TAC Parents Monthly Bulletin
December 2019
Values Project Rollout
TAC, a school which epitomizes “tradition” and “culture” launched the project “School Empowered by Values” last year with the support and cooperation of the SEV Foundation.
The main owners of this project are our students.
In this regard on December 11, 2019, our students, Defne Herdem, Arda Akova, Nefise Gökçeli, Barış Gelbul and Nazlıcan Satar took the lead in presenting the emphasis placed on values and what it means for TAC. The opening remarks of the assembly were presented by Mr. Rehill, the Head of School, following which our students “acted out” five core values emphasized within the project.
The students proudly talked about how their in-depth reflection on Respect and Trust, Grit and Passion, Inquisitiveness, Responsibility and Integrity within the process contributed to their understanding.
TAC Students Prepare for the Real World with Student Council Elections
The Tarsus American College Student Association is a structure designed to teach students about the democratic way of life enabling them to take part in school activities and improving their organizational skills.
The Prep Classes who started our school this year, first selected one male and one female student from each section using secret ballot and open count. The final stage of the election was to go to the Stickler Auditorium to vote for their representatives on Friday, December 13, 2019.
At the end of the secret ballot/open count voting process, Ali Kaan Milli, from Prep D, was elected for the Student Council’s Executive Board and Aysel Beste Girmen from Prep G was elected as the member of TAC Student Council by a majority of votes.
We congratulate these students and wish them all the success in their representation of the student body of TAC.
Academic Track Selection and Career Counseling
As the academic track selection period approaches for Grade 10 students, a presentation was facilitated by Caner Aydın on “Academic Track Selection and Career Counseling” for grade 10 parents. The presentation on Tuesday (December 17th) focused on the importance of academic track-career selection and the role of parents in the orientation process. Students were informed about the career inventory to be administered. After the presentation, the parents had the opportunity to ask their questions.
Turkish National Selection Conference of the 24th European Youth Parliament was held on 13-16 December 2019 at TED Kayseri College.
The European Youth Forum, held in English, is an event which brings together high school students within certain committees to discuss and reach conclusions about social, environmental and cultural problems of the European Union and to present their conclusions in a forum. Twenty five schools participated this year.
At the national selections rounds for the 24th European Youth Parliament, TAC was represented by five delegates (Defne Köroğlu-Uğur Erbay-Burçak Bozdoğan-İdil Çok-Zeynep Ece Yıldırım) who impressed the national and international jury members with their fluency in English, leadership skills and with their performance at the Euroconcert.
We congratulate the TAC students who represented TAC at the national conference. We are proud of them!
Basketball A Team
Tarsus American College Junior A League basketball team qualified for the Mersin finals after winning their games in Tarsus district eliminations with the scores of 108-34 against Tarsus MUKAL High School; 93-45 against Tarsus Şehit Niyazi Ergüven High School; and 107-74 against Tarsus Bil College. We congratulate our athletes and coach and wish them continued success in their upcoming games in Mersin.
Basketball B Team
Tarsus American College’s basketball team competes in the Junior B league. They qualified for the Mersin finals after winning their games in Tarsus’ district eliminations with the scores of 74-18 against Tarsus Sussal High School, 93-38 against Tarsus Akbal High School and 72-8 against Tarsus Mukal High School. We congratulate our athletes and coach, wishing them continued success in their upcoming games in Mersin.
Good News from the TAC Table Tennis Team
The TAC table tennis team participated in the Male Table Tennis tournament of high schools in Mersin on December 11-13, 2019. They placed seventh out of 47 teams attending. We congratulate our athletes who best represented TAC in this stiff competition.
Tenis
At the Provincial Tennis Championship held in Mersin on 17-20 December 2019, the TAC male tennis team won all the matches played in singles and doubles and became the Tournament’s Champion.
In the same tournament, our girls team placed second in their group.
The male tennis team who became Mersin champions qualified to participate in the national semi-finals to be held on 4 March 2020.
Smashing Success of the Girls Volleyball Team
At the Volleyball Tournament held in Üsküdar American Academy on 13-15 December 2019, our girls brought home the second place trophy.
In addition, our Grade 9 student Azra Güzelocak received the “Best Player” award.
We congratulate our girls on their success.
The Junior A League Volleyball Team
The Tarsus American College Volleyball team, which competed in the Junior A league, won its games in the group with scores of 2-0 against Tarsus Birey Anatolian High School and 2-0 against Tarsus Şehit Niyazi Ergüven High School, qualifying to participate in the final games in Mersin. We congratulate our athletes and coach and wish them continued success.
IB Mathematics Camp
An ”IB Mathematics Camp” was organized on December 27 for 12th grade IB students. At the Camp, which was designed in three sessions, our students worked with mathematics teachers for half a day intensively and had the opportunity to revise specific topics, solve practice questions and prepare for the IB exams.
TAC’s Mathematics Department is planning to offer a second IB Mathematics Camp in the second semester, which already saw its second year, as it is found to be very efficient by the students.
10th Grade Science Knowledge Contest at TAC
The 10th Grade Science Contest was held on Tuesday 3rd December during period five in the Stickler Auditorium and was hosted by Science teachers led by Ms. Funda Karaosmanoğlu. Each grade 10 class was represented in the contest by three students who were selected by a vote in their classrooms. The participants in the contest were:
10A Melike Naz Yılmaz, Zeynep Şahin, Mehmet Küpük
10B Nil Miray Ergin-Selin Ok- Doğa Pehlivan
10C Minez Yıldırım, Metin Mert Tutaş, Tutkunaz Arıkan
10D Mert Erdem, Ali Efe Özdemir, Zeynep Canataroğlu
10E Ömer Affan Soykök, Zeynep Eylül Tuncay, Ahmet Akif Can
10F Kaan Kıralp, Deniz Kandemir, Mustafa Safa Yücel
The participants on the stage solved questions in physics, chemistry, and biology prepared by their subject teachers, and were limited to one minute per question before being prompted for a response. The contest was attended by all grade 10 students as well as teachers and school administration. The students in the audience enthusiastically cheered on their teams through four rounds of questions, but in the end the team representing 10B were victorious.
Students on the winning and competing team were presented with certificates for their achievement.
A Journey into Leadership
Representatives of the Student Councils from each SEV American School attended the “Leadership Conference” hosted by Üsküdar American College on December 19-21, 2019, where TAC students were accompanied by Mr. Hasan Turgut, the Assistant Principal. At the conference, our students talked about the activities they lead in our school through a successful presentation. Mr. Erden Timur, a graduate of TAC, as well as other speakers experienced and successful in their respective professional fields shared their leadership experiences with the students. The students learned many valuable things during these interactive sessions. On the last day of the conference, they had a great time with the scavenger hunt game in Istanbul-Grand Bazaar and overall had the opportunity to share their experiences with students from other schools affiliated with the SEV Foundation.
Parent Interaction Meeting
A Parent Interaction Meeting on “Values” was held by the Counseling Department on 25 December. The activity which started with a brief introduction continued with interaction from parents about the importance of values on our lives and their impact on students. Parents were involved in an activity where a list of values was distributed to them for a reflection on their significance. Our parents both had fun and enjoyed the opportunity to see the similarities and differences between the values they and their children prioritize.
The New Teachers’ Lounge is Opened
The new Teachers’ Lounge, which will enable teachers to take a break between classes and prepare for their lessons, opened in Unity Hall.
Teachers’ Day Assembly
The Teachers' Day Assembly, which was prepared with the support of the Student Council under the leadership of the mathematics department, started with the opening speech of the Prep Dean, Mr. Duane Colby Criswell following the moment of silence and the National Anthem. After the screening of the videos prepared by our students for teachers, Mateo Teoman Dağcı, the president of the Student Council, presented his appreciative remarks. Then, there was a mini guessing game in which two groups of teachers and students competed. The quiz asked ten unprecedented questions about our school with each group being expected to make a guess. The game which required improvised, on-the-spot responses brought interesting facts and fun to the audience. The program ended with the presentation of gifts prepared by the Student Council and the school administration to teachers after the performance of songs by TAC Echo band with our talented teachers.
Career Day
TAC hosted another successful traditional Career Day event organized by the Counseling Department in collaboration with the TAC Alumni Association, which aims to provide our students with information about career choices, career development steps and professional areas. In this year’s event, 23 successful graduates who are leaders in their respective professional areas provided information about what their jobs entail, sharing their personal career adventures to inspire students in choosing their careers of interest. During the day, each student participated in four different career presentations selected previously in their homeroom periods, which allow them to explore areas that might be of interest to them.
The event, started with the reception which brought together the speakers, teachers and students continued with the opening ceremony and the sessions.
This year's Career Day saw the representation of the following professional areas: Journalism, International Relations-Embassy, Cardiology, Brain and Nerve Surgery, Urology, Pediatric Oncology, Pharmacy, Business-Management, Business-Logistics, Maritime Administration, Law, Banking, Civil Engineering, Software-Computer Engineering, Aircraft Engineering, Architecture, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Psychology, Event Organization, Digital Media, Restaurant Management and Human Resources.
TEDx
TEDx Tarsus American College was hosted on campus on December 7, 2019 where the organizational details were overseen by our students, Yiğit Acar and Doğa Bölükbaşı and their friends and our teacher, Ms. Lisa Jindrich.
TEDxTarsusAmericanCollege event brought to Tarsus eight inspiring and accomplished speakers from all over the Turkey and the world under the theme "Easy to Say, Hard to Accept." We congratulate our students and the organizational team for taking this successful initiative which resulted in hosting a TEDx event for the first time at TAC and wish them continued success in the future.
5th Education Forum at Tarsus American College
The event organized by TAC students, who take on academic and social development as their personal principle and who acting on the school motto "Leaders for Turkey, Leadership for the World!", and the teacher advisors of TAC European Youth Parliament Club, Ms. Özlem Özdemir and Mr. Orhan Baycık, brought TAC students together with about 200 other high school students.
Tarsus American College EYP Club successfully hosted this parliamentary session on December 20-23, 2019, for which they have been preparing intensively since the beginning of the 2019-2020 academic year, thanks to the dedicated efforts of the club members and the organizing team.
The event which featured students working under important committees including Economic Relations, Regional Development, Employment and Social Rights, Human Rights, Traffic and Transportation, Agriculture and Farmer Development, Legal Relations, Industry and Energy, Women's Rights, Culture and Education was comprised of team building, orientation, committee work and general assembly.
On the first day following the registration of guest students, the groups played various games as part of orientation activities. On the second day the opening ceremony was successfully held at the Talas Auditorium. The opening speech of the ceremony, “The Changing World” by Mr. Önder Kaplancık, a TAC 87 graduate, was well received by the audience.
On the third day, the commissions which worked intensively, addressed national and universal problems from different perspectives leading up to a presentation of their resolutions during the parliamentary union held on the last day of the conference and proposed their possible solutions to these problems. These proposals were voted on in the parliamentary union and the proposals of each commission were included in a draft booklet.
Tarsus American College Education Forum was attended by academic administrators,delegates, committee chairs and media teams from schools raising the leaders of the future including Üsküdar American College, German High School, Saint Benoit French High School, Koç School, Gaziantep Bahçeşehir College, TED Mersin College, TAKEV Samsun High School, Erciyes Anatolian High School, İçel Anatolian High School. The guests had an amazing conference experience at the Education Forum.
The conference, which TAC hosted for the fifth time, ended with the presentation of recognition plaques to the participating schools.
TAC’s Second Foreign Languages Department Proudly Presents: “Der Ringer” Concert
The concert by the German band 2Der Ringer’ hosted by TAC in cooperation with the Goethe Institute on Wednesday, December 18th, drew large attention in the school community.
After the workshops, TAC students and guest students from Tarsus Fatih Anatolian High School had a great time in the Talas Auditorium at the concert.
Activities of the TACBiotech Club
TACBiotech Club students Deniz Güzelçay, Süleyman Goncagül and Boran Erdoğan continue their preparations for the project called “Generating Electricity from Sweet Sorghum Plant” with the support of Mr. Fatih Metin, their teacher advisor and the dean of Mersin University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The TAC team who visited the Chemistry Department of Mersin University to prepare for the TÜBİTAK Research Project Competition for High School Students, was able to produce bioethanol from fermentation mash they previously prepared using a distillation mechanism. They received information from academicians at the Chemistry Department about the production of fuel cells.
TACBiotech Club students are also working on a project called “prototype vehicle design with fuel cell”, a technology which was determined as a priority area by the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology. The students prepared the anode and cathode sticks in the workshop of our school. They are also planning to ask for the support of the Chemistry Department of Mersin University for the production of fuel cells and to visit establishments in incubators of technocities which produce fuel cells.
Within the club, a group of students are focused entirely on the Erasmus + Ka105 Youth Exchange Program, developing projects to prevent unnecessary use of antibiotics. The students who prepared the activity and mobility plans started to search for a partner school-youth group from European Union countries.
TAC Hosts Its Traditional “Books in Disguise” Festival
“A book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
Franz Kafka
The “Books in Disguise” Festival, organized under the leadership of Turkish Language and Literature Department teachers Ms. Tuba Karabağ and Mr. Mikail İncir continues to be fascinating in in its fourth year. The festival is designed for prep students each of whom start reading a book in the beginning of the year. Then, they recreate the covers of books, designe the costume of the main character in the book, and create a “trailer” for their chosen book. The creative, alternative book covers were exhibited in the Student Lounge and students picked the books, whose names were revealed, according to the cover they like the best. At the ceremony held in Talas Auditorium, Mehmet Tulga Can was awarded the prize in “Best Book Cover Design”, Zehra Gamze Öner in “The Most Creative Costume Design” and Efe Batın Budak in the “Best Video” category. The event ended with a reception and photo shoot in the steps of Stickler.
Tarsus American College
Email: info@tac.k12.tr
Website: www.tac.k12.tr
Location: Caminur Mh., Tarsus Amerikan Koleji, Cengiz Topel Cad., Tarsus/Mersin, Turkey
Phone: 03242418181
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tarsusamerikankoleji/
Twitter: @tarsusamerican