To celebrate the 20th year of our university, we have prepared a set of four questions to ask faculty and administrative personnel who have been with us since the beginning, and to our first students. They all tell "the story of 20 years" from their own perspectives.
Going in alphabetical order, this week's interviewee for "The Story of 20 Years" is Betül Çağlar Çelebi.
Betül Çağlar Çelebi has been a member of Sabancı University since November 1, 1999. Since then, she has been a Payroll Associate. Betül Çağlar Çelebi's answers to our four questions are below.
What was your initial memory / impression of when you met Sabancı University for the first time?
B.Ç.Ç.: I can tell you how I ended up being hired. I have a degree in Information and Document Management. But I also had a little experience in personnel affairs in my spouse's company. One day before I was going to be interviewed by the Information Center Founding Director, the late Hilmi Bey, I was called to an interview with Finance and Accounting Director Ahmet Gülder, and I ended up being hired not for a position that I had been trained in, but for a position that I had little experience in. It never occurred to me to say no. I just wanted to work at Sabancı University.
The university was newly founded, the campus was under construction, and the landscape with the foundations of the buildings did not look at all like what it does today. The Dorms area in particular: survey sticks were everywhere, concrete was being poured, painting was underway. It was overall a construction site and many of the buildings did not exist. Even the cafeteria that we use today. Instead, there was a prefabricated makeshift mess hall that we shared with construction workers. Another thing I can't forget is the smell of fertilizer for the grass to grow quickly. I still think back to those years whenever I smell fertilizer.
What are the differences between yourself 20 years ago and yourself today, and how did Sabancı University contribute to that change?
B.Ç.Ç.: You can never keep up with time, but my years in the university were really a blur. I don't know if this is also true for my friends. All companies have some recurring events. This is more pronounced in universities. You may think that staying in the same environment for a long time makes everything seem redundant, but I never felt that way in the university. The initial thrill never wore off. And Sabancı University is a dynamic place, so there is always a new project or initiative going on. New strategies, new actions add excitement to the job we do.
What comes into your mind when you think of Sabancı University in 20 years? What are your dreams for Sabancı University for the next 20 years? What about yourself?
B.Ç.Ç.: Physically, it is remarkably different. The campus is much prettier and greener compared to 20 years ago. Other than that, Sabancı University is already one of Turkey's best universities. As our President put it, our next objective is to make Sabancı University a globally-recognized institution.
The pandemic rendered us helpless to control our lives, so we had to review our plans and aspirations. So I can't really make long-term plans about myself, I just try to enjoy the moment.
Where and how would you be now if your paths hadn't crossed with Sabancı University?
B.Ç.Ç.: We were definitely in the USA. My spouse and I had set ourselves a target: if I couldn't find a good job within one year of graduation, we would have moved abroad. His siblings and cousins live there. Maybe I would be doing my trained profession there, who knows?