Darüşşafaka Students contributed to the “Hope Never Fades” book.

INTRODUCTION 
The “Hope Never Fades” book is a compilation of the 2021 & 2023 J.U.C. Awards’ first and second-place winners’ in Research and Writing submissions, the Introduction to the Media Projects, and the Overall Excellence and Special Awards.
The J.U.C. Media, Research & Writing Awards was developed and implemented by Bircan Ünver for “In Loving Memory of John Unver Culkin”, as a bi-annually program for international high school students through The Light Millennium, Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization (LMGlobal.Org, 2001, NY). It was initially introduced in NYC on January 29, 2020.
The 2023 J.U.C. Awards, along with the “Hope Never Fades” book launching event dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye. The book launching event took place at the 40th TUYAP İstanbul Book Fair in the Marmara Room (1st Floor) on Friday, November 3, 2023, from 12:00 to 13:30 PM.
The 2025 J.U.C. Awards are dedicated to the #WaterActionDecade (2018 – 2028), which is also included in the book via the “What is Next?” piece that aims to introduce the concept of 2025 to high school students at an early stage towards encouraging for submissions.

Speech by Dr. Serpil TUNÇER, Ph.D., Board Member and Head of the History and Culture Commission at Darüşşafaka Foundation

Power Point Presentation

[LMGlobal.Org] As Darüşşafaka, we pay tribute to Ms. Ünver’s efforts within the “Light Millennium” project, to encourage high school students to comprehend the issues of today’s world with a broad perspective. We wholeheartedly (readily) celebrate Ms. Ünver’s recent work, “Hope Never Fades”, to which, students of Darüşşafaka have, with empathy, contributed with their writings. 

Students of Darüşşafaka, who receive decent education by idealistically-minded teachers, are aiming at not only carrying out projects locally, but also globally proving their performance in science, art, and sports. For a graduate of Darüşşafaka, it is not sufficient to gain recognition in the field s/he works; the struggle is for rendering oneself indispensable in the field. Being from Darüşşafaka is principally defined as, “the transformation of an impoverished child at ten, with a parent loss, to a self-confident, initiative, and challenging individual, ready to design an innovative life. To supply students with a future-focused education, Darüşşafaka, one of the first civil society organizations in the education field in Türkiye, relies not on governmental grants, but on donations of volunteers; usually on brands of high standing. The most significant measure to determine the development level of a country depends on how far-reaching the  “equality of opportunity” in qualified education, is.

Since the concept of education in the second millennium, is no longer limited to classroom dialogs and cultivating industrial-economy workers,  efficient oral and written multimedia communication, access to knowledge and analytical thinking, curiosity, passion, and imagining, are the goals of today’s education. Darüşşafaka students, raised to stand with this principle, are charged with contributing to the world, as well as their country. This is why a Darüşşafaka student was rewarded by TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) for exploring the solutions and reasons why workers of vineyards suffer from Lung CA. This is why a graduate of Darüşşafaka managed to carry water in storage units, from England to Türkiye’s “6 February earthquake” regions where earthquake victims were deprived of a drop of water.  This is why Darüşşafaka students founded the first FRC Robotics Club of Türkiye and were invited to NASA Space Center, during the World Robotics Championship.

All these examples are patterns of rendering the world a liveable place, as Ms. Ünver’s words, born out of love, “ to motivate many young persons, which leave a mark forever,” because “Hope Never Fades.”

Power Point Presentation

Dr. Serpil Tunçer, Ph.D., Following her graduation from the Political Sciences Faculty, Public Relations Department of İstanbul University, Serpil Tunçer got a Master’s degree from the American Culture and Literature Department, Institute of Social Sciences at İstanbul University. Her MA Thesis was titled, “Feminine Gothic in Joyce Carol Oates’ Short Fiction”. She got her doctoral degree based on her work, titled, “PostmodernEthics: The Ethical Problematic of the Individual in Don DeLillo’s Work”. After attending the American Gothic Literature, Postmodern American Literature, and Translation classes at the Department of American Culture and Literature, İstanbul University, She lectured at the Linguistics Department of İstanbul University, having recommended for the first time, the “Ecolinguistic” classes which have provided a wide world view for students relating the vital ecological problems of the planet.
Her research fields are Sociolinguistics, Ecolinguistics, and Cultural Ecology.
Besides various articles in scientific magazines, she translated, “The European Myths of Orient” by Rana Kabbani, “The Fall of the Public Man”, by Richard Sennett, and “Matmazel Paradies”, by Brian O’Doherty, into Turkish.
She is the author of the book, “Yaşayan Mazimiz: Darüşşafaka” (Our Lively Past: Darüşşafaka).
She retired in September 2022. She is a board member at Darussafaka Society and is studying an ecolinguistic introductory book for Turkish students.

#HopeNeverFades | #JUCAwards | #DarüşşafakaSociety | #DarüşşafakaHighSchool | #Research
#Writing | #Türkiye100 | #WaterAction