SUMMER 2021 ISSUE 58 Evin Senin Dünyan RC QUARTERLY SUMMER 2021 ISSUE 58 Dünya Senin Evin Dünyanın sanat ve tasarımla daha iyi bir yer olacağına inanıyor; sürdürülebilir bir dünya için var gücümüzle çalışıyoruz. the environmental KTSM, Kale Grubu tarafından desteklenen, disiplinlerarası paylaşımlara imkan veren üretim ve buluşma noktasıdır. Kale Tasarım ve Sanat Merkezi sustainability issue kaletasarimsanatmerkezi.org / kaletasarimvesanatmerkezi / ktsm_org tepta_robertcollege_ilan_haziran2021_195x260mm_2.pdf 1 03/06/21 10:07 C M Y CM MY CY CMY K The cover for this issue SUMMER 2021 ISSUE 58 celebrates the vast biodiversity of our campus. All photos were taken on RC grounds by faculty and students, as part of an effort to catalog the Alumni Journal published periodically by flora and fauna found the RC Institutional Advancement Office for at RC. approximately 10,000 members of the RC the environmental community: graduates, students, faculty, sustainability issue administration, parents and friends. The trees, flowers, birds, koi fish, Bosphorus beetle, and new beehives of the RC campus all bestow on the RC community a deep appreciation of and respect for nature. In this issue we delve into environmental sustainability, an urgent matter for humanity and now a strategic focus for RC. The RCQ chronicles the latest developments at school and traces the school’s history for the seeds that were sown for today. Many RC alumni are active as leaders, teachers, activists, and professionals in environmental sustainability-related areas. There is much news and In inspiration to share from them as well. this The pandemic did not slow down the RC community: RC students continue to display many accomplishments, and RC alumni have published books and received issue prestigious awards. These achievements lift the RC spirit, as the Class of 2021 begins their post-RC journey. As always, we would love to hear from you. If you have any comments or would like to share news, please write us at [email protected] Happy reading! The RCQ Team Özel Amerikan Robert Lisesi Editorial Board Design & Production Kuruçeşme Caddesi 87 Nuri Çolakoğlu RA 62 Topprint Arnavutköy - Beşiktaş / İstanbul Deniz Alphan ACG 67 Merkez Mah. Seçkin Sokak DAP Vadi Tel: (0212) 359 22 22/289 Vicky Habif ACG 71 Jr. İ Blok No: 3/1 Kağıthane / İstanbul e-mail: [email protected] Nükhet Sirman RC 72 Tel: (0212) 264 33 11 www.robcol.k12.tr Elçin Yahşi RC 79 www.topprint.com.tr Nil Sarrafoğlu RC 89 Editor-in-Chief Printing Monika Mraz, Director of Institutional Advertising Manager Umut Doğa Matbaacılık Advancement Betigül Onay Özman RC 02 Mas-sit Matbaacılar Sitesi 1. Cadde [email protected] No: 160 Yüzyıl-Bağcılar, İstanbul Editors Tel: (0212) 359 22 89 Tel: (0212) 438 02 05 Zeynep Karaarslan Başaran RC 88 Lisa Johnson Betigül Onay Özman RC 02 Burcu Berent RC 96 Mehveş Dramur RC 96 Basım Yeri ve Tarihi: İstanbul, Temmuz 2021 Yayın Türü: Süreli Yayın Periyodu: 4 Aylık Your feedback on the RCQ matters! Did you enjoy this issue? Write us at: [email protected] RC NEWS COVER STORY 4 Message from the Head of School RC Focuses on Environmental Sustainability 26 5 Rethinking the Way We Publish RC Alumni in Environmental Sustainability: Illuminating the Way 6 Class of ‘21 Flies From Home Forward 41 9 School Year Ends on a Creative Note Young Alumni Are Mentors for the Next Generation ONES TO WATCH 10 RC SEIC: Flattening Learning Hierarchies Y. Berk Manav RC 14 Breaks Fresh Ground in 11 Award Honors Female Science Student Sustainable Investment 58 Student Artists Honored at 20th Begüm Muştu L9 Soars at the International Young Researchers’ Demirkan Aşetey RC 76 Art Competition Conference 59 12 Back in RC Project Kicks Off with Cemal Kafadar RC 73 L10 Student Defne Duru Arat Wins RC Launches Core Value Awards International Poetry Contest 13 Global Initiatives Connect Students AROUND THE WORLD GIFTS Raising Awareness of the World’s Endangered Species 60 14 Class of ‘96 Establishes a New Endowed Scholarship 15 Derin Uras Environmental Fund RC REACHES OUT Charlie Hoppin Memorial Fund A Sustainable Future in Bünyan 63 16 Endowed Scholarship Established in Memory of Mehmet İsvan RC 46 BOOKS Classroom Named in Memory of Giray Ertaş RC 88 Nuri Çolakoğlu RA 62 Invites Readers to 17 Cookbook’s Third Edition Continues to Support Scholarships Follow the Footsteps of Atatürk 64 Metin Ar RA 69 Curates World’s Best Restaurants in New Book CIP Özdemir Nutku RC 50 Remembered 18 CIPs Focus on Sustainability Through Posthumous Memoir 65 Doğan Gürpınar RC 97 Explores the History of Names in Turkey GRADS IN THE NEWS Photography Book by Cem Yılmaz RC 07 20 Serap Aksoy RC 74 Elected to the Takes Readers Around the World 66 National Academy of Sciences Seda Aksoy Evren RC 95 Writes Children’s Book İzak Benbasat Honored with Order of Canada Medal Buğra Giritlioğlu RC 89 Publishes New Poetry Collection 67 21 Canan Atılgan RC 87 Heads Up Science Academy The Latest Book from Orhan Pamuk RA 70 Has a Pandemic as Ayşe Buğra ACG 70 Receives PEN Turkey Award Backdrop 22 V&A Acquires Sculpture by Elif Uras RC 90 Herkül Millas RA 61 Presented with 50th MEMORIES Orhan Kemal Novel Award The Legend of the Maze 68 23 Esra Yalçınalp RC 00 Recognized for Journalism Excellence Ali Günvar RC 72 Wins Italian Poetry Award ALUMNI NEWS 70 24 Film by Buket Yıldız RC 06 Gains International Accolades FACULTY AND FRIENDS NEWS 75 RC IN AMERICA 24 RCAAA Hosts First Fireside Chat OBITUARIES 76 4 rc news An Education That Doesn’t Cost the Planet It is easy to attribute blame to individuals controlling corporations, institutions, banks and governments. Easy, but wrong. All those people shared one common experience: an education. We must accept and understand that, if we are to redress the world’s current challenges, education henceforth needs to be redefined, renewed, and repositioned. Leading schools around the world are embracing this challenge. Turkey must not lag behind. Education has been a preparation for the workplace. Education has been an immersion in specialized academic areas. Now, an education must be something different. The education of the future must retain the best of previous models whilst also being about connection. We must connect young people to themselves. We must connect them Head of School Adam Oliver on the summit of Mt. Uludağ to each other. We must connect them to nature. Dear Friends, And we must share this And what does that world resemble, Every edition of the RCQ resonates in in 2021? Our beaches are littered journey with them. different ways. It was a great pleasure with plastic, and the current for me to read the last edition, for generation do not remember a time The work is urgent and precious. The example, which was such an inspiring when this was not normal. More than bonds that have been broken must showcase for artistic creativity. This a million species are at immediate be renewed. Young people who can edition focuses on another area that is risk of extinction; there are species no longer name trees or fish or plants particularly dear to my heart – and is that today’s young people will never or birds will never be invested in their arguably the most important challenge see. The air in our cities is noxious. protection. How could they? The of our time. Water is growing scarcer every day natural world is sometimes described as global temperatures rocket. A new as being voiceless. This is incorrect. I should like to begin with a well- pandemic has claimed millions of We are its voices. If we choose to be. known quotation from Winston lives. Each generation passes on the If we are educated to be. Churchill: “We shape our buildings; gift of the future to its children. Yet thereafter, they shape us.” Churchill’s we are close to passing on not a gift, As is often the case, visionaries among reflection on architecture might, with but a curse. the rising generation are already ahead gentle modification, be extended to of us. They have started to realize that help us consider the current state We might well enquire: How did we there is limited value in graduating of our planet: We shape our world; come to this? But it is more important from RC and the Ivy League only to thereafter, it shapes us. to ask: How do we come out of it? inherit a dust-bowl. rc news 5 They have, as a consequence, begun cost the planet: it must be delivered that change is still possible, hope is to drive their own agendas through sustainably. This is our great challenge still valid, and because education the work of individuals such as Greta – and our opportunity. Childhood remains our greatest tool. Thunberg, and youth-led movements is the formative period in our lives. such as Fridays for Future. We learn from what we see and I hope you enjoy this edition of RCQ. experience as much as what we are In the pages hereafter you will have We owe it to them to catch up. told. Therefore we must create wiser the opportunity to read about the spaces, ones that model sustainable great work we already have planned or Article 56 of the Turkish Constitution modes of living until they become in progress, and I actively encourage states that protecting nature is the our norm; until current, wasteful you to reach out to us to share your duty of all citizens. If we are to honor models are intolerable for the rising stories and support regarding any and the spirit of this wise decree, we must generations.