YAKLAŞ Nişantepe Collective Project Continues with Panels and Workshops

“Yaklaş Nişantepe”, a collective project organized in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Thought and Sustainability Platform at Özyeğin University, continued with a panel and workshop program which took place on campus on December 10-11.

The opening address of the panel on the first day of the event was delivered by our President Prof. Dr. Esra Gencturk. Talking before an audience of invited speakers and participants made up of research center heads, NGO representatives, academicians, students and alumni, Prof Dr. Esra Gencturk, addressed sustainability and interdisciplinary studies in her talk. Prof.  Dr. Esra Gençtürk remarked “As a testimony to our commitment to sustainability, we integrated the world’s complex problems waiting to be solved with our ENG 101-102 courses, adopting a systematic and holistic approach. Today we forge ahead towards sustainability as excited as the first day, yet taking on ever more increasing responsibilities. With this awareness, we brought the Sustainability Platform to life in 2016 as an open platform aiming to unite all stakeholders together, from our students to faculty, staff to external stakeholders. We held the first of our talk and workshop series last year with the notion of “Yaklaş*” to bring different disciplines and fields of specialty “closer”. This year, we went beyond the physical borders of our University, and placed at the core of our discussions Nişantepe District, home to our university campus that we pass through every day, yet we fail to see, or fail to understand, and therefore, most of us feel the need to come “closer”, and in fact, some of us have actually personally attempted to do so.  Our first contact was established with a series of walks and talks. Today, we have come to a stage where our panel discussions encompass all stakeholders and our students. This is a journey, and undoubtedly, there are a lot of things we will learn together.  It is my sincere hope that we can learn, thrive, and go on this journey together.  I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone for their contributions to bring our project to life.”

*Further details about the challenge are available at https://www.yaklas.org/.