Our PresidentNihat Berker gave the talk of the yearend meeting of the MIT Alumni in Turkey, on Saturday 26 December at the Four Seasons hotel. In his talk entitled “Education, Years, and Friendship”, Berker stressed the similarities between the education philosophy and practice of MIT and Sabancı University.
Having said “When we started in 1967, MIT told us that we were required to take at least eight social science courses during our undergraduate education”, Berker noted that “Requiring a student to accumulate knowledge in the social sciences, whether the student is an engineer or a physical scientist, is also practiced at Sabancı University just as at MIT. If you cannot understand and communicate with individuals and society, success is meaningless no matter what your profession is”. He continued his speech as follows:
“Although I received a double degree from MIT in physics and chemistry, due to the flexible program structure, I was even able to take courses on the Kutadgu Bilig encylopedia, on the history of the early Turkish Republic. I saw at the Institute the lifemode of help and service to the individual, the result-oriented life engagement, and the friendly competition, that is to say to help your competitors in every possible way and then to relish coming out number one. MIT teaches self-confidence, using initiative, being at peace with oneself. From all these aspects, it is very similar to Sabancı University.”
Berker finished his speech by saying: “In both Universities, one experiences the pleasant stress of always wanting to do better. In fact, there is no bigger stress in life than to be without any stress” and informed the MIT Alumni on the many SU-MIT collaborations and on the Energy Programs and Center at SU.