Private Aegean Graduated 110 Graduates
Private Ege High School saw off its 24th term graduates with a spectacular ceremony held at Yüksel Eraslan Cultural Centre. In the 2014-2015 academic year, 110 students received their representative diplomas at the Cap Wearing and Diploma Ceremony. With an average of 98.86, Andean Kaan Ata Yılmaz, the valedictorian of the school, received his diploma from Cemil Eraslan, Chairman of the Board of Private Aegean High School. With an average of 97.64 points, Tilbe Gökçel was ranked second and Işıl Küçüka was ranked third with an average of 97.44 points.
Eraslan Foundation, which continues its activities together with Private Ege High School, did not forget successful students this year. On behalf of the Eraslan Foundation, Board Member Ebru Eraslan congratulated the students by presenting them with certificates of achievement and awards.
Addressing the graduating students and their families at the traditional Cap Wear and Diploma Ceremony, Yansı Eraslan, Founding Representative of Private Ege High School, congratulated the 24th term graduates. Eraslan stated that the consolation of such times, when humanity is going through difficult and complex paths, is the existence of schools that, although few in number, educate generations that are engaged in the real problems of our country and humanity, and addressed her students as follows
"Dear young people,
Both knowledge, which is necessary because of the speed and efficiency that our daily life expects from us, and personality and virtue, which reveal the immeasurable but true value of human beings, can only be acquired and developed through education. Perhaps the need for these two criteria - knowledge and the construction of character - is an indication that we need education and well-educated people more than at any other time in history. It is highly probable that the importance of education will continue to increase in the future.
It is not easy to say that schools and educators have not wobbled at all in this challenging period and that they are completely in control of what to do. Educational institutions are caught between the standards of quality education, which are believed to exist at a universal level, and the powers of the established order, who approach these standards in an unruly manner, sneer at them and think that the new era should be written with new rules. Even if they do not express it directly, the indirect discourses and behavioural codes of some families, which are entirely interest-oriented, do not make educators think, "Is the path we have followed so far not the right one?". Many middle class citizens, who seemingly think idealistically and romantically declare that raising people is a process that is education-oriented before teaching, have started to transform schools into centres that develop reflexes with the new rules developed by the global economic order in the last half century.
Dear Guests
According to the United Nations hunger report released last September, world hunger is decreasing, but 805 million people are still chronically undernourished. This means that one in nine people struggle with hunger. According to the United Nations Development Programme's multidimensional poverty index, 1.2 billion people live on US$ 1.25 a day or less. The fact that inequalities, especially in the field of education, remain largely unchanged is a depressing finding. Despite recent progress in reducing poverty, more than 2.2 billion people live below the poverty line, meaning that more than 15 per cent of the world's population remains vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. On the other hand, the fact that nearly 80 per cent of the world's population lacks comprehensive social security and that more than 1.5 billion people worldwide are in informal or precarious employment raises questions about the origins of the instability, security problems, violence of all kinds and unhappiness we face.
In this period, when the attention of young people is tried to be drawn to entertainment and consumption, the feelings of material possession and pleasure are emphasised, and the adults of the next generation are aimed to be busy with a highly artificial agenda. Although it is a fact that the images of violence in the written and visual media, which make us all shudder, need to be explained for multiple reasons, it is also another truth that it is the way of people who are separated from the immaculate features of their creation.
The consolation of such times, when humanity is going through difficult and complex paths, is the existence of schools that, although few in number, educate generations that are engaged in the real problems of our country and humanity. As an institution that prioritises this with all its strength, Özel Ege, like the graduates here, strives to bring our young people into society as mature leaders who are aware of these challenging times. While many of their peers think superficially and with a focus on material acquisition, as I have tried to express above, it is the greatest pride and hope of myself and my fellow educators with whom we work together that efforts have been made to ensure that our children grow up in touch with the values of this land in addition to their strong academic and scientific equipment.
Dear Guests
The data-driven thinking and statistical evaluation pioneered by Özel Ege High School in the late 1990s has become a terminology followed by many institutions today. However, as we have always emphasised, our use of statistics has never led us to believe that life is only about numbers. Charles Eugene, in his poem titled 'Life is not keeping tally'
Life is not the colour of shoes, hair, skin.
Nor is it where you live or where you went to school.
In fact, life is not grades, money, clothes, the schools you succeeded or failed to get into.
Life;
Who you love and who you hurt.
It's how you feel about yourself.
Trust, happiness, compassion.
It is to support your friends and replace hatred with love.
Life;
Overcome jealousy, learn to care and develop trust.
It's what you say and what you mean.
It is to see people as they are, not what they have.
Above all, it is choosing to use life to positively influence the lives of others.
This is what life is all about.
The weakest of men is he who cannot make a friend, and the weakest of men is he who loses a friend.
He says. On the one hand, these statements reveal that many values are indeed universal; on the other hand, they talk about values and needs that fill life, such as love, trust, happiness, compassion, friendship, rather than filling CVs with knowledge, equipment, professional formation.
Dear Young People
You are graduating from a high school whose corporate values include respecting human rights, fighting against all kinds of discrimination to the best of one's ability, respecting individual differences, accepting being beneficial to our country and humanity as a way of life, taking responsibility for one's own words and behaviour, and finally never compromising honesty regardless of the circumstances. I hope that you will try to be one of the "unsung heroes" instead of resembling the crowds who are worried about buying the next model of their mobile phones, or saving money to watch a live performance of a singer they admire, or owning the clothes of a well-known brand. Those nameless ones who contribute to a society's vision of civilisation and the production capacity it needs. They are useful, not famous. Their virtues, not their egos, make them talk about themselves.
I kiss your eyes with the hope that you will live an honourable life and leave this legacy behind you."
High School Principal Aylin Musluoğlu's speech was the last lesson for the students. Musluoğlu said that although there are individual differences and differences, the graduates of each semester have a unique personality and that the graduates of 2015 achieved various successes in international exams organised by the American Mathematicians Association and the University of Waterloo in Canada, were included in the honour lists, and received scholarships and acceptances from universities abroad, He said that the scientific projects they prepared were exhibited in various national and international competitions and received awards, that they went to the United States of America within the scope of Model United Nations studies, to Europe for Model Congress studies, to China within the scope of the exchange programme, and successfully represented our school and our country at the Global Young Leaders Conference. Stating that this group includes national champion debaters, successful players of the boys' basketball, girls' volleyball, swimming and table tennis teams, indispensable members of the school orchestra and even the best director award-winning graduates of the short film team, Musluoğlu said that he would remember the graduates of 2015 with their diligent work throughout their high school life and continued his words as follows:
"Dear 24th Term Graduates,
We are sending you off from the Private Aegean Family to the future of the country, greeting the moments when our paths crossed with farewell songs with sweet smiles and looking forward to hearing your success stories. Beyond the walls is the Turkey you know.
One out of four children is on the hunger line, ten out of every hundred families receive financial aid, one sixth of the young population is unemployed, 4 out of every hundred people read books and only 13 cities have state theatres.
Outside Turkey is a flattening world. Thomas Friedman's question 'Has our flattening world become so small and fast that we must run faster to stay in place?' is accompanied by serious threats such as climate change, diminishing resources, loss of biodiversity, famines and rising food prices, epidemics, wars, ozone depletion, pollution and destruction of life-sustaining ecosystems. And the flattening of the world in the 21st century has brought with it the popularisation of mediocrity, mediocrity and even sub-mediocrity, the devaluation of values, and has infected nations, companies, the world of work, politics, economy, art and education.
These observations have been shared with you in order to emphasise the existence of solutions that contain hope, reason, science and self-confidence and to remember the future, rather than to dampen your excitement, create despair or pessimism. At this point, I would like to quote one of the "Mr Keuner's Stories" by the German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht. Since 1994, the story I have chosen from my bedside book, which has not been published in Turkey and can currently only be found in bookshops:
"Mr Keuner and the Swell of the Sea"
Mr Keuner was walking in a valley and suddenly realised that his feet were in water. He realised that the valley he was walking in was really a strait and that the sea was about to rise. He stood still long enough to look around in the hope of finding a boat. When he saw that there was not a boat in sight, he lost this hope and attributed it to his wish that the water would not rise. When the water reached his throat, he lost this hope and started to swim. He realised that he was a boat.
Never forget that the solution is yourself, that you have plenty of tolerance, self-confidence, courage, as well as awareness of what is real and essential, road maps consisting of scientific truths and a compass that constantly points to the republican revolutions. Your success depends on where, when, how and how you will utilise all these roadmaps and what you will add to them. As an ideal of existence, with knowledge in your mind, love in your heart and your labour in your palm, I wish you to be citizens who love their homeland, fair, honest and conscientious citizens who serve their homeland on this path you set out vira bismillah, may your way be clear."
On behalf of the 2015 graduates, Mr Kaan Ata Yılmaz took the floor. He expressed his feelings as a graduate who spent his entire education life at Private Aegean. Yılmaz thanked the teachers and families for their efforts.
The ceremony ended with a cocktail for the graduates and their families in the school garden. We send off 110 students who graduated in 2015 with hope for the future and wish them all health, success and well-being.