot take
your personal issues anymore - and
talking behind people’s backs won’t
cut it, in which case you have two options with similar results: you can either go talk to an admin or pray that
the trouble resolves itself. Why bother, it’s not like any of the admins have
magic-wands that can dish out justice,
equality, goodness, integrity and all
that stuff you might think you need. It
is perhaps better for you to realize that
life, whether we like it or not, is harsh,
and things will not always go the way
we want them to. Even then if you are
not relieved, you can pay a visit to the
amusing and amiable Headmaster, Dr.
Skipper, who may give you some imported candy bars. If those candy bars
cannot solve your problems, what else
can solve it?
“Robert College, Fount of Knowledge.” It definitely gives you the
knowledge to deal with anything life
What a wonderful place to get a head
start in life, right? Well, if you disagree
with me, just repeat the steps suggested above and you will all be all right!
Ayda Öktem Resting in Feyyaz Berker
Courtesy of Kaan Tarhan
PAGE
12
FOOD
2 Super Easy Meals:
Zucchini Noodles & Salmon with Fluffy Quinoa and Steamed Broccoli
By İrem Deyneli
STAFF WRITER
You can also follow the author’s blog @
“Recipes from a Cookaholic”.
Spring has finally arrived! Birds singing and sun pouring down through our
shades not only mean that the trees
will blossom and the tulips will color the streets, but also inform us that
summer is on its way. And if you are a
foodie like me, then the following two
months will be the hardest for us. Summer is coming, which means you should
get ready for bikini season, start cutting
off those high-calorie carbs and getting
more veggies and exercise. Nonetheless,
summer is also the best time of the year
with the fresh fruits and vegetables, and
there are no excuses for not being able
to work with healthy ingredients.
If you want to cut down on some of
those cookies, pastas, chocolates, and so
on, this zucchini noodle (zoodle) recipe
will be your to-go meal. Not only does
it take only 4 ingredients to prepare, but
it also results in a very easy-to-cook and
healthy dish. In addition, this recipe is
perfect for our vegan readers. Before we
give you the recipe for Super Easy and
Super Healthy Vegan 15 Minute Zoodles, we would like to tell you up front
that you may also want to try other vegetables like carrot or eggplant with this
same recipe.
am using a mandolin with a julienne attachment.
2) Heat a medium pan with the olive
oil. Add in the finely diced garlic. Cook
for 1 minute.
3) Add in the zoodles (zucchini noodles), and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
Do not overcook– doing so will result
in mushy and very soft noodles, which
is not what we are looking for. Toss in
the basil. Serve warm.
This other recipe is a very simple salmon dish. Salmon is probably one of the
easiest fish to work with. If you buy your
salmon filleted, you only have to toss it
on the pan or pop it into the oven with
some aluminum foil. Although aluminum foil is not the healthiest material to cook with, it is very easy to clean
afterwards. We always have those lazy
days when we don’t even want to think
about the dishes we’ll have to clean afterwards. Furthermore, provided you
don’t use aluminum foil every single day,
it’s okay to be lazy from time to time.
Here’s the Super Easy Salmon in Foil
with Fluffy Quinoa recipe:
Ingredients:
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh thyme (optional)
• For Fluffy Quinoa:
• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (optional)
• 1 cup water, room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• For the Steamed Broccoli:
• 1 head of broccoli
• Special equipment: Microwave steam
bag (Koroplast brand highly recommended)
Directions:
1) Prepare the marinade for the salmon. In a medium-sized mixing bowl,
mix the olive oil, garlic, lemon juice,
zest, salt, pepper and fresh thyme if you
are using it.
2) Put the salmon in the marinade and
coat it using your hands. Let it marinate
for at least 15 minutes, but preferably
for 1 hour.
Yields 2 servings
For Salmon in Foil:
• 2 salmon fillets (125 grams each)
3)Take a piece of aluminum foil and
place one of the salmon fillets in the
middle. Drizzle some of the marinade
on top. Close the aluminum foil and put
on a baking tray. Repeat this step for the
next fillet as well.
4) Bake the fillets in the oven for about
30-40 minutes, depending on the size of
your salmon fillets.
5) While waiting for the salmon to
cook, wash the quinoa using a fine mesh
strainer. In a medium saucepan, drizzle
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and sauté
the quinoa for about 2-3 minutes.
6) Pour in the water and add in the
salt. Close the lid of the pan and let it
cook for 10-15 minutes, until the water
is absorbed.
7) Take the pan off the heat and also
take the lid off the pan. Place a tea towel
over the pan. Replace the lid and let the
quinoa rest for about 5 minutes.
8) Meanwhile, steam your broccoli in
the microwave according to the package
instructions.
9) When the salmon is cooked, take
it from the oven. Fluff the quinoa and
serve everything on a plate.
Ingredients:
• (1 portion)
• 2 medium-sized zucchinis, ends cut
off
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
• 5 basil leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1) Cut your zucchini into thin strips
using a julienne peeler, a spiralizer or a
vegetable peeler. As mentioned above I
Courtesy of Irem Deyneli (Staff Photographer)
Hamlin Players Spirit
By Ayça Yılmaz
GUEST WRITER
Most of the time the only things that
make us happy are our memories. For
a long time the Hamlin Players experience has been the only thing that
came to my mind. We worked for
months for this musical performance,
and we put in a lot of effort. We choreographed the dance routines and rehearsed day and night. While it was
hard work it, was definitely worth it.
The Hamlin Players is a club full
of cooperation and happiness. But it
would never have worked without the
efforts of our advisor, Ms. Dunne. She
gave us courage even when we lost
hope, especially me when I couldn’t
learn the dance routines. I don’t like
comparing, but if it wasn’t for her or
if there was another teacher leading
us, I don’t think that we would have
succeeded and gained people’s admiration.
In addition, socially, I met amazing
people. We became really close friends
and got used to each other easily. None
of us made fun of each other; instead,
we helped each other. The nights of
our performances we were happy that
we would finally show what we had
managed to do, but we were also pretty sad because we knew after our last
performance there wouldn’t be time to
do more musicals.
Anyway, the performance day was
absolutely perfect. Ms. Dunne and
people back stage did a great job;
they arranged everything perfectly
on time. We were beyond excited, but
Ms. Dunne kept calming us down, although she was even more nervous
than us. Being on the stage was a totally different and an unexplainable
feeling. Those stage lights were nearly
going to make us blind, but the knowledge of dancing and singing with people we like kept us fully concentrated. Even though I was lucky to be a
part of Lise Live, I didn’t enjoy it as
much as I did the Hamlin Players. I
don’t think I ever will enjoy anything
as much.
I still remember my audition for
Hamlin Players, singing the song
“Popular” with a shivering voice and
shaking hands. After 6 months, I noticed that something had changed
within me. I became a courageous and
a confident girl who is proud of what
she and her group has achieved.
Hamlin Players Performance
STATE OF SOUND
PAGE
13
Santana - Santana IV
By Kaan Ertaş
GUEST WRITER
Through persistent preservation of
their genuine sound that is a mixture
of rock, soul and heavy Latin influences, Carlos Santana and his band have
stood for the last few decades as pillars
of rock against today’s popular music
that has so unsparingly overwhelmed
rock like a plague. However much they
have stood against the torrent, it was
inevitable that their sound was unduly
affected by developing sound technologies; since after all, it was the subtle
touch of instrument feedback coupled
with virtuosity that defined the 70’s
music scene. Santana had more than
their fair share of guest artists and
the mechanical songwriting process
that was deprived of the creative process. Along this line of modernization
that the band had been going through,
Santana IV, released April 15, acted as a savior. With the almost entire
Woodstock-era lineup since Santana
III, the band seems to recapture, even
if partially, the original Santana spirit.
Although the album lacks the authenticity of 1969’s debut Santana, the
band is not to blame: Woodstock recordings were a seminal factor; and
sound engineering systems were not
as sophisticated which resulted in an
indiscrete fusion of guitar, percussion,
drums and keyboard. Within the possible bounds, Santana IV resembles
1992’s Milagro; and reaches as early as Santana III, possessing some of
its prescient elements. It can be said
to exceed expectations especially after this decade’s two previous releases, the poorly composed Shape Shifter
and the mainstream Latin pop album
Corazón. The album extends to an
hour and fifteen minutes, with a track
list of 16 songs. The list seems to follow no recognizable pattern, with sudden jumps to ethereal instrumentals
right after pop sounding single-material songs. The opener, Yambu, cries
out like the lion on the album cover
with vocals unmistakably resembling
those of Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan. All
Aboard, a continuation of the previous song, is a remarkable instrumental
piece. Carlos Santana seems to have
stolen a phrase from his 2010 cover of The Doors’ Riders on the Storm.
Sueños, an acoustic and electric guitar medley, is a more laid back and
late night suitable tune. You and I is a
beautiful instrumental that goes back
and forth between the dynamic and
serene ends of the album, but mostly
relies on the latter end.
Also worthy of note is that the album hosts only a single guest artist,
unlike its predecessors with a ridiculous number of guest artists. Thus, the
album slips out of the –mostly validcriticisms attributed to previous albums in which the albums were said
to “never develop a consistent voice
that holds the album(s) together.” (Erlewine) Ronald Isley, widely known
for his lead vocalist work for the Isley Brothers, sings for Santana in the
two consecutive songs Love Makes
the World Go Round and Freedom in
Your Mind. He does not steal from the
genuine sound of Santana (as did the
other guest artists), and builds on its
soul aspect. Overall, the album roars,
(thankfully!) digresses from the path
the band has followed for the past two
decades, and manages to prevent being lost in the midst of crowd pleasing Latin pop tracks. The factor that
plays the greatest role in this countermarch might be the lineup. Carlos
Albummmamsdasdklasdlka sjdlkasjd
Santana IV
(Courtesy of Pop-Break.com)
himself admits it: “We didn’t have to
try to force the vibe – it was immense.
From there, we then needed to come
up with a balance of songs and jams
that people would immediately identify as Santana.”(Santana) All in all, we
are offered a retrogressive album that
is, contrary to what the adjective implies, anything but harmful – in fact,
it does quite the opposite by retaining
the raw sound within the confines of
contemporary music production.
Works Cited:
Erlewine, Stephen T. “Supernatural
- Santana.” AllMusic. N.p., n.d. Web.
“Santana IV CD”. Santana. N.p.,
2016. Web. 1 May 2016.
GUEST WRITER
For those who have forgotten that
jazz is the genre of sentiment, here I
present to you: Liquid Spirit. Although
not the most recently released album, I
feel obliged to introduce the readers to
the Grammy-winning musician, Gregory Porter. Porter’s voice is an extremely qualified one for jazz singing: it resonates with the strings of your heart; you
have no chance but to feel what emotion the song conveys. “Hey Laura,” the
most popular song on the album, is that
kind: first, you fall in love with the melody, then with the voice of the singer, then with the saxophone solos, then
with the lyrics. “I Fall in Love Too Easily” is similar; you will see that the song
will prove its name to you. Porter and
his band make sure that the listener has
no doubt that the band and the producer have spent hours and days and weeks
on the album.
For those who have forgotten that
jazz is the genre of dance and upbeat
emotions, here I present to you: Liquid
Spirit. This album is the one that won
Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit
By M. Emir Akdere
the Grammy Award for ‘‘ best vocal
jazz album.’’ “Liquid Spirit” is the song
that deserves its name (as well as to be
the name of the album). The melodic structure is an invader of the brain:
it simply sticks to your tongue; good
luck getting that off your mind. Constant clapping in the background draws
the listener to join the song; don’t stop- Porter wants to see you thump out.
“The ‘’In’’ Crowd” will, in addition, not
only get your feet, but your whole body
moving to the beat.
For those who have forgotten that jazz
is the genre of coolness, here I present to
you: Liquid Spirit. Gregory Porter does
not sing; he plays the instrument called
‘‘voice,’’ especially in “Musical Genocide,” my personal favorite song from
the album. You know those jazz songs
that you can always flick your fingers to
the beat? This song is one of those cool
jazz songs, but still is able to put the listener in the mood without boring him.
Overall, I wanted to introduce not
only the album, but also the great jazz
singer who has an album coming up this
year on the 6th of May as well. Gregory
Porter is an artist that pays jazz his due
when singing; he does not show-off,
but he does whatever he should do with
greatest care in every song he chants.
He does not push his voice range to the
limits; that kind of maturity and self-
(Courtesy of lifeandtimes.com)
Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit
awareness is hard to find in musicians.
Expecting greater works from the master.
PAGE
14
FAREWELL
Farewell to the Joneses
most about RC/Istanbul?
I have taught classes that I have loved
each year, but I think the one constant
in RC has been the girls’ basketball
team. In two years, the relationships
that I have formed with girls like you,
Ekin, and people who played for two
years, you mean so much to me. When
I look back on that, I think what we
have built as a basketball team and
as a program means the most. I was
thinking of the last year, sometimes
we would have 8-10 girls at practice,
and now this year we have 20-21. So I
think of what we have been able to do
as a team and how much everyone has
improved and feels like they are a part
of something. These mean a lot to me.
By Ekin Vardar
GUEST WRITER
Farewell to Mr. Andrew Jones
Bosphorus Chronicle interviewed
Mr. Andrew Jones, who has been a
part of the RC family for the last two
years. Mr. Jones is an English teacher
and the girls’ basketball team’s coach.
BC: How did you decide to come to
Turkey and teach in RC?
We used to teach in Bulgaria at a
school that was quite similar to RC
in terms of the students and quality
and history of the school. So, while we
were looking for a new international
school, and the opportunity to teach at
RC came up, we got very excited. We
had been to Istanbul before coming to
RC and definitely loved it. Also, prior
to coming to RC, we knew a lot about
the school. In the end, the combination of living in Istanbul and being a
teacher at RC seemed like a great fit
for me and my family.
BC: What are your plans after leaving Robert College?
We are having a baby! I think our
plan is to have our lives flipped upside
down because we will have two little
crazy ones running around. Ms. Kahle is due on May 26, so I think we will
have a pretty fun summer with grandparents in the States, two kids and
sleepless nights. It is going to be awesome. Following these in July, we are
planning to go to Brazil to teach in
an American school, and that will be
exciting too. Hopefully, we will start
learning Portuguese quickly.
BC: How was living in Turkey for
you apart from Robert College?
I think Istanbul is one of the best
and one of the most interesting cities
in the world. It is a fascinating place
and a great city to go out for a walk and
explore. It is not a great city to drive in,
though! Yet, I think that the combina-
BC: What was it like coaching the
girls’ basketball team, and what is
your favourite memory with the
team?
Mr. Jones and the Girls’ Basketball Team
tion of walking and taking the boats
and then taking the metro to all these
historical places, eating great food, are
all awesome. I believe that the places
that you can visit in Turkey are even
more awesome. We liked the places
that we visited in Turkey so much that
every time we felt like “I want to come
to this place again.” We went to İzmir
and Ephesus and loved it and thought,
“I want to come to this place again”
and spend more time in Çeşme. We
went to Bodrum and thought that we
could spend the whole summer there.
We went to Fethiye and hiked on the
Lycian Trail and loved it. Cappadocia
was also amazing. So, I think the fact
that you could get to so many places
with a cheap airline flight and see so
many different amazing things in Turkey is something hard to beat.
BC: How would you describe your
teaching experience in RC in a sentence?
In a sentence? I would say that my
students challenge me and make me
laugh everyday.
BC: What was your favorite memory with RC students?
If I pick just one, then I will have 50
other students who will yell at me. I
think that the students at RC are so enthusiastic and eager to learn. I believe
that if you give them something that is
meaningful and valuable, they will run
with it. I start all my classes everyday
with a fistpound and everybody gets
a fistpound. It is probably my favourite part of the class. After I do that,
I see all these eager faces who want to
challenge themselves and want to expand their minds. I feel like from there
on, class is always great. We start positively and, unlike other schools where
there might be some people who don’t
want to be here, I feel like RC students
do want to be here and learn. That is
the best thing about this place.
BC: What are you going to miss the
I have coached for 14 years, but
I think it has been 12 years since I
coached a girls’ team. I have coached
boys’ teams for the last 12 years. So
to come coach a girls’ team was a big
change for me and than to have it be
a Turkish girls’ team was a big change
too because I was worried that sometimes girls in Turkey aren’t very encouraged to play sports as much as
they should be. To see what we have
been able to do as a team and to have
these girls take on becoming aggressive, tough and play so hard and really see why that matters and to see how
it shapes their personality has been so
powerful for me to be a part of. So to
be a girls’ coach and to be a Turkish
teams’ coach has just been so incredible, and I hope that they have learned
things that they will take with them
for the rest of their lives. I know that
I have learned so many things from
them.
As Bosphorus Chronicle, we would
like to wish both Mr. Jones and Ms.
Kahle luck in the next chapter of their
lives.
my life.
By Melisa Saygın
STAFF WRITER
Farewell to Ms. Erin Kahle
Ms Kahle, for two years, taught biology at Robert College and was recognized as a motivating, sincere and
successful biology teacher who is really knowledgeable in her area. Unfortunately, she left Robert College this year,
which truly upset her students; this
triggered The Bosphorus Chronicle to
interview Ms. Kahle in order to leave a
delightful memory of her.
BC: Can you us tell about you and
your interests?
I’ve always thought of myself as a person who has a variety of interests. I love
science and math but I also really enjoy
reading and history, as long as I don’t
have to write papers about them. Above
all, I love sports, the outdoors, and being active. I love traveling and learning
new languages. While I never thought
I was good at art, I love crafting (mostly Halloween costumes), carpentry, and
music, mostly listening at this stage in
BC: How did you decide to become a
biology teacher?
When I was in high school, I had an
inspiring biology teacher and fell in
love with the subject. In school, I really enjoyed helping other students
and thought that I might like to teach
someday. In college, I studied Molecular Biology and started doing mostly
genetic research. After college, I continued research at the National Institutes of Health in an immunology lab.
I still thought I would like to teach but
planned to get a PhD first and teach
later on in my career. However, my
schedule in the lab made it difficult to
do other things that I valued, like volunteering, playing sports, and traveling.
I decided I would try teaching, got a job
in Sofia, Bulgaria, and have been teaching ever since!
After teaching in Bulgaria, and meeting Mr. Jones, we taught in Ecuador,
Chicago, and then came to Robert
College. After we had Eliza, we were
looking for jobs internationally again
and found out that there were English and Biology positions available at
Mr. Anthony Jones, Ms. Erin Kahle and Eliza!
Robert College. The more we found out
about the school, the more we wanted
to come and teach here. When we took
the jobs, we imagined coming for at
least 4-5 years, but it turned out that we
were only here for 2 years.
If I recall, the first time I was at RC,
I do remember immediately liking the
students, teachers, staff, and everyone
else we met, and thinking how lucky we
were to end up in such a baby-friendly
place with Eliza!
BC: Do you have any memories that
you would like to tell to the RC Community?
We have a lot of memorable moments
surrounding Eliza’s early childhood
here. Sometimes, I think more people knew Eliza than either Mr. Jones
FAREWELL
or myself. I remember her learning to
walk out on the plateau, eating dinner
in the cafeteria and taking selfies with
groups of teenage boys (something that
would never happen in the states), being a simit and ayran for Halloween,
kicking a ball around at the end of soccer practice, chattering away in Turkish with her bakıcı as we got ready for
work in the morning, and generally loving life in such a warm and welcoming
culture.
it in Istanbul and around the world?
Why?
It mostly comes down to the fact that
professionally, I’m looking for something a little different, and think that
I could be happier teaching in a different environment. However, I feel that
I should always mention that I can’t
imagine being happier with students
than I am at RC, and will miss that aspect of my job tremendously.
I’ve been lucky to have visited so many
wonderful places throughout Turkey
and the world. Some of my favorites include hiking parts of the Likya Yolu or
the mountains of Sri Lanka with Eliza and Mr. Jones, visiting the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, and whitewater kayaking in Amazon tributaries. But
there really are too many places to list.
I think curiosity and a love of learning are ideal values for a student. I really love all the fascinating questions I
get from students here at RC. Once the
questions are asked, the next step is devising strategies to come up with answers and solutions, and it’s been fun
to see students who enjoy doing this
instead of waiting for someone else to
come up with an answer for them. I also
think that for many reasons kindness is
an invaluable quality in students and
people in general.
There are always more things I wish I
could’ve done, ways I’d like to improve
my teaching, people with whom I’d like
to spend more time, or that I could’ve
learned and used more Turkish. However, I knew that when working with
a small child, I wouldn’t have time to
do everything I wanted to do, so I just
did the best I could. In this way, I don’t
really have any real regrets, or perhaps
as an optimist, I just try not to dwell
on them. This might sound cheesy, but
my only real wish is to be happy and
in whatever small ways, to increase the
happiness of others.
BC: If you wouldn’t mind saying,
what is the reason you are leaving RC?
BC: What are the qualities you look
for in an ideal student?
BC: Which places do you like to vis-
PAGE
15
Anywhere with a view of the Bosphorus is a favorite of mine, especially if it
also involves eating Turkish breakfast,
another of my favorites. This fall, I was
training for a half marathon and on my
longest run, I went up past Tarabya and
enjoyed watching the sun rise over the
Bosphorus as fishermen went to work,
people walked along the shores, and
families went to brunch. I have so many
wonderful memories in Istanbul with
the Bosphorus in the background.
BC: What is your greatest regret?
The Joneses
BC: Is there anything you would like
to add? (Perhaps, you may want to
suggest something to RC Students?)
Even though I will try to reach out
and properly thank everyone, it seems
almost impossible because there are
so many people in the RC community
who have made our experience so special. Whenever I leave a place, it’s al-
ways the people that I will miss the
most. Mostly I want to say thank you
again to everyone who has made our
experience a positive one: my students,
The Lady Bobcats, my homegroup, colleagues, and friends. Please keep in
touch! Robert College, Istanbul, and
Turkey will always have a place in my
heart!
A Farewell to RC’s Ms. Amy Callahan
By Deniz Yağmur Urey
GUEST WRITER
Doesn’t it make you sad when you hear
that someone who has been here for 23
years and calls Turkey her home away
from home is leaving? We are heartbroken to say farewell to a great teacher
like her. “Who is she?” is the first question you’ll probably ask, and the answer
is “our beloved prep English teacher
Ms. Amy Callahan.” Why is she leaving? She answers, “The simple answer is
two words and it’s ‘my parents.’” It was a
very hard decision for her to make.
miss something until it’s gone away.”
We can only hope that these words of
hers mean that deep down, she’ll return
here someday. The only thing we can do
at this point is to trust her feelings. One
of the good examples of her connection with Turkey is the fact that she has
lots of very good friends here, including a 9-year-old friend called Sungu.
Ms. Callahan has been babysitting and
playing with her ever since Sungu was
a little baby. I think being called a “best
friend” by a child shows a lot about Ms.
Callahan’s character and that’s probably
the reason why she’s so beloved: she understands the language of children. Ad-
ditionally, she has had long teaching careers in different countries. Even with
all these other experiences, she said that
Robert College “was one of the greatest
teaching jobs you could ever imagine.”
Ms. Callahan reveals that she has seen
a lot of sides of Turkey. Even though
she admits her Turkish is still not good
enough, she still says, “I know a lot
about Turkish culture.” When she was
talking about this, there was a glimmer in her eye, which told a lot about
her deep feelings for this country. We
asked her what breaks her heart the
most about leaving Turkey, and she an-
The news was a big surprise for us. We
knew that she loved working at RC,
so one of the biggest questions that
popped in our minds immediately was
why she was returning to her hometown in California. Apparently her parents’ health had been declining for the
past year, and she wanted to spend some
quality time with them while she still
had the chance, “My parents aren’t going to be here forever so I have to take
a break,” which is understandable. She
added that she hadn’t been living on the
same continent as her parents for many
years. We know she has a Turkish husband so we asked her how they’re planning to manage. She answered: “He’s
coming with me to California and he’s
going to stay a month with me.” Afterwards, she added that she would stay
for at least two more months with her
parents and then see if they could continue with their plans.
“Sometimes, you don’t even realize you
swered: “A thousand things...” It’s obvious that she feels very connected to
Turkey. She’s a great example of someone who can consider a foreign country
“home.” In light of all her experiences, we had to ask her if she’s planning
on coming back. She told us she has a
strong feeling that she definitely will.
So, we’re hoping she’ll maybe be back
at RC someday.
If I know Ms. Callahan, believe that
Istanbul will bring her back as soon
as she realizes she feels homesick. We
want to say farewell to this amazing
teacher and thank her for all the effort.
Arade Kural (RC ‘20): “Ms. Callahan has been teaching me for only a
few months, but I can say that I have
learned a lot from her. It is a shame that
I will not have the chance to be a student of Ms. Callahan in the following
years. Farewell…”
Sude Naz Kutlu (RC ‘20) said that
Ms. Callahan’s contributions “to many
of her students are undeniable.” The
laughter-filled memories of every one
of her classes will live on in our minds.
Especially the words she says when we
start speaking in Turkish during lessons:
“Çok rahatım, Türkçe konuşuyorum.”
She inspired us and changed our lives
in many ways. She was the first person who introduced me to the power of
writing and made me find myself with
the magic of words. We definitely want
her to know she’ll never be forgotten.
Don’t make us miss you so much; Istanbul will be waiting to see you soon.
Take care, Ms. Callahan!
Ms. Amy Callahan Wearing a Ham Costume
PAGE
16
FAREWELL
Farewell Madame Peyrache!
By Melisa Saygın
SECTION EDITOR
Corinne Peyrache is the head of the
foreign language department; she has
taught French in Robert College for six
years. Unfortunately, she will be leaving Robert College at the end of this
year which upsets her students from all
grades. To cheer her students up and to
keep a joyful memory of her, Bosphorus
Chronicle interviewed Ms. Peyrache.
BC: Can you tell us about you and
your interests?
Corinne Peyrache: I was always an
adventurer, so I love travelling and getting to know new cultures. I also read a
lot, but mostly non-fiction books, and I
love to listen to music and dance (when
nobody is looking).
BC: How did you decide to become a
French teacher?
As you may know I have dual nationality, French-Portuguese. My parents
moved to Portugal when I was a little
girl, and I grew up in a bilingual environment since my mother spoke no
Portuguese at all. Living in between
two cultures and my love for my French
origins made me continue my education in modern languages and literature, and this gave me the opportuni-
ty to use my enthusiasm to motivate
students who are willing to learn this
romantic language. Before coming to
Turkey, I taught in Portugal for 8 years
in several state schools.
thing he tells me is ‘Le Français pour
moi est comme de la poésie’ (‘French
for me is like poetry’). From this moment, I knew I was going to love working at RC. Coincidently, he was my student the year after.
BC: What do you find good or bad
about the French culture?
BC: If you wouldn’t mind telling,
what is the reason you are leaving RC?
I love the cheese and all the rich gastronomy in general. I also try to keep
track of recent movies and songs because there is so much quality work
produced in France and I can use bits
of it to motivate my students and teach
culture while learning the language. I’d
love to see French people becoming
more open to learning new languages.
As I mentioned before, you have these
times in life when you feel the need
to change. Getting out of my comfort
zone and coming to Turkey allowed me
to get to know myself better and grow
so much, not only at the personal level but also professionally. It is time to
move on again, leave my comfort zone
and get to know more of the world. I
love historical places that make you go
back in time and reflect.
BC: If you can recall, what were your
first impressions of RC? How did
these change in time?
The first time I came to RC, I was impressed with the school organization
and how fast the students would absorb the information. I thought that a
40 minute lesson was too little to do
anything productive, but because the
students were/are so eager to learn, we
could accomplish a lot. I am still impressed with the students today! Quite
often I go back to my office after a lesson and share good experiences or exceptional student work. This is my 6th
year at Robert College. Sometimes in
life you feel the need of a change. In my
case, I had always wondered about in-
Madame Peyrache
ternational teaching and wished to have
the opportunity to live and teach in a
different country.
Before I started my contract in August 2010, I came to visit the school in
April and observed a few lessons. After
one of the lessons, one of the students
who saw me in the class approached me
and asked me if I had enjoyed the lesson. I said yes and added that I was impressed with his participation. The next
Every teacher wants a student to love
the subject he/she’s teaching and therefore show engagement and motivation
for learning. My advice to RC students
is to always follow your dreams and do
what you love. You will find difficulties
along the way, but don’t quit; be persistent and one day you will be where you
want to be.
We bid farewell to Ms. Peyrache and
sincerely hope that her journey to the
rest of the world turns out to be great
and full of delightful adventures.
Farewell to İzzet Şengel and Güler Karabatur
ar RC has a big place in my life.
By Arda Başaran & Tunahan Ekincikli
TECH & SPORTS EDITORS
After all those years filled with successful, amazing projects, children
chuckling with happiness, show nights
prepared at the last minute, and freshly painted schools, the CIP office is saying farewell to two inspiring CIP advisors, İzzet Şengel and Güler Karabatur.
Before they leave Robert College at the
end of this year, the Bosphorus Chronicle wanted to have one last interview
with them.
BC: When did you come to RC?
İzzet Şengel: I came to RC in September 2006 for my internship. I cannot forget the day I came to RC. Because I used the Arnavutköy Gate and
walked all the way up to the school, I
was sweating as if I had run a marathon.
The first thing that I asked for at RC
was a paper towel.
Güler Karabatur: I started as a German teacher in 1978, and until 2006, I
worked as teacher. For the last 15 years
I was the head of the Foreign Languages Department.
BC: What is your most memorable
moment at RC?
İŞ: These superlative questions are always difficult for me. I have had a lot
of cheerful moments at RC. I am lucky
that I worked on sincere, friendly, and
supportive teams besides the great RC
community. I remember the moment
when I got an offer to work at RC. I was
over the moon and I wanted to hug everyone that I saw on that day.
GK: Every single moment that I spent
BC: Why did you want to become a
CIP advisor?
İŞ: Since my university years, I have
been involved in volunteer projects
and civil society institutions. BUSOS
(Boğaziçi University Social Service
Club) and Çağdaş Drama Derneği are
some of the places I have worked at. I
believe that true democracy and a progressive society can only exist with active citizens who take responsibility
instead of waiting for a leader to take
action. Because of this growing interest
in civil society, my academic advisor recommended that I apply for a Community Development and Planning Masters at Clark University. I applied to the
program as a scholarship student and
got accepted. Based on the experience
and education, I wanted to be a part of
the CIP office at RC.
gettable because there was a serious
flood in the city when we were there.
In addition to the flood, the electricity
was cut, so we could not use our phones.
Despite all of these, our students completed their project and had a lot of fun.
I remember them playing the game
“vampire” at nights with candlelight. I
was happy to see that the group was able
to entertain themselves without phone,
computers, and Internet.
GK: Each and every project is very
precious but the one that is unforgettable for me is the CIP we did for worker
families’ children in Amasya. It was unforgettable because those children were
forced by their families to pick onions
in the full glare of the sun. Nevertheless,
they attended the project with great excitement and desire. They painted on the
floors in a gloomy environment, while
bugs were wandering around. Even in a
week, we were able to witness the differences in their behaviors. Our students from Robert College did a great
job working with them as well.
BC: There are a vast number of community projects done in Turkey. What
GK: It was a great fit to my life philosophy and my nature as a person. I want
to do as much as I can for humanity.
BC: What are some of the challenges of being a CIP adviser / consultant?
İŞ: It requires good time management.
You should be able to divide your time
into project management and content
generation.
GK: A couple of them were getting
the chance to understand numerous
conditions of life and being able to witness students gaining awareness of the
community of which they are a part.
BC: What was the most unforgettable community projects you were involved in? What made them unforgettable?
İŞ: Arhavi CIP was the most unfor-
Güler Karabatur and Izzet Sengel
FAREWELL
do you think makes the projects that
are done by RC students special?
İŞ: I guess the planning aspect makes
them special. We are trying to improve
our plans by a curriculum that we are
currently working on. Also, the fact that
community involvement projects help
RC students to involve with the communities that they live in makes what
we do special.
GK: CIP is a win-win situation; our
students at RC can serve the community on different fields and this provides
them a great experience. They learn the
world by experiencing it; they get to
learn about different places and cultures,
thus making a difference in their lives.
BC: What is the most interesting
student activity that you have ever
seen in a CIP?
İŞ: I believe it is the football game between RC students and professional vi-
sually impaired soccer players. At that
game our students were able to empathize, since they blindfolded themselves
during the game.
GK: I can’t say one is better than the
other; each of them is useful and necessary.
BC: If you had the chance, which
place would you want to do a project
in?
İŞ: I would want to do a project in one
of the remote villages and with nomad
communities.
GK: Since the creation of the CIP
program, the office work has been very
useful both for my life and my job as a
teacher. Aside from my working environment, I enjoyed the projects I have
done and I worked happily. In short,
each step of the CIPs is a new experience and enjoyment.
BC: What do you think was the most
valuable lesson that you learned from
your CIP experiences?
İŞ: This question reminded me a lot of
the motto of a magazine called Magma.
It says, “The one who wants to know
takes the road.” So, I want to say “The
one who wants to know interacts with
it.”
GK: The key to happiness is to be serving and being involved in life.
BC: What are you going to miss
about RC?
İŞ: Many things… Students, friends,
and the gorgeous campus.
GK: Working at RC is one of the most
important colors in my palette. I always
worked here willingly and passionately. “People can say they live, if they love
the work they do.” Here, I can say I have
lived.
PAGE
17
BC: What are your plans after you
leave RC?
İŞ: I am moving to UK this summer
and planning to work at an educational institution.
GK: I will continue to be involved and
serve society.
BC: What is your last advice to RC
students?
İŞ: Go after your dreams! RC provides many opportunities for you to
learn from the people who inspire your
dreams!
GK: “Make happy, be happy!” “Love
what you do.” “Don’t say you don’t have
time, always improve on your interests.”
Bosphorus Chronicle thanks İzzet
Şengel and Güler Karabatur for answering our questions and wishes them
a very happy life after RC!
Farewell to Mr. Mathew Rose
FEATURES EDITOR
For the last two years, Lise 10-English
and Art, Society and Literature classes flourished due to Mr. Mathew Rose’s
teaching skills: His limitless knowledge
of everything, we really mean everything, and his “photographic” memory
inspired many of his students to challenge themselves. But unfortunately, he
will be leaving Robert College to discover different parts of the world, this
time Qatar. The Bosphorus Chronicle would like to share with our readers
Mr. Rose’s German, French and Latin
expressions, as well as his love for Aristotle, which will not be forgotten by his
fellow students and faculty members.
BC: What are your plans after Robert College?
I am leaving RC to teach L10 and
AP English Literature at the DeBakey
School in Doha, Qatar.
BC: What are some of the most
memorable memories for you at RC?
What did you enjoy most in RC?
The most memorable moments from
my time at RC all involve my students
showing themselves to be of the highest caliber both as students and young
people of character. While walking
through campus with my children, I’ve
often had former students ask if I wanted help carrying bags. I’ve had students
exceed my wildest aspirations for their
work in performances whose videos I’ll
treasure. RC is most enjoyable to me
for those interactions with students
who received my passion for literature and came to love Shakespeare and
Atwood as much as I do. RC is most
memorable to me as being that place
where, in the classroom, I was lucky
enough to find some students who actively believe that it is cool to be smart
and to be curious about everything.
BC: What are you going to miss the
most about Robert College?
Outside of some colleagues who have
grown to be friends, the one thing I will
surely miss is the opportunity to interact with students who are trying to
learn how to take their talents and serve
the world.
one finds the occasional student who
is so brilliant as to defy understanding. The brilliant aspect of RC is that is
provides an environment for those students in which their genius finds refuge
and is accepted as a good thing.
BC: Would you consider coming
back to İstanbul in the future?
For holiday, certainly. To live, possibly.
It would depend upon current events
and where life ultimately leads. I will
surely miss the architecture, the Bosphorus views, and the amazing food.
BC:What do you think about the
RC student profile?
Every class is filled with very bright
students. RC students work harder than any group of students I’ve ever
seen. Within some classes, however,
Mathew Rose
Farewell to Mr.Ron Miller
course interesting, as I was often learning new things along with my students.
By Mehmet İslamoğlu
BC: What are your plans for your life
after RC?
STAFF WRITER
Next year, I will teach math at Frankfurt International School. I also plan
on giving lots of hugs to my wife, my
daughter, and my cats.
Mr. Miller joined the RC Community
two years ago as a math teacher. Unfortunately, at the end of this year, he will
be headed to Frankfurt International
School. Bosphorus Chronicle had the
opportunity to interview him for the
last time and talk about his memories
of RC.
If you ever had him as your math
teacher, you would probably know what
a nice person he is. He quietly spread
knowledge and love to his students, colleagues and especially to the cats, which
he described as the one of the things he
would miss the most about RC. Along
with these, he also loved the friendliness and the warmth of Turkish people,
playing Ultimate Frisbee after school
and taking walks along the Bosphorous.
I told him not to worry, since there are
many Turkish people in Germany, he
will probably find plenty of warmth and
friendliness there as well.
In his two years in RC, Mr. Miller’s
most interesting experience was the
BC: How would you describe your
experience with Turkish students?
Discrete Mathematics Class - Courtesy of Irmak Pakis
Discrete Mathematics course, in which
he also learned new things alongside
his students. In addition to the Discrete Mathematics course, Mr. Miller taught Prep and 9th grade Math in
RC. In all of these courses, he really
enjoyed teaching Math to the RC students, whom he described as: “some of
the nicest, kindest, smartest students
that I have ever taught.” Unfortunately, in contrast to these students there
were many other students, “who would
rather talk than pay attention in class”
who gave a hard time to Mr. Miller.
Although Mr. Miller is leaving the RC
community at the end of this term, he
will never be forgotten. We have nothing but good memories left from his
two-years-stay in RC and he will surely
be missed, especially by the cats.
BC: What were the most interesting
experiences you had in RC?
I found the Discrete Mathematics
At Robert College, I had some of the
nicest, kindest, smartest students that I
have ever taught. But one of my least
favorite parts of the last two years was
dealing with the many students who
would rather talk than pay attention in
class.
BC: What are the things you think
you will miss about Istanbul and Turkey? What will you miss the most
about RC?
I will miss the warmth and friendliness of the people in Turkey. I will miss
walking along the Bosphorus. I will
miss my students and colleagues, playing Ultimate after school, and the RC
cats that sit on my lap (sheds a single
tear).
PAGE
18
FAREWELL
A Tribute and Farewell to Ms. Andrea Holck
By Ceyhun Elmacıoğlu & Ilgın Sezer
& Doruk G. Aktepe (Lise Preps)
As you’ve read from the title, this will
be an article in honor of Ms. Holck.
But you don’t know her? People refer to her as “The beautiful one.” Got
it? Cool. So I don’t want to start with
what Ms. (soon to be Mrs.) Holck
isn’t. Like her (not) being a human
and an ordinary teacher, or the average friend.
Ms. Holck is American, if you didn’t
know, but after college and only 3-4
months of teaching, she left America
and has never taught there, nor had a
proper home until now, a proper home
being a permanent house or apartment that was hers to crash in and call
home when she returned to the U.S.
She went for the real deal.
She is, from our interviews with
her close friends, “Free, eclectic and
a health fanatic,” and, she has been a
vegetarian for more than half her life.
She is also a traveller; she has taught
in various countries, including Croatia and Ecuador. She even has a lot of
teacher friends who are in many parts
of the world. And now, she is going
back to her homeland, the U.S, and
specifically to the beautiful San Francisco, for love. Crazy what love can
do, right? She will be teaching English to 6th and 7th grades in Hillbrook
School. And seeing their website, it
seems like a nice place, so it is nice to
know she will be in good hands.
A quick note on Hillbrook School.
It is a school where new ideas are always being tested. When we first got
this information, we immediately said,
“That school would be Ms. Holck if
it were to be a person,” and Mr. Leiter, her very close friend, said that she
loves trying new ideas and influenced
him herself to try new things. For example, Mr. Leiter is trying out being
a vegetarian!
From the interviews we made with
her and her close friends, and also our
own experiences with her, Ms. Holck
has a unique personality. As Mr. Leiter, her partner in teaching, says, she is
“interested in everything” and “rebellious in teaching”. She is also influential as we mentioned above. But what
type of a teacher she is?
There is no clear way to define Ms.
Holck, the way she teaches, and we
don’t want to get stuck with stereotypes anyway. She teaches with great
enthusiasm, although sometimes she
gets sad, but there is no lesson without her gorgeous smile. She loves
what she is teaching and us, her students, and that’s probably why her lessons are mostly interesting and make
us think outside the box. She always
encourages us to speak up for ourselves, to share our opinions in class,
and eventually get more prepared for
life itself, not only for the ninth grade.
She is also very critical when it comes
to our work, something that we may
whine about now, but in the future we
all know that her “critical feedback” is
going to take us somewhere.
However, Ms. Holck is more than a
really cool teacher; she is also a pretty cool person. Mr. Leiter defines her
as “one of the coolest people I’ve ever
met.” That is mainly because she has
travelled to many places and has interests in many things. A conversation with her about anything can be
enjoyable. She is adventurous, she enjoys trying new things, tries to write
her own novel and she is free-spirited.
She is also very interested in how to
be more mindful and teaches us how
to be mindful, too. Being with her is
like eating chocolate all day long. Not
exaggerating, it hurts to call her a human being because she is much too
perfect for that.
Honestly, we are all a little bit upset about her quite surprising departure; even she thought she would stay
longer in Turkey. But nobody really knows what life will bring them,
right? We will definitely miss her, the
best-looking blonde teacher in school,
the nearly inhumanly healthy person,
and the coolest teacher ever. I mean,
come on, she is a teacher who is super friendly, and you can get into deep
conversations with her immediately.
Ms. Holck and Her Prep Students
(Facebook)
We wish her the very best luck in
Hillbrook School, and hope she will
be very happy and come to visit us one
day.
A Farewell to Celeste Pierson
By Zeynep Nehir Türkarslan
& Özsü Rişvanoğlu
STAFF WRITERS
Did you know that Ms. Pierson has
been in the Studio Art Program, grading the AP Studio Art exam for 20
years now? Or did you know that she’ll
be moving to Tel Aviv, Israel next year?
Read on to find out more...
BC: After studying in the US, did
you live anywhere else, or did you
come to Turkey right afterwards?
I came here straight after America.
I was a college professor for 26 years
in Miami and I raised 3 children. I
worked really hard and when my children were grown after college, I divorced. I knew Mr. Baykal Rollins and
Mr. Downs from the AP Studio Art
reading. I got an e-mail one day asking if I wanted to move to Turkey, if
I would consider applying for the job.
So I thought about it and said, “Yeah!
I think I’d like to do that.” Because my
children were grown up and graduated
from college, I was free, I didn’t have
any responsibilities and so I could do
something I never thought I would do.
BC: Is your work here more slowpaced than your work back in Miami,
considering it’s a high school instead
of a college?
It’s very different. I don’t know about
slow-paced but it’s interesting. First
of all, I taught a variety of students. I
taught at a special school for creative
and performing arts, which means they
had to audition to get into the school.
It was college level but I also had one
high school class because there was a
high school component to that special program. So I always taught 11s
and 12s, as well as college and adults.
So I would teach from age 16 and up,
to people who were older than me. So
it was always really interesting. I think
that I worked at a very high level there,
whereas here, for me, it’s more beginning level art; not many people go to
Art School from Robert College.
BC: Actually, there are a lot of people who want to, but are not going to.
Which is a shame, huh? It’s a shame
because there’s so much opportunity
in the arts. So I don’t think it’s much
slower-paced here, just very different.
Back there I only taught 3 classes. But
I got to really spend time in the studio
and I was expected to be a practising
artist, which was part of the job.
BC: So you’ve had your work in exhibitions as well.
Yes, I’ve been in many many different shows. But people here don’t really know that about me because I didn’t
really talk about it very much. When I
started working there in 1996, it wasn’t
known as the center for art in America, but I watched the city grow. It grew
with me. They have Art Basel there
now every year. It’s huge for art now.
BC: Did you always want to teach or
did it come up later?
I did. I made a conscious decision
when I got out of art school and I
got my MFA, my Master of Fine
Arts, which is the terminal degree for
art. When I graduated, I was working as a practising artist for a gallery
and I would do big paintings. It became a product. People would come in
and say “Oh, could you make one that
looks like that? The color of my couch
or a color that fits my kitchen furniture...” And I said “No! I don’t want to
do this.” I was so frustrated. And I’ve
always wanted to teach. I said I wanted to teach so I could make the art that
I wanted to make. I’ve never regretted
this decision. I love teaching. I really
love teaching. I feel like I’ve touched
so many people. I really do feel good
about what I’ve given to the world in
general. It’s really a great thing to do. I
never studied to be a teacher. I did my
Master’s in Fine Arts, but I really love
teaching. But now I feel like I’m getting kind of old to be teaching. I’ll be
retiring in about two more years. I’m
going to Israel for two years.
BC: We heard that you’re going to a
top school in Tel Aviv. Will you tell
us about it?
I guess I am! It’s called the Walworth Barbour American International School. It’s north of Tel Aviv, about
half an hour.
BC: Why did you decide on Tel
Aviv?
I never thought I would go to Israel.
I started thinking, since I am close to
retiring, if I wanted to go some place
else in the world, that now’s the time.
Because if I get to be 60, I’ll never get
a job. Too many places… They don’t
want to hire someone who’s going to
leave right away. And because I loved
my experience here at Robert College, it’s been an incredible cultural expansion, with the language and everything, just the way that people think
is different… So I thought maybe I’ll
go to Asia. So I started looking into
Japan, Korea and Indonesia. I’m looking at these jobs and none of them are
AP schools; most of them are IB. But
I have no IB experience. So this school
in Israel called me and said “We are an
AP school and we are really interested in having you come.” I hadn’t even
applied for that job. So I went there to
visit in November and it looked like
a good place, so I thought maybe I
should take advantage of them wanting me.
BC: Were you always focused on ceramics during the 4 years you’ve been
here?
No, actually. Printmaking, book making and AP Studio Art was always
what I taught, more 2D, but I really love ceramics. I had taken a lot of
workshops and I had taught it over the
years a number of different times so I
had a lot of experience teaching it. It
just wasn’t the top thing that I taught.
So I said, “Sure that’ll be great.” We
didn’t have a kiln here when I started. We had a really old one that didn’t
even work so the Parent Association
was really kind and got us a new kiln.
BC: Can you tell us about book
making?
There is a whole field of art and that’s
actually what I taught in Miami. I implemented the entire curriculum for
FAREWELL
she’s fine and she gets out and she’s so
friendly she wags her tail and she’s all
fluffy. She looks beautiful, I’d just had
her groomed. She’s all fluffy and pretty and here I am coming from Miami and I had my hair done and I have
this big white fluffy dog and I have my
sunglasses on and I walked out and
Mr. Baykal Rollins says “there she is”
“there she is” and I felt like a movie
star. Because I have all this luggage
with a bellman and I’ve got a big dog
and I’m walking. Then we got into the
car and it was 3.5 hours from the airport to the school. The worst traffic I
have ever seen in Istanbul since I’ve
moved here.
BC: Where did you meet Mr. Baykal
Rollins?
Özsu, Ms. Pierson and Z. Nehir
book making. There is a wide range of
people now, who call themselves book
artists and they either work with found
books. They take a book and change
it creatively or some people actually
make sculptural artwork that refers to
a book form. So if you look up online
for ‘artist books’ you’ll see all different
kinds of work. I used to teach everything from just technically binding a
book and here I’ve actually taught a
book making club: we’ve made handmade sketch books. That’s always really fun to do.
BC: Do you have any memories that
you would like to share?
There are just so many memories.
Really, it’s been so great because even
though we live in a big city, it’s like a
really small village here when you live
on campus. Very insular and kind of
closed, and that’s both good and bad.
You know it’s good because you feel
like you really are part of a family and
people have been so kind. I brought
my dog with me. Her name is Nelly and she’s amazing. She is a golden
doodle and she came with me on the
plane in a cage because she is so big.
I can tell you that story. This is a fun-
ny story.
When I came here, it’s a long journey on the airplane through Germany
and it maybe took 22 hours and I have
my dog in the bottom of the plane and
I was so worried about her. I was soo
worried. I’d given her a little bit of a
tranquilizer and I knew she slept a lot
of the way but still I was worried. And
then when I got to Istanbul, I don’t
speak the language, I don’t even know
how to say ‘dog’. I wasn’t even thinking, I was so stupid in retrospect. And
so finally I found someone in the airport.
Two hours I’ve waited and no dog
came out. I don’t know where to go to
pick up my dog. I’m worried by now,
it’s been 30 hours that she’s been in
this cage. So I find a bellman and he
knew a little bit of English so I said
“dooog” “doog” and he knew that word.
Finally they bring her out and Mr.
Baykal Rollins is waiting for me outside in the airport and they are worried. Because every other person that
came in around the same time has already left. He’s waiting for me with a
driver and they are going to bring me
to school and so finally I get her and
I met him at the AP reading and I
still see him every year there even
though he left here. We still work together.
BC: Where did he go?
He went to a school in Connecticut
and the AP Readings are in Utah. I
don’t know if that’s a good story or not.
I mean I think that something that I’ll
always remember about the school,
that I’ll always bring with me is just
the companionship with the other
teachers. Especially the ones who live
on campus. Mr. Downs and his family
every week have a fish grill on Thursday nights, so we grill fish and everybody brings food. It’s just so nice, it’s
like a family.
And now I actually do it with the
preps. I don’t know what they call it.
Once a month… It’s really nice because I got to know a small group of
the residential preps and they are just
so nice. It’s nice to get to know them,
too.
Also another really wonderful thing
that I experienced in Turkey was: I
went on this CIP out past Kars to a
little village called Yukarı Çırıklı. And
it was on the boarder. Almost on the
border of Armenia and Iran. It was incredible. And I took 12 students with
Shakespeare on the Green - Courtesy of Merril Hope-Brown
PAGE
19
my husband and we helped them. We
went to a very, very important place in
Europe and world for world migration. And scientists were there from
all over the world. And there were bird
banders so they had all these nets up
and they would catch the wild birds as
they were migrating through the area
and they would weigh them and they
would measure them and keep careful records and then they would put a
little band on their feet so when they
came through the next year they would
catch them again and they could monitor the migration patterns of all the
birds. It was amazing. And we stayed in
the village with a lady named Zeynep,
in her house and it was snowing and
muddy. It was spring break and it was
still snowing out there. In Kars there
was even a blizzard. We had to go up
over the mountains in a little dolmuş
bus but it was just incredible. It was
something I would never have done by
myself, just like the students. I think
they would never have done it.
BC: How did you find out about the
place?
One of the students had gone to this
place in the summer before to volunteer because she very much liked bird
watching. So she knew about it and set
up the CIP. We also went to Ani. It’s
an ancient city on the border of Armenia and it was this gorge with a river
and this ancient city. You should find
out about it because it’s really important for Turkish history. It goes back
before the Byzantines and it’s still an
important archeological site. And we
also went to İshak Paşa Palace on the
border of Iran. So when I really think
of my time here, that just stands out
because first of all, we all did something we wouldn’t have a chance to do
otherwise, and we really pushed past
our comfort zones and learnt so much.
It was great.
We thank Ms. Pierson for this interview, for her time and for the 4 years
she helped art grow in this school.
PAGE
20
SENIORS
From Teachers...
By Şükran Başarır
Sevgili RC’16,
Benim RC’07 ve RC’11den sonra
üçüncü sevgili çocuğumsunuz siz!
Hazırlık haliniz hala gözümün önünde;
öyle küçüktünüz ki odamdaki minderlere sınıf olarak sığışırdınız ve sınıfta
kalmak yerine odama gelip rehberlik
dersi yapardık. Sırayla sizlerle bireysel
görüşme yapar, sizinle ilişki kurmaya
çalışırdım. Bazılarınızı konuşturmakta
zorlanır bazılarınızı ise susturamazdım!
O meşhur LP10 sınıfının (kızlar kuzu
kuzuydu da o erkekler yok muydu o
erkekler - onlar kendilerini çok iyi bilir) tüm sene boyunca odamı nasıl altüst ettiğini asla unutmayacağım,
öyle hareketli bir sınıf bir daha da gelir mi bilemiyorum. Hazırlık senesi gereği bazılarınızla, “yatılılık” veya
“ama ben İngilizce anlamıyorum, ödevleri bile anlamıyorum” konulu, bol
gözyaşlı ve “ben niye geldim ki bu okula” isyanlarıyla dolu görüşmeler tüm
günümü kaplardı. Yatakhanedeki oda
meseleleri sıklıkla “ben üşüyorum, camı
açmasınlar”, “ben uyumak istiyorum,
gürültü yapmasınlar”, vs. konulu olurdu
hatırlarsanız...
Derken 9. sınıfa başladınız. O yaz epey
büyüdünüz, sızlanmalarınızın konusu
tam değişmişti ki birden benim ikizlerim geliverdi ve bu sefer ben hiç istemeyerek sizleri bırakıp gitmek durumunda kaldım. Sizi burada büyütmenin
keyfi bambaşkaydı benim için ve hele ki
By İzzet Dodurgalı
2015-2016 Mezunlarına Veda...
Sevgili öğrencilerim, zaman bir su
misali hızla akıp geçti. Robert Lisesi
eğitim öğretim yıllarınız bakın ne çabuk geçti ve yılın sonuna geldiniz. İlk
cümleye başlamak için zorlanıyorum,
kolay değil beş yılımı geçirdiğim sizlere
veda duygusu yüreğimi burkuyor. Galiba hayat da böyle bir şey; başlangıçlar
umutlu, mutlu ayrılıklar ise hüzünlü…
Her sabah gün doğarken kalkmak, birbiri ardına gelen yazılılara
hazırlanmak ve ödevler ne de zor geliyordu. Bir bitse de kurtulsak derdiniz. İşte bitiyor. Ama biten yalnız okul
değil içinizden de bir şeyler bitiyor.
Sanki alıştığınız ve her an yaşadığınız
bir şeyler bitiyor. Evet, mezun oluyorsunuz. Lise hayatı denen o beş yıllık
güzel zamanın bitişine şahitlik ediyoruz. Gitmek! Ne acımasız bir kelimedir. Söylemesi zor gibi görünüyor
ama birkaç kere tekrarlayınca alışıyor
insan, o kadar da zor değil. Gitmek,
gidebilmek… Uzaktan sevmek de sevilmek de gerektiği yerde ağlamasını
bilmek de hepsi öğretildi size burada. İnanıyorum ki, sizler, erdemleriyle, yetenekleriyle, başarılarıyla bir
bütün olarak anılacak bir kuşağın en
genç temsilcilerisiniz. Ülkemiz sizin
başarılarınızla çağdaş uygarlık çizgisini sürdürecek, dahası onu da aşacaktır.
Ülkemizin sizin başarılarınızdan sevinç
ve gurur duyacağından kuşkumuz yoktur. Yaşanan sorunlar ne olursa olsun,
9. sınıf başında size bırakmamış olmak
için inanın bebek zamanlamamın farklı
olmasını dilerdim; ancak hayat her zaman planlanamıyor tabii. O dönem gittim diye bana küsenler oldu (onlar kendilerini çok iyi bilir ki bir tanesi hala,
12.sınıfta bile bana sitem etmeye devam
etmektedir!), ama sonradan biraz zor da
olsa toparladık neyse ki. Ben evde bebek pışpışlarken siz burada büyüdünüz
büyüdünüz büyüdünüz… O dönem
bazılarınızla yazışmaya devam ettik,
bazılarınız da beni ve bebekleri evimde
(ve hatta çocuk parkında!) ziyarete
geldiniz. Ama 9. ve 10. sınıfınıza eşlik
edememiş oldum ne yazık ki.
11.sınıf olduğunuzda dönebildim ancak okula ve bu iki senelik arada ne kadar büyümüş olduğunuza inanamadım.
Hızlı hızlı ve büyük ve içten bir merakla kaçırdığım zamanları telafi etmeye çalıştım biliyorsunuz. Nasıl
olduğunuzdan, nasıl hissettiğinizden
daha önemli bir şey yoktu benim için
ve çoğunuzun anlatacak uzun hikayeleri vardı bana. 11. sınıf nasıl geçti
anlamadım bile.
Geldik bu seneye,12.sınıfa. Panomda bazılarınızın o şahane kepli resimleri bana gülümserken, ben bir yandan
gideceğinize inanamıyor, bir yandan
bana söz verip hala o kepli resimlerini getirmemiş olanların peşinden
koşuyorum (onlar da kendilerini çok iyi
bilir!). Bazılarınız hala o hazırlıkta üzerinde oturduğunuz minderleri özlemekte biliyorum… Tabii kim bilir minderler mi o özlenen, yoksa hazırlığın o naif
çocuksuluğu mu.
Artık konularımız çok farklı; siz
topluma ve kendinize güvenmeli, ülkemizin daha iyi bir düzeye gelebilmesi için sizlere ve sizlerin çabalarına çok
gereksinim duyulduğunun bilincinde
olmalısınız.
Hayatınızın belki de en toz pembe beş yılının sonunda veda ediyorsunuz. Bizleri unutmayın çünkü bizler
sizleriunutmayacağız. Sizlere artık “sevgili mezunlarımız” diyebilirim herhalde,
beş yıllık bir eğitimin sonunda bir üst
eğitime veya iş hayatına uğurluyorum
sizleri. Eminim buraya dönük çok
farklı anılarla ayrılıyor ve çok karmaşık
duygular içerisinde kendinizi bulunuyorsunuz. Her türlü haylazlıklarınız,
çalışmamalarınız, çocuksu tavırlarınız,
üzmeleriniz, hatta kızdırmalarınıza
Our One and Only Sükran Abla
büyüdünüz, eskilerin dediği gibi dertleriniz de çeşitlendi ve büyüdü. Odamdaki gözyaşları artık hazırlığın çocuksu meselerden çok uzak. Hayatı
paylaşıyoruz burada sizinle. Neler neler konuşmuyoruz ki… Çok ama çok
teşekkür ederim bana güveninize, o
eşsiz sevginize, sarılmalarınıza, tüm
paylaştıklarınıza. Ailemdensiniz artık
çoğunuz, biliyorsunuz. Gece yarılarına
kadar kabullerinizi bekledim; YGS saatlerinde aklım da kalbim de sizlerdeydi. Gidiyorsunuz tamam ama, nereye gittiğiniz de çok önemli benim
için. Hep ama hep yanınızda olma-
ya çalıştım, iyi olmanızı istedim; biliyorsunuz. “Burda olman bana iyi geliyor, rahatlıyorum” demenizden daha
kıymetli bir şey yok benim için işimde,
bunu bilin. Hep iyi olun istedim burada, ve sonrasında da iyi olun istiyorum, mutlu olun; siz hayata açık olun ki
hayat da sizlere karşı cömert olsun. Siz
nerede olursanız olun, ben hep Şükran
ablanız olmaya devam edeceğim.
rağmen ben sizleri çok sevdim ve hep
seveceğim. Bazılarınızı kızdırmış veya
istemeden üzmüş olabilirim belki; ama
hiç kötü düşünmedim…
da işinize yarayacak, başarılı olmanızı,
mutlu ve huzurlu olmanızı sağlayacak
bilgiler ve alışkanlıklar kazandırmaya
bir evlat şefkati ve hassasiyeti ile
yaklaşmaya çalıştım.
Sizleri mezun ettiğimiz binlerce
mezunlarımızın arasına yollarken sizler de bizi ve okulunuzu unutmayınız
olmaz mı? Hayatın bu yeni aşamasında
okul yılları bir tatlı anı olarak kalırken
asıl zorlu ve bütünlemesi olmayan hayat sınavında sizlere başarılar diliyorum.
İleriki yıllarda yine karşılaştığımızda
sizleri başarılı bir iş adamı, güzel işler
başarmış bireyler, mutlu ve huzurlu
yaşam süren insanlar olarak görmenin
gururu bize yeter de artar bile. Sizlere
bazen baba veya abi gibi olmaya ve
gideceğiniz o uzun ve zor hayat yolun-
Çok sevgiyle, ve en içten iyi dileklerimle…
Şükran Abla’nız.
Sevgili gençler, herkesin bir hedefi
olmalı. Hayatınızın sonunda nerede
olacağınızı bilmek istiyorsanız nereye gittiğinizi bilmek zorundasınız.
Umarım bu nedenle kendinize doğru
hedefler belirlediniz. Hedefe ulaşmada
size yolunuzu, aldığınız eğitim, iradeniz, azim ve kararlılığınız gösterecektir.
Önünüze belki bir sürü engel çıkacak,
bocalayacak, zorlanacak, tökezleyecek
fakat asla yılmayacaksınız. Başarılı olmak adına dikilecek, dik duracak,
engelleri bir bir aşacak başarılı, mutlu
ve özlemini çektiğiniz güzel bir yaşam
süreceksiniz. Söylemeye gerek yok herhalde.
Sevgili öğrencilerim, sözlerimi bitirirken sizlerden son bir isteğim
Robert Kolej’i bir kitaba benzetmeniz; gözlerinizi kapayın, yavaş ve anlayarak, hiçbir satırı atlamadan çevirin
sayfaları, okuyun… Kitap bittiği zaman hayatınızın ne kadar değiştiğini ve
ufkunuzun ne kadar genişlediğini fark
edeceksiniz... En içten duygularımla,
başarı yolunuzun açık olmasını diliyorum. Her şey gönlünüzce olsun.
Sizlere bana yaşattığınız sevgi, onur,
vefa duygusu ve anılarıma kattığınız
değerler için teşekkür ediyorum. Benden yana hakkım varsa hepinize helal olsun. Sizlerin bende hakkı varsa
hakkınızı helal edin…
Izzet Dodurgalı
İzzet Dodurgalı.
SENIORS
By Philip Gee
“The Seniors Section.” How grand it
sounds, how honoured to be asked to
write “about you for you”.
I taught 44 of you, we suffered together.
But we also danced together (Oguz)
and laughed together.
I met Ezel from another planet, the
charming Aybuke, the quiet Peri, the
noisy Ruzgar, the humorous Ege, the
running man Can, the genius twins,
Kutay and Baris. All in Modern Novel.
And in another MN class, the fabulous Ferhat, Sercan the man with a
smile, Doganay my hero, Ece the wonderful letter writer, Ozum with the
smile that solved every problem, Oyku
the ice hockey star, Remin who talked
only because Ece made her (every lesson).
And in L10-7 the cool, calm Anil,
the Bull Armagan who nearly gored
me but who ended up laughing at my
dancing, and Baris Ö. whose brilliance
bedazzled me, and Buse the charmer,
and Busra the lovely leader of the M
group, and Ezgi the master persuader,
diplomat, and rhetoric genius (we contributors got “slightly more votes than
others”), my favourite Fatma Nur, and
Sema and Seyma who always made me
feel great, and Berk K who made me
smile every time he spoke to me, and
Ipek of photograph fame smiling down
on me now as I type, and Emre the
hard shelled Cancerian, and Melis who
never stopped sparkling, and the one
and only Mirac, the King of Gentleman, and Oguz who sent me mad but
who encouraged my dancing skills, and
Onur E the politest young man and expert on Hitler, and the fantastic Ram
Umut, and last but not least Miss Supercool Yesim. I already mentioned the
awesomely brilliant Kutay.
PAGE
fairs, or Mert’s limericks, or Oguz C’s
unbelievable statements, or Oktay’s
worries and humour, or Onur I’s worldly gentleness. If only.
If only I could re-live the pain and pure
pleasure of Lal, the constant chirping of
Ruzgar, the pure warmth of Oyku, the
glinting eyes and smiles of Sercan, the
directness and honesty of Uguralp, the
beautiful gentleness of Yagmur. If only.
But Ezgi only allows me 400 words,
and that’s all I’ve got.
Philip Gee.
And L 10-8.
If only I had words to describe Alara’s
greatness, or Can’s magnificence, or
Deniz’s eccentricity, or Elize’s smiles
(and scowls), or Ilknur’s infectious
laughter. If only.
If only I had time to tell of Irem’s
scintillations, or Sarp’s acting skills, or
Magali’s delightful nature, or Safa’s af-
Philip Gee
By Engin Yetkin
By Önder Kaya
Aşkın ömrü kısadır derler, aşık olmayanlardan duyarız daha çok... Ama aşk
bitti... Tayt giyen erkekleri, feminist
kadınları, postmodern haykırışları, platin omurgalarıyla ayrıldılar. RC 16’nın
arkasında bıraktığı renkli-bohem hint
kumaşı, haleflerine bol gelmez umarım,
dar gelirse tayt yapmaları mümkündür.
Ülkede yozlaşmanın mesnevisinin
yazıldığı dönemde dar, ucuz, çapsız
tartışmalara girmediler, eğilmeden
mücadele ettiler, yaşayarak yol gösterdiler, geleceğin ütobik bir toplumunun küçük bir modelini kurdular, adeta Paris Komününü yeniden yarattılar,
sıradakilere de zengin bir kültür hazinesi bıraktılar. Mizansenlerini beyaz
perdeye aktaracak bir Inarritu olmaması
ise tek eksikleriydi...
Beklenmedik anlarda aklımıza gelerek
yaşamaya devam edecekler, gelecekte ve
gönüllerde…
Engin Yetkin.
By Aydemir Doğan
Unutulur mu?
Fırat Kar’la olan hukukumuz, Şafak
ve Derin’in sinema birikimi, Melis
Şingin’in twitter’dan takip edebilme
ihtimali, Açıkgöz’ün açıkgözlülüğü,
Elhan’ın ürkekliği, Büşra’nın Afyon
özlemi, Ege Ersü’nün laiklik sunumu, Sarp’ın edebî gücü, Ayhan’ın Hint
aksanı, Onur’un kıvırcığı, Eylül’ün
sıcaklığı, Mert Hızlı’nın içtenliği,
Mehmet Can’ın yakasını ilikleyişi,
Şimşek ve ekibi, Kaan “dönbeşikçi”,
Serdar’ın hapşırığı, İlayda’nın teatral
gücü, Kaan Cemil ve Ceren’in dansı,
Bora’nın “kıyıcı”lığı, Yardımcı’nın devasa yazısı, Barış Özakar’ın Robert’e kayıt
macerası, Ezel’in “uyanış”ı, İdil Naz’ın
kıvrak figürleri, Seyfettin’in Almancası,
21
Engin Yetkin
Önder Kaya
Çarşambanın gelişi Perşembe’den belli
olur derler. Bu jenerasyonun gayet nitelikli olacağı da 11. Sınıftan belli idi. Ancak 9. sınıfta “Kavram Bilgisi” dersine
giren hocalar bu süreci daha da eskilere
kadar götürüyor (ben giremediğim için
onların yalancısıyım). Sizleri tanımak
ayrı bir keyifti. Sosyal Bilimlere ilgili, ülke ve dünya gündemine duyarlı bu
grubun sadece öğretmeni değil zaman
zaman öğrencisi de oldum ve bundan
da büyük keyif aldım. Sizin gelişiminizi
gözlemlemek apayrı bir mutluluktu.
Umarım eskilerin dediği gibi “çorbada benim de bir parça tuzum olmuştur.
Sizler bende her daim yaşayacak güzel anılar bıraktınız. Ben de yüreğinizin
bir yanına dokuanbildiysem, belleğinize
küçük bir kakı yaptıysam ne mutlu bana (Çok mütevazi kelimeler seçtim sanırım. Ne olsuysa artık? Sanırım
akşam mahmurluğu... Hepinizi çok seviyorum. Yolunuzun ve bahtınızı açık
olması dileğiyle ….
Önder Kaya.
Narod’un reveransı, Melisa’nın “Hocaaaam!” serzenişleri, Ege Erten’in çiğ
köfteleri, Miraç’ın Princeton’ı seçmeyişi,
Alâra Altıntaş’ın tebessümü, Alpay’ın
çalımları, İnci’nin şaşkınlığı, Oktay
Şen’in iştahı, Oğuz Ceylan’ın bilgisayar
tutkusu, Akdere’nin ciddiyeti(!), Can
Gübür’ün muhabbeti, Rüzgâr’ın Türkçe
danışmanlığı, Billûr Eda’nın selamı,
Barış’ın soyadı, Pınar Tercanlıoğlu’nun
“Hâşim”i, Deniz Bozdağ’ın çalışkanlığı,
Sema’nın sessizliği, Armağan’ın taklit gücü, Uğuralp’in mahcubiyeti, Doruk’un telaşı, Lâl’in olgunluğu,
Doğukan’ın solo performansı, Meriç’in
elleri-kolları, Ekici’nin “Oblomov”luğu
ve gecikmeleri...
Unutmak mümkün mü?
Sevgiyle kalın, hoşça kalın!
Aydemir Doğan.
Aydemir Dogan
PAGE
22
SENIORS
By Eda Yurdakul Önen
“ Yazmasam deli olacaktım.”
Sait Faik Abasıyanık
Adalardan bir ada, Sait Faik’in
Burgazada’sı... Bir tekneye dağılmış
öğrenciler ve yanlarında bir avuç
öğretmen... Herkes sakin, yorgun, uzak,
belki biraz kaygılı. Güneş bir varım diyor, bir yokum. Kararsız. Havada Bulut, teknede bulut... Sonra kulaklara
çalınmaya başlayan ilk Türkçe Pop
parçaları ve yavaş yavaş bu ilginç sözlü
parçalarla hareketlenmeye başlayan bir
koca dönem. Hep bir ağızdan söylenen
o şarkılar ve zıp zıp zıplayan öğrencilerle
beraber kol kola, omuz omuza biz…
Kendimi fark ediyorum o an ve diğer
tüm tanıdık gözleri, o şimdiden, daha
mezun olmadan birbirini özlemiş gözleri. Ne güzel diyorum dönem olmak,
beraber zıplayabilmek, gülebilmek,
şarkılar söyleyebilmek, coşabilmek...
İskeleye yanaşan tekneden, kendini o
bir güzel ada gününe bırakan bir güzel
dönem. Bisiklete binenler, bisikletten
düşenler, faytonlara koşanlar, ada turu
atanlar, kahvelerinde keyif yapanlar,
yiyenler içenler, gülenler, coşanlar…
Hep beraber koca bir gün çocuk olanlar, çocuk olmayı özleyenler, hep çocuk
kalacak olanlar… Ne güzel diyorum,
damağımda vişneli milföy tadı, aklımda
Sait Faik öyküleri, yanımda bir koca
dönem, güzel diyorum, ne güzel…
Yazmasaymış, nasıl deli olacakmışız...
Eda Yurdakul
Eda Yurdakul Önen.
By Koray Demirkapı
İki yokuş ortası taş bina…
Bu binanın sakinlerinin kalpleri, bina
gibi taştan değildir aslında.Yeşilin
sarmaladığı dar yollardan buraya
ulaştığınızda, kor gibi kalpler selamlar
sizi... Sevgiyle, heyecanla köpürüp, bazen lav olup akarlar Arnavutköy sahiline, dumana boğarak boğaziçini...
Kadim bir grubu vardır bu binanın…
En eskilerdir onlar, her şeyi bilenlerdir... “Onikiler” derler onlara... Bu taş
dünyanın sırlarına vakıftırlar… En
kuytular onlardan sorulur, görülmezi
görür, duyulmazı duyarlar.. Binanın en
dolambaçlı yollarından, binbir numaralar ile sıyrılanlardır..
Koray Abi
By Mehmet Uysal
Güzide 2016 Mezunları,
Robert Kolej’de geçirdiğiniz beş yıl
içinde hepinizle aynı sınıfta olamadım
ama sınıf ziyaretlerimde, koridorlarda
hep her birinizle göz göze, gönül gönüleydim. Burgaz gezimizde Sait Faik’in
dünyasında insanlık hallerini paylaştık
, bazılarınızla Sait Faik’in arkadaşını
tanıdık ve heyecanla Sait Faik’i yaşadık
arkadaşının anılarında ayak üstü . Güzide şubem 12-2 ile kantinde “ Simitle
Çay” öyküsünü okuduk, simitlerimizi
yiyip çaylarımızı yudumlarken…
2016 mezunları olarak sizler, coşkusu
yüksek, sorgulayan, “hak bildiği yolda” tek başına da olsa yürümeye devam
eden; ülkemizin geleceği için güven
veren gençler oldunuz. Hem akademik
başarıyı yakaladınız hem de ders dışı
çalışmaları başarıyla yürüttünüz. En zor
yılınızda bile coşkunuzdan, olumlu ve
yapıcı tavrınızdan asla ödün vermediniz. Gelecekte de her nerede olursanız
olun, kendiniz için, ülkeniz ve insanlık
için özgürlükten, barıştan ve insani
değerlerden yana tavır almak vicdani borcunuzdur. Her birinizi “ fikri hür,
irfanı hür ve vicdanı hür” gençler olarak
görmek en büyük dileğimdir.
Yolunuz ve bahtınız açık olsun. Sevgilerimle,
Mehmet Uysal.
Mehmet Uysal (Center)
En çok onlar sorar, sorulmazı
soranlardır… Geleceğe bakar bir yüzleri hep, gözlerini kırpmadan hem
de..Dünyanın binbir hali , yağmur gibi
yağarken üstlerine , onlar sırılsıklam
olsa da, dimdik duranlardır…
Şarkıları
ve
rolleri
severler..
Yüreklerinin derininden gelen sesleri, “aşkla”, taş binanın tavanına
asanlardır… Küçük yüreklerini sahnede deve dönüştürürken, özde hep aynı
kalanlardır..
Yaratırlarken geleceği, aynı zamanda geleneğe de sarılanlardır.. On metre çaplı bir taş çemberde, bir olimpiyat sporunu, kan ter içinde yapanlardır..
Bir kere sevdi mi, hep seven, şekle
değil, derine bakabilenlerdir..Affetmeyi ve hoş görüyü de bilip, halden
anlayanlardır..
Bu “onikiler” çok sevilenlerdir..
Taş binanın her santiminde izlerini
bırakmışlardır.... İsteseler de,zorlasalar
da gi-de-me-ye-cek olanlardır..
İki yokuş ortası taş bina,
Bu binanın
aslında..
“Onikileri” CAN’dır
Koray Abi’niz.
By Carolyn Callaghan
Dear Robert College Class of 2016,
You are about to enter what we
adults smugly like to refer to as “the
real world,” and it is competitive. But
you already knew that; how else would
you have made it to RC in the first
place? While at RC you’ve probably
made it your goal to distinguish yourself as president of some club or captain of some team, or you’ve earned a
slew of trophies for sports or debate or
music or art or literary competition, or
you’ve created an app that revolutionizes something or other. And now you’ve
been accepted to a university whose
name begins with H or Y or P or O or
C. Or B or K. Congratulations.
And, if none of that describes you, no
worries. Because respectfully, and I say
And Our Beloved Advisor Carolyn Callaghan
this with love in my heart, no matter
how distinguished you’ve become, it is The world is filled with smart people,
time to get over yourself. You are head- but the world has far too few compased to yet another great school where sionate smart people. If you doubt this,
everyone seems as talented as you, as take a look at the current headlines.
smart as you, and has won the same Respectfully, I suggest that in this next
awards. Yikes. You’ll have to distin- stage of your journey you focus on deguish yourself all over again. How ex- veloping your heart along with your
brain. The combination will set you
hausting.
apart from the crowd, and it will enrich
Yet there is a way to distinguish your- your life as it enriches the lives of othself that does not pit you against your ers. Just think of the possibilities.
peers but instead grants you a sense of
With compassion,
community and real purpose. Try adding compassion to your list of talents.
Carolyn Callaghan.
SENIORS
PAGE
23
Painting Metaphors
By Tayfun Gür
A great many things can fit inside 350
m² but moderation is not one of them.
Several dozen people worked for over
a week to draw and paint the banner that will be hanging from Gould
Hall on the day we leave. Many barrels of (mostly blue) paint were used
up and many different interpretations
of İbrahim Tatlıses’s “Mavi Mavi” were
sung by the time it was all done. I think
I would speak for everyone to thank
Erol Kulaoğlu and all the other wonderful people for being at the forefront of
all the organizational efforts even when
they had LYS just around the corner.
One of the first things I remember
learning here is the concept of metaphors, back when we had Güler Kamer
as our Turkish literature teacher in Prep.
I remember Philippe Noiret’s immortal
rendition of Pablo Neruda explaining to
the Postman in front of a steady stream
of blue Mediterranean waves that there
was no such thing as a metaphor that is
created unwittingly.
You don’t always know what you are
in the best mood or mind set to learn.
Unexpected education is an enduring
theme in this school and it finds many
forms: with Mr. Cadorette what you
thought were simply good old “numbers” can suddenly become “HinduArabic numerals”, with Önder Hoca
the obscurest details of history can
come alive in the modest confines of
Gould 4th floor, and with Deniz Abi
music can transcend its artistic function into changing your brain and decreasing crime rates. And just like how
RKANEP CIPs teach you that little
kids can be more dangerous than you’d
think, painting a banner also teaches
you things you wouldn’t have thought
to worry about before. Like how paint
thinner can actually be much cheaper
than you’d think. Or how wearing socks
doesn’t mean you are paint-proof. The
seemingly oddest details can be made
into valuable knowledge or a good story
in the right sort of hands.
I originally set out with the intention
to make a metaphor out of the Gould
Hall banner, but it seems like a redundant activity now. On the other hand,
the intricate conceptual foundations of
painting hold a mirror up to much more
than what would be expected of the act
taken at face value, and deserve some
further elaboration.
To clarify, painting is a more complicated business than one initially thinks,
and constitutes a system of balance. The
paint by itself is too thick, it is inapplicable and raw, unable to fulfill the basic
function that it was designed to fulfill,
and is often very insistent in its stubborn way of sticking indefinitely onto
whatever surface it touches. This is exactly like us, how we were before Robert
College. And then we dissolved in this
place, mixed into each other’s lives, and
it gave us the kind of liquidity and ease
of use that makes it possible to paint
something. In this way Robert College is very much like the paint thinner that refines the crude paint which
is us. And in retrospect, though at times
it made our heads spin a little and make
us say some weird things, it was an overall pleasurable experience to inhale our
share. The only major downside has
been its addictiveness and it is almost
certain that we will all feel withdrawal
symptoms once we’re off it forever in a
month or so.
We must also bear in mind though
that in every painting job there needs
to be a balance between the thinner and
the paint. The prodigal young painter will only achieve a dense and limited blob before running out of paint
while the penny-pinching despot who
puts too much thinner in will end up
not getting any real colour through. The
person who has the bottle of thinner in
their hand can often fall into a vertigo of power, wanting to put more and
more of it into the paint, unable to resist the tantalizing sweetness of its smell
as the whitish liquid mixes into the different shades of the colour being used.
Courtesy of Yasemin Kiriscioglu
That is why it’s best to paint in groups,
with every person providing a check on
the next, so that the innocent act of utilizing paint thinner doesn’t turn out to
be chaotic and unpleasant and carried
away by the authoritarian tendencies or
personal taste of a single person.
It is equally important to use the different varieties of paint effectively, since
however much thinner you put in, you
cannot make purple out of blue paint
alone; you need to mix it with the red.
So although the thinner is eventually
required in some stage or another, the
paint makes for the essence of the banner’s content, the thinner is there really just to keep things from falling apart.
So, it is possible to find a metaphor in
anything, even where one isn’t initially
intended. In the end the intention simply seems irrelevant as long as a meaning is attributed to something, since
the consumers of the metaphor are the
ones making the association to begin
with. So if on the 17th of May you look
Robert Güzel Ama Ingiliççe - Courtesy of Yasemin Kiriscioglu
carefully enough up at Gould Hall, you
might think that what you see is simply a very large banner with a paint job
somewhat imperfectly done. Or, if you
so choose, you will see (quite literally)
the footsteps of RC ’16 spanning the
blue sky as they make their final leave.
Special note:
More people started this journey than
are ending it now: Let us commemorate our friends Yasemin Cöbek, Erencan Aydoğan and Anıl Kütle who were
all victims of the LP-7 curse.
Also I would kindly like to invite this
newspaper’s editor Muhammed Miraç
Süzgün to settle our differences once
and for all at the 100 meters race that
will be held for the Youth and Sports
Day, with the hopes that he will be out
of tricks this time.
PAGE
24
SENIORS
From RC’16 Students:
situation – after all, he knew how I’d
been performing. I left the club on that
day.
By Veli Barış Haybeli
Five years ago, back in my prep year,
I was a part of the flag football team.
During my short tenure as part of
the RC Bobcats, I could’ve been easily considered the worst player on the
team. I couldn’t pass the ball properly.
I couldn’t give it a spin. I was a belowaverage runner and was even worse at
getting hold of other people’s flags. I
played many matches but failed to intercept a single ball. As a lineman, I was
easily knocked down by other players
who were twice my size. I attended the
club nevertheless, but it almost never
provided any satisfaction to me.
I would’ve loved to say that I eventually improved a lot, won the national championship and was named the
MVP of the tournament. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I remained
mostly stagnant over the course of my
short-lived flag football career.
By Melis Şingin
Senior year passes so quickly that you
don’t even realize. It is the best but also
the most heart breaking year at Robert College. After senior year, students make for college and are scattered around the world. This summer
is the only summer that students don’t
have anything to worry about like SAT,
ACT, AP, LYS and YGS. Here is some
advice for both the current and upcoming seniors for getting the most out of
their summer:
1) Plan a trip to Europe with your
friends from RC. Start by picking a city
that all of your friends want to see. Invite other people from the school who
may be interested. A trip to Europe is
a chance for you to get to know more
people in your grade. Don’t go there
only with your best friends. The more
crowded the group is, the better. It is a
way to maintain the senior spirit.
After picking the city and inviting
people who you aren’t that close with,
buy your plane tickets and arrange a
hotel or a house. Airbnb is a perfect
website for finding the right house with
By Nazlı Güngör
Looking at the five years that I spent
in RC, one thing that stands out among
the classes, extracurricular activities is
the time I spent in the dorm.
I still remember the first night I spent
in the dorm. A group of six or seven
people gathered in our room and maybe we spent the whole night talking
about how school would be and how
we would survive here for five years. It
is still unbelievable that those five years,
which seemed like at least ten on our
first day at school, passed very quickly. Even though these five years passed
very quickly, we had enough time for
great memories, especially in the dorm.
Baris Heybeli
Five Years Ago...
One day, towards the end of the year, I
finally accepted that flag football wasn’t
the right thing for me. That day, I approached Mr. Becker and said that I’d
be leaving the club. He understood my
the great location. It also offers houses
that are half the cost of a regular hotel.
Staying in a big house with your friends
will create a more sincere environment.
Make a list of museums, restaurants,
parks, shopping malls and historical
buildings that you want to visit. Buying
a tourist guide book helps.
When you go there, make sure you
take lots of pictures with your friends.
Still, I believed that I’d somehow
make a good “flag football strategist.”
(I’d always thought I was better on
the theoretical side than the practical
side.) On the same day, I asked Mr. B if
I could start coaching the club alongside him. The answer wasn’t positive at
that time – but now, five years later, in
my senior year, Mr. B revived this almost forgotten memory by bringing up
the topic again. “Perhaps you were fit
for that position, after all,” he told me
in an e-mail he sent me a few months
ago. The memory came back – and so
did a few tears. All of a sudden, I realized that it had been five years since my
official entry to this school.
Five huge, heavy, packed years. Looking back, I realize that I’ve fulfilled
most things (and more!) one would expect from a high school student.
I’ve failed exams.
I’ve tasted detentions quite a few
times.
I’ve illegally hung posters around the
school.
(Needless to say, they were dealt
with.)
I’ve won awards.
I’ve published poems.
I’ve travelled with my friends to distant lands.
I’ve seen and felt love.
I’ve felt that we were all together in
this.
I’ve felt solidarity.
And here I am, graduating five years
after my enrollment – and thirty years
after my mother’s own RC graduation
in 1986. I’m grateful to her, I’m grateful to this school and I’m grateful to my
classmates and teachers. It’s a feeling
that is indescribable and one that will
stretch for time immemorial.
I’ve felt disappointed about myself.
4) Go to Büyükada with a crowded
group of people from RC. Rent a bicycle and tour around the island. Go to a
restaurant on the shore and eat fish. After dinner, make sure you eat a waffle.
5) Go to Cappadocia with your friends
from RC. Invite your parents. They will
miss you especially if you are planning
to study abroad. This trip will be a per-
fect opportunity for you to spend time
with your parents and friends. Search
tours online for Cappadocia. Etstur
and Jollytur usually offer great tours.
They take you not only to Cappadocia
but also to Lake Tuz, Haji Bektash Veli
Complex and many other places. Rent
a hot air balloon in Cappadocia and enjoy the view.
2) Plan an Interrail trip. Interrail is for
people who like to live more spontaneously. If you would like to travel across
Europe in a month or less, interrail is
the right choice for you. Plan your interrail trip on www.interrail.eu. Decide
on the cities that you want to see with
your friends. Don’t bring a suitcase because it will be too difficult to carry
with you. Buy a big backpack for your
clothes. During the trip, make sure you
get some sleep. Otherwise, you will get
tired so quickly that you won’t have the
energy to carry on.
3) Go to the historical peninsula or
other historical places/buildings in Istanbul. Tell your friends to come with
you. Search the historical place/building online before you go there. Hire a
tour guide. Tour guides are usually very
affordable and informative.
Over the years, my dorm mates have
become my second family. I know I
always have a shoulder to cry on and
friendly face that will make me feel better. We study together, we celebrate the
end of every exam week together, and
we tell each other about our dreams and
what matters most in the world to ourselves. I realized how easy was to create
this sisterhood. You have to put thirty girls together and soon they’ll create
it together, banishing silence with conversations between beds at 3AM and
forging rituals that make everyone feel
part of the same special, nameless club.
There are countless things that can
make Robert College special to everyone, but for me and I hope for most of
the residential students, this sisterhood
is the most important.
Robert College Class of 2016
By Deniz Keleş & Şule Kahraman
“Dişi” Bobcats
Who let the Bobcats?
Who? Who? Who? Who?
Go Lady Bobcats!
Go! Go! Go! Go!
Having witnessed the establishment
of the RC Girls’ soccer team by Ms.
Seed with a few girls only, we have
been proud of its great expansion and
journey to become The Lady Bobcats.
Seven coaches have come and gone in
five years: Ms. Seed, Olivencia, Jesse
(the blonde), Mr. Morse, MSG, Kahle, Livesay.
From Gateway to British International, MEF to Üsküdar, we have seen
many great rivalries.
There have been 14-0 losses as well
as key victories, clever saves and goal
queens (*wink* Esra *wink*). We suffered through challenging trainings in
By Ayhan Okçal
After five years of experiencing Robert College, I believe it becomes harder
to believe that this adventure is coming to an end. Of course, every part of
your growing up process is important
in shaping your personality; however,
the high school environment you belong to is the most crucial stage. Robert College presents us with, when
compared to other high schools, endless opportunities to pursue our interests. But while you are trying to get
the best out of RC, you should try to
maintain a good balance of everything
to ensure the smooth running of everything.
The first part of this balance is of
course your academic interests. RC
not only has one of the most rigorous
academic curricula in the world, but it
also makes available a very wide range
of electives. Of course, most of you will
try to take advanced courses, trying to
push yourself to the limit and achieve
high GPA’s with hard lessons. RC is
SENIORS
PAGE
25
deathly cold and pouring rain, didn’t
mind playing alongside Beşiktaş development teams or horse farms and tractors. We endured the dreaded plank
circles with the motivation of having
six-packs and turned them into a tradition. We have been to so many endless
journeys: IICS, Koç, Portugal… There
were many surprises (like the addition
of a new member to our big international family) and tears. We have said
many welcomes and farewells.
These were all the things that made us
The Lady Bobcats.
Now, we are onto new journeys. Once
again, it is time to say goodbye, cherish
the amazing friends and memories we
have gained and, long story short, deal
with all the emotional stuff.
But that doesn’t mean we are not going to harass you from Whatsapp, spam
you with emojis and boost your confidence by recalling old memories.
Yes, we’re going now but we’ll never
leave the Lady Bobcats family.
Thank you for being part of this dream
team.
Go Lady Bobcats!
able to provide us, students, with the
means to make this possible; however, during your high school life, I believe it’s very important to test yourself
in different fields – by taking electives
from different departments. You might
find that you don’t like physics or biology; or you might also find you are
really into something you didn’t think
of before - such as music or photography. By taking different lessons, you
will also be able to meet new teachers
and new friends.
I personally believe that the most
important aspect of your life at RC is
the extracurricular. Everyone has the
chance to find something suitable to
himself/herself here; whether you’re
interested in music, sports, history, debating or politics, you’ll both be able to
find people who have the same interests and also join a club to further pursue these. Your interests, your hobbies
and the activities you do to improve
yourself without any monetary or academic return is what’s going to make
you a better human being. For example, I was very lucky to join and made
my closest friends in this school in the
MUN club.
Lady BobCats
Courtesy of Deniz Keles
My advice for you to try new clubs,
make new friends and make sure you
do something you enjoy rather than
doing it for the CV. CIP’s are also a
great way to see parts of Turkey you’d
otherwise never visit, make new friends
and interact with many little and relatively poor local kids. It’s a very different experience and I assure you that
it’ll teach you a lot that class lessons
cannot.
The final part of this balance is your
personal well-being. Although we
spend a lot of time studying and enjoy doing CIP’s and clubs, everything
might be a little too overwhelming at
times, especially in May. When this
is coupled with the general stress of
your friends and peers, you might find
yourself struggling in an abyss. While
there are no certain formulas to overcome this, as a senior who also experienced these overwhelming periods, I
have some advice for you.
First of all, try to create yourself an
environment where you study most efficiently. You might learn more in an
hour of intense studying than in five
hours of studying/messaging/talking with someone. You might consider
turning your phone and computer off
as well. This will both save you time,
and also will help you avoid the “I
studied for five hours and I still don’t
know anything” syndrome.
My second piece of advice is to make
sure you take a break from everything
every once in a while. A day spent
at home doing nothing but sleeping
might be able to recharge all your batteries. You don’t need to study everyday – if you study efficiently.
L9-1 (2013-2014) - Courtesy of Ezgi Yazıcı
Lastly, be aware that every friend
group might be too much – especially
at times where everyone is stressed out
by exams. We all have that friend(s)
that studies for hours, tries to get 99 in
everything, makes us see ourselves as
lazy or inadequate, and stresses us out.
That is definitely not the case. Don’t be
afraid to take a step back from your social circles to give yourself a break every once in a while; and don’t worry,
Selfie with Oktay Sen
you won’t be excluded from anything
or be seen as “antisocial.” Also, there
are around 200 other people in your
class, you might form new friendships
in these times of stress.
With the balance of these three aspects, you should be able to do just
fine. While I’m ending my words, I
would like to remind you to enjoy every second of RC because when you
are close to the end and look back at
the times you spent, you’ll realize that
you don’t recognize the value of the
time you spent inside this beautiful
campus. And you’ll regret it.
Courtesy of Ezgi Yazıcı
PAGE
26
SENIORS
By Eren Uman
During the final days of school, it is
pretty standard for a senior to get overly-nostalgic and give long speeches to
his younger friends about how to be
successful at RC. Although such a formula for success does not exist, I believe that these pieces of advice are
quite important. Given the opportunity to reach all BC readers, I will not
suppress my “senior” impulse to provide my insight and will share with you
as much as I can. Yet, since I am in no
position to present myself as an exemplar of success, I will try and give you
a couple of tips on what I know best:
enjoying every bit of Robert College!
Tried and tested.
For me, the utmost prerequisite for
establishing a happy mood in an environment is to appreciate the community that that environment houses. Of course we have our fantastic
friends and teachers; they are the ones
we interact with the most of the day.
However, we often do not realize that
the Robert College community involves more than just our teachers and
us. Over the past five years, I’ve had
the chance to meet the amazing people in the IT Department, the Theatre
Crew, the Security and ISS offices as
well as those in the Electric Shop and
the Cafeteria. Today I consider myself
lucky that I witnessed Metin Ferhatoglu’s inexhaustible care and attention,
Kenan Kara and Kenan Muştu’s unparalleled sense of humor and sincerity, Müge Tüylüoğlu’s uplifting energy,
Murat Demir’s ability to undertake every possible physical endeavor in campus, and Şakir Kırmızı’s everlasting
smile and politeness which I believe is
the actual reason why our campus remains safe. Frankly, if I didn’t get to
know these valuable people and hear
the stories of many others such as Engin Abi, an ISS staff from three years
ago who was a bankrupt jeweler and
taught himself how to play the piano
in the Faculty Parlor when he started
working in Robert College, and Ahmet Abi, the very embodiment of the
“Karadeniz Spirit” who called everyone
he loved “ugly” just to avoid “nazar”,
and also Songül Abla from the canteen,
who is married to a tattoo artist and is
the most talented actress on campus,
I would not consider my Robert College experience complete. So, my first
suggestion to you is that if you want
to take the most out of RC, do not be
afraid of connecting with these people.
I assure you, there is so much they can
teach you.
My second suggestion will be more of
a senior type. Even though I know how
trite it is to say this, I would like to remind you that your time in RC is pretty limited and that you will never know
exactly what you will encounter in the
subsequent years. So, if you really want
to enjoy your time here, you do not
have the luxury to postpone your aspirations. If you want to sing, you should
audition immediately. If you want to
start a football team, regardless of your
class, you should start moving now. Because, I am quite confident that if you
do not act on what you wish to do at
RC, you might never have the time
to do so again. For my part, I was extremely lucky that I found my passion,
organizing RCIMUN, very early in my
RC journey. I cannot even begin to describe how extraordinary it feels to experience the realization of something
that you loved and worked for and have
met your favorite people ever along the
very same process. I sincerely wish that
all of you will feel the same way when
you graduate and see how satisfying a
high school experience can be.
By following the two suggestions I
just shared with you, I’ve managed to
enjoy this school to the maximum. (Of
course, having the most entertaining
friends and inspiring teachers contributed majorly to this fact.) I hope that
you appreciate my suggestions and decide to adopt parts of them in your
own style. As RC’16 is about leave very
soon, I finally would like to everyone
who contributed in making this journey both fruitful and a lot of fun and
wish all RC classes the best.
SENIORS
PAGE
27
QUICK FACTS
ABOUT RC
1989:
Three news buildings, which were
named for Feyyaz Berker (RC’46), Nejat Eczacıbasi (RC’32) and Suna Kirac
(ACG’60), were founded.
1971:
The “Yüksek Okul” officially ended.
BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE
MAY 2016 ISSUE
1992:
The “Orta” is moved from Bingham Hall to Woods Hall.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Senior Editors’ Epilogue:
Discovering the New and the Unknown
the better. Our first issue this year was
published with a black cover dedicated
to “Those who lost their lives in recent
attacks of terrorism.” We had the full
support of admin, especially the Turkish headmistress Nilhan Çetinyamaç.
Handing out that December 2015 issue
around the campus, BC staff was proud
to be able to voice their thoughts on a
pressing issue. We were, too.
By M. Miraç Süzgün & Ezgi Yazıcı
SENIOR EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
Thank you. We simply would like to
thank the school community, alumni and, of course, our dedicated staff
for making the school newspaper Bosphorus Chronicle fully-fledged and
much more inclusive and colorful for
our readers. After spending four beautiful years on the Bosphorus Chronicle, we cannot say a goodbye but only
express our gratitude for our first step
in the world of journalism. The paper
has had a profound effect on our high
school lives and broadened our vision in
many ways. From writing to editing articles, from designing pages to communicating with publishers, we have found
ourselves in every step of the work. Our
greatest gratitude is simply for that
amazing journey.
The journey is, indeed, a challenging
one. It starts from trying to find (and
getting lost in) Woods Hall on the
first day of Prep Year, when the prospect of the following five years seem
very tough, even daunting. Then the
Orientation Day, first Lise Live, Prep
Irish Dance, first lab report, first Finals Week along with sleep deprivation, then a fast-paced 10th grade with
friends and beloved Geography, then
AP exams and SATs in junior year....
The moment of realization occurs
when one becomes a “senior”. Then all
the “firsts” are replaced by the bittersweet “lasts”: the last fall on campus full
of red and orange leaves, the last exam,
the last time waking up at 6 a.m., and
the last goodbye. And when the last
wisterias bloom your senior year, you,
like all before you, will realize that time
does fly.
And time brings change. In the past
five years, Robert College and Bosphorus Chronicle have seen many novelties
and changes. Our Class of 2016 was the
first class included in the student-laptop
program - we were politely alienated as
the “tech generation” by older classes.
Now, every student walks around with
a laptop. We switched from 40-minute
classes to 80-minute ones. Final exams
of spring 2013 became optional, marking a historcic point when RC’15 never took the legendary Geography final.
We have seen two Turkish headmistresses and three Foreign Headmasters
in the past five years. We bid farewell
to some of the longest serving members
After that, we have published articles about the terror attacks in Europe,
feminism and the gender spectrum in
school. We are hopeful about the evolving relationship between the administration and students in terms of voicing
opinions and communicating transparently. Yet, there are many miles to go
and many important topics to cover
both at RC and the outside world, and
we hope that Bosphorus Chronicle will
continue to be the medium for students
to share their ideas and opinions with
the school community in this course.
Farewell RC’16,
Farewell Robert College,
And farewell Bosphorus Chronicle.
in RC Community like Dave Phillips,
Charlotte Şamlı, Tulû Derbi. We witnessed the complete renovation of the
school library and the Bubble becoming Karamancı Student Center (aka
Bubbleteria).
In Bosphorus Chronicle, we started publishing full color issues. We
aimed to focus the newspaper on more
school-oriented topics and events. The
paper adopted a completely new design. We included diverse subjects like
music, food, technology, and even math
and science sections. And finally, with
this issue, we are opening a “Seniors
Section,” dedicated to this year’s seniors: RC’16. To us and to our friends.
Faculty chosen by RC’16 and volunteer
students have written for and about this
year’s graduating class and their RC experience. We hope this will remain as a
loving memory for RC’16, offer the senior perspective to younger members of
the RC community, and start a meaningful tradition.
More than anything, “change” became
the definition of our high school years.
One of the future changes we are
hopeful about is the school administration’s slow but positive change on its
influence on school papers. In the past
years, we have had to remove parts of
interviews and articles, and have been
unable to publish a few entire articles
due to the request of the administration. We even said an early goodbye to
a thriving satire magazine at RC called
“The Satirist”.
Nevertheless, things are changing for
As our time at Robert College and
with Bosphorus Chronicle has finally
reached an end, as a tradition we kindly offer a few suggestions for younger
classes in their ongoing journey among
their books, friends and hectic courses.
Don’t be shy. Discover the new and
the unknown. Discover your surroundings, your community, but most importantly discover your personality and
your thoughts.
Try to learn the names of people
working in school administration, faculty and ISS. (For a wonderful article
about this, refer to our Senior writer
Eren Uman.)
Get on the stage! Either by holding
the flag during a ceremony or by singing in front of an audience of five hundred, live your minutes of fame at least
once.
Listen to one of the myths about
Robert College. For instance, talk to
Mr. Colin Edmonds and Mr. Önder
Kaya about the mysterious tunnels beneath the campus and the legend of the
Maze.
Leaf through the yearbooks in the library to find interesting facts about
Robert College history.
Be open to discussing and defending
your ideas, yet never forget the presence
of diverse and different opinions. Hear
them out.
Benefit from the Community Involvement Projects (CIP) Office as
much as you can. Participate in projects
outside Istanbul to get out of your com-
MUSIC
issuu.com/BosphorusChronicle
ON
MONDAYS.
——
facebook.com/BosphorusChronicle
FACULTY
PARLOR.
——
twitter.com/RCBosphorus
11.50-13.20.
fort zone.
Don’t be afraid to do something
strange or unusual in your high school
life. This can be counting the number
of doors on campus or investigating the
birthday paradox by asking your friends
their birthdays.
Take a good photograph with your
friends under purple wisteria in front of
Gould Hall - a selfie is preferable.
Attend as many school activities as
possible, and try not to miss any Lise
Live events, as well as the orchestra
concerts. As you might have already
noticed, Robert College has an incredible number of talented musicians (and
dancers!)
Know that one does not have to be the
best the time. It is okay to fail sometimes. It is okay to get 59 on a Calculus BC exam. It is okay to take a different path.
After all, it is important to realize
that Robert College gathers very talented, diligent and smart kids from
all over Turkey on this beautiful campus and provides all the means and resources that enable them to accomplish
great things in the future, while promoting intellectual development, freedom of speech and diversity. And this
unique experience makes Robert College an exemplary institution in Turkey.
We are really thankful to Robert College for helping us to expand our horizons through many courses and social
activities, and we hope that we benefited enough from the unique opportunities offered to us.
Every beginning has an end, and right
now, we are ending our final chapter of the book called Robert College.
Without any doubt, we will always remember our beautiful memories at this
place, our home. Wherever we go and
whatever we do, we will not forget our
first sight of Gould Hall on our first
day, neither will we stop talking about
our friendships, misbehavior and funny jokes at this school at a homecoming twenty years from now.
We would like to thank everyone, especially our advisors (Carolyn Callaghan and Robin Carnegy) and our
committed staff again for making our
journey with Bosphorus Chronicle
phenomenal and enlightening for us.
Farewell RC Class of 2016,
Farewell Robert College,
And farewell Bosphorus Chronicle...
“There is nothing in the world
so irresistibly contagious as
laughter and good humor.”
- Charles Dickens

Bosphorus Chronicle May 2016 - Robert College

Transcription

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