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 Zehra Sayers.
Zehra Sayers has been a member of the Sabancı University family since 1 January 1998. She has been working as a faculty member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), Sabancı University for 22 years, and served as the Deputy President from 12 January to 1 November 2018.
Zehra Sayers’s answers to our four questions are below.
What was your initial memory / impression of when you met Sabancı University for the first time?
Z.S: My first impression of Sabancı University is based on the great excitement and enthusiasm of trying to plan and build a university with brand new ideas for Turkey from scratch. I never forget the pleasant days we spent together in the building in Karaköy with meetings and different sweet rushes in order to implement this giant project. I call them sweet rushes because we wanted to do something that had not been tried before and achieve perfection. We felt a responsibility to influence the future of the young people who would come to us.
Other significant memories are of our efforts to visit high schools and introduce this soon-to-be-opened, unknown university and explain a new system of education. As I saw bright young people in high schools in different parts of Turkey, the feeling of being able to offer them something really beautiful and contribute to their development was very pleasing and motivating.
What are the differences between yourself 20 years ago and yourself today, and how did Sabancı University contribute to that change?
Z.S: Sabancı University has created an environment where I had to assume responsibility and which allowed me to make decisions on my own about things that I did not have much experience in such as creating a training program and designing and building labs from scratch. By supporting me in this environment, it has given me the opportunity to improve myself as a person, teacher, and human-being through innovations. I also learned a lot from the students who came to us, and I spent a lot of fun days with them. I have worked hard here, and Sabancı University has given a lot to me.
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?
Z.S: I want it to continue to be an innovative university. It creates and develops innovations in education and remains a unique institution that allows the youth of our country to expand their horizons and improve themselves.
And for myself, I do not know how, but I hope to keep being as a person who is still pursuing innovations in 20 years.
Where and how would you be now if your paths hadn't crossed with Sabancı University?
Z.S: I would probably have stayed in a research environment in Germany.