do you Okay, you like the video? Well, as you see in the video, we are having fun on the campus. Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes we are having fun.
This is taken from the Interyouth Festival. This is organized by international student groups at our university. So, this is a yearly event on May. 17th usually, we organize this event and call all the students, international student groups and the national student groups for contributing this important event. It's very colorful and I hope to see you all in the organization of this event a few months later at the International Office and the PREPS.
we will make some announcements about the organization of this event. Please join the group in the organization team, okay? Give support to this important international event.
In this event, we celebrate the cultural diversity. Diversity is very important for the people and for the university campuses. Diversity doesn't mean having a threat, but means having an opportunity to make our life more colorful and more peaceful.
Because of that, we like to celebrate the diversity on the campus. We have thousands of students coming from more than 100 countries on this campus. So people have different traditions, different values, different cultures, different identities. So it makes the campus life more colorful. We have an international environment on this campus.
Please contribute to this aspect of the campus by keeping your own identity, but respecting to the other identities, to the other cultures. So, I would like to get your support for this event and of course, all the other events in this regard. Today, I would like to give you some information about being a university student. Is there anybody who participated already at the orientation program for international students? Anybody participated a few weeks ago?
Nobody participated the orientation program? Well, these students, every year we organize an orientation program for three days. One on this campus, the other is on the main campus for national students. And on the third day of the orientation program, we have a special session for the international students.
So all the administrative and academic units inform the international students. about the regulations, about the operations, about everything you need on the campus. So please follow all these programs. These are designed for your needs.
So if you don't participate in all these organizations, you miss some information, you miss some opportunities. Okay? So give some time, not only giving time to the courses but also to these type of events are very important in your campus life.
These events provide you some information which make the campus life easier for you. Okay? Now, today our focus will be on being a university student. What does it mean being a university student?
What What is the difference between the previous degrees and now, the university degree, the college degree? As you are already aware, there is a big difference. What is this difference? Is there any idea you want to share with me? What is the biggest difference?
Yes, you are right. Probably nobody has this international environment in high school, in primary school life. But at the university, being a university student means having more international environment at the school. What else? Thank you very much.
Anybody? This is going to be the last step. Okay, so we have a long education journey in our lives. This is the last step.
Actually, there are some other steps as well, but in general, this is the last and the most crucial step. for our educational journey. But I am focusing on this aspect. Don't worry, I have only two slides to summarize what does university student mean.
So I will summarize. I am focusing on this aspect. This is also very important. Being a grown-up, being a young...
adult. At university stage, You turn into an adult. Being an adult means you have your own responsibilities, you have your own duties, rights to follow. So you have the right to make decisions about your life on the campus, about your education at the university.
You will make so many decisions during this four or two years, five years, six years, depending on your program. So individually, you will make your own decision according to your future plan. So being an adult means making your individual plans for the future as well. So you need to...
Design your future. Start designing your future. Actually, this process already started.
You make a decision about the field. In which field you proceed. You already make a decision on it.
But it is not enough. This is just a major decision. You already decided which major you take. But other than the major, there are lots of other decisions.
So, you need to consider about your future days, months, years at the university, because you are an adult at this stage. Of course, the academic advisors, supervisors, lecturers, professors, department chairs, faculty deans will guide you in this. direction.
But you need to request this guidance from your academic staff. Nobody calls you hey, come and ask me what you think about the future and get my advice. You will call. You will call the related people, person. at the department, at the program.
Okay? So, in order to make a proper future plan for yourself, you need to get some support from your academic advisor. Academic guidance is very important in your development during the university years.
All of you already have an academic advisor. You know that, right? Anybody who doesn't have academic advisor at the moment, everybody knows who their advisor is, right? You know? Why not?
Well, whenever you register the university, the program... An academic advisor appointed to that student by the department, by the program. What's your department? Dentistry. Okay, dentistry program has to appoint an academic advisor.
How come you know that? On the student information system, on OIS. When you enter the OIS, you will see your academic advisor's name, title.
So, starting from the registration period, academic advisors are supposed to guide the students. You are not the only student. There are several students under each academic advisor. So, these academic advisors should guide you. So, you should...
approve your course selection. So in every step, you need to contact with the academic advisor. Some students use this chance very efficiently. Directly contact with their academic advisor.
Get every stage their advisors. But some students never contact with the academic advisor. So these students miss something, of course.
So don't hesitate to contact with your academic advisor. Close collaboration makes your life easier, makes your decisions easier. And also the department chairs, program coordinators, directors, all the academic staff at your department will guide you, will supervise you in making your decision. So you need to be aware of your duties and responsibilities to make a plan for the future, for the close future, far future, for this semester, for next semester, for next year, for next years, for after the graduation, for the professional life.
What is going to be your future plan? So you need to always ask this question, what is my future plan? What's your future plan?
It's not clear yet. I know it is not clear yet. But ask always this question.
If you cannot answer this question clearly, it means that you need to clarify your plans. It shouldn't be empty. It shouldn't be confusing.
It should be clear to follow. Everything should be defined. clearly to be followed. So this is very important at this stage for you.
I am an adult. Be aware of this. You are an adult, young adult. You will make your individual decisions during this university life all the time. And we are not dealing with your parents.
Please forget your parents. We don't share any information about you with your parents. Why?
Because you are adults. You have your own privacy. Respect to this privacy.
You are not high school students, primary school students anymore. Sometimes some students have difficulty in switching to this adult stage. They feel like they are still a child.
You are not. You are not. You are not a child anymore.
You are a young adult. So this is one of the aspects of being a university student. What is the other aspect?
The other aspect is being enlightened. University life enlightens the students. So you need to also develop your intellectual capacity during these years. You need to care about the life, you need to care about the society, you need to care about the economy, you need to care about the human rights, environmental issues, you need to care about everything which is serious for the people.
So you need to Be aware of all these problems and you need to also have some ideas regarding to these problems. It requires knowledge, it requires critical thinking. Okay?
University is a place in which you can develop your critical thinking skills. So, critical thinking is a very important aspect of a university student. What makes difference between a university graduated person and not having any college degree?
What is the difference? When we ask this question, what can be your answer? Knowledge is one.
Okay. The other is critical thinking. University degree makes the graduate view of the world from a critical point of view.
You criticize, you need to criticize why this is important, why critical thinking is very important, why we want to develop these skills. in the university students among the universities We need to be aware of everything around us. Around and question them.
Being aware and then question them. What is happening? Why is happening?
How is happening? What might be the other options? How we can analyze this?
How we can interpret this? Why people behave in that way? Why people believe in that?
What happens if they behave in this way? Lots of questions, questions, questions. Critical thinking means questioning the life. You question the life.
Every time you ask questions, why? When you start asking, using these question words, why, what, how, you start thinking critically. If you... Do not develop your critical thinking skills, you never ask these questions.
There is no need for that. Critical thinking means, dear students, development, improving. So many scientists find out some new techniques, some new tools, explore some new...
vehicles by asking questions. How can I solve this problem? How can I fix that problem?
How can I make life easier for the people? So they explored some new instruments for the human beings, and they made our life easier. How can we cure that illness? So, asking questions gives way for the investigation, exploration, research.
So, this is part of the university life. You need to be very sensitive about this skill. And this should be one of your priorities during the university years.
You need to make some efforts to develop your critical thinking skills by reading, by asking questions, by following the critical thinkers, okay? To be egalitarian. So being against all types of discriminations. This is one of the most important aspects of a college degree.
This makes a difference. If you don't have a college degree, you are not so well in this regard. You may have some stereotypes about some genders, some ethnicities, some religions, some cultures, some... part of the world. But if you have a university degree, you don't care about all these differences.
You accept all the people are equal. So being an equalitarian is very important for to be enlightened for your intellectual level. It is the proof of your intellectual level. If you discriminate the people, you cannot be accepted as a well-educated, modern individual.
You need to accept this is a universal standard, principle. You need to accept everybody is a cure. Check yourself all the time.
You already have some stereotypes from your culture, from your parents, from your social environment, from your education system. Leave these out of the campus. We have students from more than 100 countries. Everybody has differences.
It is normal. It is natural for human beings. It is natural for the world.
We cannot discriminate any. of the students because of their ethnicity, because of their religious beliefs, because of their color, look, anything else. Please forget all these stereotypes.
Fight with your stereotypes in your mind. Stereotypes means pictures in our mind about some group of people, about women. about Muslims, about Christians, about East, about West.
But please leave out all this and try to construct a real and intellectual view about the people. Okay? So are you ready to forget all the stereotypes in your mind at this stage?
Please. please fight with them. It is not easy, I know that. But after you graduate with this perspective from the university, you will notice that you already forget all these stereotypes. So this is important.
The other important aspect is to be libertarian. Libertarian means You need to be on the side of freedom. University is the center of freedom. Without freedom, university means nothing. What university life is productive, peaceful, meaningful, functional, is being, having this.
free environment in it. We have borders around the campus as you see. Outside the campus everything maybe might be very different.
But here inside the borders the campus life is completely different. You are free in everything on the campus. Free in behavior, free in clothing, free in relationship, free in thinking.
We do not have any control on your thinking. Whatever you think is respectful for us. Okay?
So, you need to feel this freedom and contributed in development of this free environment on the campus. Okay? You understand me?
So, freedom. Being on the side of freedom is very important. So, If you have any discussion with someone in some situation, you need to ask this question, this is on the side of freedom or limiting the freedom? If something is limiting the freedom, get away from that. Be always on the side of the freedom because freedom means development.
Freedom means improving. Freedom means... production, exploration, investigation, and making the life better for the human beings.
The other aspect is being on the side of peace. So, a university student cannot defend the fight, they cannot defend the war, contradictions, but defend the peace. We should always be on the side of the peace.
Our efforts, our projects, our thinking should be always focused on the peace. How we can keep the peace, how we can improve the peace, how we can make the life more peaceful. This might be the consideration.
of the university students. Is it clear for everyone? Being enlightened.
So are you ready for being enlightened? I'm sure you're ready. If you're enlightened enough, you will be socially responsible.
So when you build up your intellectual capacity, you will automatically... Feel yourself socially responsible. You will feel the responsibility.
of caring the current problems in the life, caring the problems in your homeland, caring the problems in Turkey, caring the problems in the world, in the universe. We need to care about it. And we need to take some action in order to fix something. We cannot fix everything.
There are thousands of problems. but we may focus some of them. So you need to know all these problems, you need to get to know, get to know what we face during this time period in the world and be responsive to all of those problems and being volunteer.
This is very important. The result of socially responsible is being a volunteer of fixing some of the problems you care about. We need to care about all the problems, but some of them are getting more important for us.
Depending on our future plans, depending on our personality, depending on our cultural background. We Define some specific problems. We may focus on some specific problems during these university years and keep your relation with those problems in your professional life as well.
For example, there are problems regarding to human rights. There are problems regarding to the environmental issues. Environment is getting...
very big, big, big issue and affecting our lives right now. When I was a university student, the environmental problems are the problems for the future. Years, years later, we will have those environmental problems. Our professors are always warning us about these problems, but it was far away from us. But now, it's...
It changed after years. Now it is not far. It is at the door, at the gate.
So we are already facing all these problems, environmental problems. What else? There are lots of problems.
So you need to focus some of those problems. And by being volunteer, by being part of some of the... groups deal with these problems, you turn into an active volunteer during these university years.
Is there anybody who is volunteer of any problems, part of any volunteer organization up until now? Anybody? You? Okay, yeah of course, okay. You may leave but here you need to register your card.
For example, I am a volunteer. I am dealing with the addiction problems. Addiction is turning into a very big problem in the world, in Turkey, in other parts of the world. So children, young people, adults having Addiction problems, tobacco addiction, alcohol addiction, drug addiction, technology addiction.
In today's world, technology addiction is turned into a very big, sophisticated problem. People are spending hours and hours on screen, and it creates a very big problem, psychological problems. physical problems and the mental problems for the people.
So I am fighting with all these problems. Is it good? And I am proud of it. Yes, I am a volunteer for these addiction problems. I'm trying to fix.
So we try to inform the people about these problems, inform the parents how to care their children. about this problem, how they can keep them secure from the internet, from the technology, from the digital games, from the social media. So we are fighting with this, okay?
So I spent some of my time for fixing this problem. So you need to give some time. This is a requirement for a university student, for an intellectual.
You need to be part of a volunteer activity. There are lots of student clubs. You need to be part of these student clubs. So when you enroll in any student club, you will be part of some volunteer events, volunteer efforts. Some of the student clubs focus on interest areas.
Some of them focus on social responsibility projects. So you may balance them. You can be a member of a student club who focuses on, for example, photography, who focuses on something else.
But there are some student clubs focusing on social problems. Be part of a student club. In the coming weeks, we will have a big club fair on the campus. So please follow this event and be a member of the student club.
It will make your life more meaningful, more colorful, and strengthen some of your interest areas during these years on the campus. The club fair will be next year, both main campus and this campus. We are working on the program, probably we will have a bigger fair on the main campus.
And the last point is dealing with being active. I already highlighted to be more colorful. be part of the student clubs. Otherwise, you will spend your years on the campus only by taking the course, taking the exam and following your academic success.
This is not enough. You need to make your colors more highlighted during these years. If you don't have any interest areas, this is the time for adding, having.
some new colors into your life. When you graduate, you will lose all these opportunities. This is just the most crucial step for you. You make your personality more colorful, deeper, more balanced. This is a requirement for our mental health, physical health, psychological health.
This is not something fantasy. I am not talking about the fantasies, I am talking about the requirements for you. Okay?
So to be colorful, be a participator. Being participate in any event on the campus is very important. It will also change your life.
It will make you stronger in the life. participate in everything. Being pioneer of course is also very important.
You are not supposed to follow the frontiers. You are a university student even in the first year. There are lots of students who are frontier of something new on the campus and being a clubber. Being a clubber, I don't mean this dance club or night clubbing, but student clubs.
Be part of the student clubs, make some efforts to enroll the student clubs. And being Istinye University students with all these requirements, create this Istinye culture. So, we ask you to be a...
leader. You need to develop your leadership skills during this year. You see, the students work team-spirit. So, you need to also develop your skills in part of the team work.
This is also very important. Competitive, be competitive. Rational and think strategically.
Universal ethical values I already focus on. You need to care about this. Hard working is a must.
Knowledge. we value the knowledge. Işit students are also supportive, so you need to also give some time for the support activities and responsible towards society.
This is very important. All these aspects will direct you for being responsible towards society. All of us have some responsibilities. towards the society, to fix the problems in the society. With all these aspects we create this issue culture.
So you are being a member of issue culture if you care about all these aspects. And graduated in a more powerful way, in a more developed way ready for the professional life. We started with the Interyouth Fest and ended up with the Interyouth Fest announcement for the previous years and some photos from this event. As you see, we visited all these country stands.
There are some, only a few selections. And we are also having this type of colorful cultural shows on the campus. I wish you have a very good, very successful, enjoyable time on the campus. Wish you luck guys. This is the end but you need to get out from this way and prove your ID card.
Okay, any questions? This is under everybody understood what I'm trying to say. Okay, take care of all these aspects.