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ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

 

İstanbul University 2024-current. İstanbul, Turkey

 

• Student at the Arabic Language and Literature program.

 

İstanbul Social Sciences High School (Prof Dr. Mümtaz Turhan Sosyal Bilimler Lisesi) 2022, Istanbul, Turkey.

 

• I was in the debate club for a year and had the chance to be quarter finalist in a national rockies tournament (English Parliamentary Debate System). 

• I was, as well, accepted to the Sobil Academy’s Human Sciences workshops held by academicians from all around Turkey.

• I attended 8 Model United Nations Conferences and was awarded with 5 awards in total. 

 

Nesin Mathematics Village, Anthropology camp, 2023, Şirince, İzmir, Turkey (accepted to the program with full-ride scholarship). 

 

• We discussed the fundamentals of anthropology during one week. As I learn more about how a pure race does not exist and race is used as a political tool, my horizon has expanded. During this week of learning and discussing a respectful manner, I learnt to listen and to empathize.

 

Arkhe Project, cinema 3.0: how to make cinema?, 2023, Şirince, İzmir, Turkey (accepted to the program with full-ride scholarship).

 

• During this one week, we learned about the nuances of the film industry in Turkey. It made me realize, even if it is hard, I really would like to be in that industry. Before this course I was skeptical about whether I would like to work there or not, this course cleared my mind.

 

HONORS, CERTIFICATES AND AWARDS

 

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), United States of America, %99 scholarship recipient, 2024.

Total of 206,000 out of 208,000 US Dollars: I applied to some US universities with a fine arts portfolio and was awarded with a generous scholarship which is an unusual amount that art universities provide to exceptional students. Unfortunately, I could not pursue this offer due to other financial issues.

 

• Creative Vision Award - $18,000 annually

• Presidential Scholarship - $10,000 annually

• Academic Honors Scholarship - $5,000 annually

• Thalheimer Scholarship - $10,000 annually

• Trustee Scholarship- $1,000 annually

• Deans Grant - $2,000 annually ($8,000 over four years)

• CV Starr Award - $2,500 annually ($10,000 over four years)

• MICA Work-Study - $3,000 annually ($12,000 over four years)

 

Yücel Kültür Vakfı Yabancı Dil Bursu (Foreign Language Scholarship) and Akdem B1 Fusha Arabic course (200+ in person classes focusing on listening, writing, reading and speaking, taught by 2 Native teachers), 2025: I completed this course with receiving a language scholarship from Yücel Kültür Vakfı.

 

IGCSE English As a Second Language, 2021: I got 6/9 in 10th grade.

 

Duolingo English Test, 2023: B2, 120/160.

 

Lingoda French, 2025: I completed 90+ hours of live A2 French courses with native teachers. The classrooms consisted of between 1-5 students, we communicated speaking only French during the course period.

 

YGA (Young Guru Academy), 2023: An NGO for social change. 

 

• I was selected as one of the 2000 people out of 30k applicants to be invited to the YGA Conference 2023. After the conference, I gave up on applying for the further process because I believed that some of my core perspectives differed from YGA. 

 

Kız Başına- Veri Bilimi, Sayıların Ötesinde Projesi: A national art program supported by European Union that selected approximately 45 people and provided by Kız başına which is an organization that actively works for the equality of genders in Turkey (Kız Başına’s Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/kiz_basina/ )

 

• We created art works in our own mediums using data science after the 6 days in total workshops provided by Kız Başına, Bager Akbay, Uğur Özdemir, Gözde Özaksoy, Aysunca Sanat, Gülçin Con Wright, Emine Yıldırım, Düzgün İlaslan, Dilan Dibek, Cem Sonel, Deniz Cem Önduygu, Efe Alpay, Batuhan Kırk, Ferhat Can Çoşkun, Cemile Nur Özel, Burcu Cürgül.

• Our works were exhibited in Barın Han, in Istanbul on November.

 

Project Developer/Award Winner: My project on an art game with children was awarded as second place in Istanbul Gedik University’s national Idea Competition. 

 

İKSV Alt Kat “Stop-Motion Animation Workshop,” 2022 (accepted to this program)

 

• During this 8-week-long workshops held by a professional artist and musician, I learnt the fundamentals of stop motions techniques. I had the chance to work with about 15 other students.  

 

International Group Exhibition: International Istanbul Art Youth and Children Biennial, Istanbul, 2022: attended with my installation called Las Miertas Santas consisting of a video art and an interactive collage.

 

Workshop: Recent World History with Rock n Roll, 8 weeks long workshop given by Tahsin Bilge Avcı in Okuldisi, 2019.

 

Winter School, 2021: Psychology as a Profession and in Life course given by Kadir Has University, completed with success.

 

Coursera Course: Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies for Engaging with Art given by MoMA, 2022: With the help of this course I developed my art game for children and got 2nd place in Gedik University’s Idea competition. 

 

Pre-college, Academy of Art University, Graphic Design, 2020. 

 

• With this pre-college, I learnt about the fundamentals of graphic design by reading and watching the course materials and applying them through homeworks, I realized that graphic design is not my cup of tea.

 

PROJECTS

 

Stickers of Streets (2022- 2024): https://www.instagram.com/stickersofstreets/ 

Co-founder and Ex-Instagram page admin.

 

Stickers of Streets is a local, underground sticker collective based in Istanbul, Turkey. We introduced the stickers of the artists in the Istanbul subculture and created an archive about them. In addition, we organized various events that included all artists and art lovers. 

 

Stickers of Streets was the manifestation of my love for stickers. It was a personal project where I had the chance to showcase sticker medium as an accessible medium for everyone, especially for children. While street art in general is looked down upon, I find the sticker medium as an irreplaceable material for children in terms of art education. Stickers may easily be reproduced and children can stick them on anywhere to display them anywhere. They do not need a gallery to display their works. 

 

iZbe Pirintz: (2023 august-2024)

 

iZbe was a collective, run by me, based in Istanbul that organized, reviewed and printed stuff. It self-published photozines and photobooks; organized art bazaars; and reviewed underground content from the depths of Youtube. 

 

Much as iZbe is a newly founded collective, it gained the interest and respect of many grounded concert photographers in Turkey. 

 

The book I published under iZbe “Concert Photography in Turkey: a Glance” was a collective work including 15 concert photographers and 4 essays on this topic by 4 different photographers. This project was an essential attempt for archiving concert photography in Turkey. There had not been such a publication before in Turkish literature.

 

iZbe not only focused on alternative voices from İstanbul's alternative culture, but also created podcast series on alternative culture from an academic, sociological/anthropological perspective. iZbe asked creative questions to the academicians working and studying in the related areas to its interests: urban sociology, İstanbul as a topic to be worked on in a cultural perspective, street arts and graffiti, (fan)zines as alternative media…

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