Turkish Day at Sharjah Women’s College
Selin Erzin
Turkish Club organizers, Selin Erzin (right) and Lark Escobar
In 2014-2015 academic year, one of my professional objectives was to establish a student club that will contribute to the social and cultural environment of Sharjah Colleges. Upon seeing the interest of students and staff in Turkish culture and language in general, I decided to found the Turkish Club in the second term. My colleague and friend Lark Escobar, who spent years teaching Turkish students and traveling in Turkey, kindly agreed to act as the co-supervisor.
The club advert received a considerable amount of attention within days of its launch and more than 60 students signed up as members. After electing the management team, we started planning heavily for our first big college event.
After two weeks of hard work, we successfully organized a Turkish Day at Higher Colleges of Technology, Sharjah Women’s College. We 
specifically picked 19th May to celebrate this day because it coincides with the Turkish Youth and Sports festival in Turkey. It commemorates the day when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk landed at the Black Sea port city of Samsun in 1919, before launching the War of Independence. The war led to the founding of present day modern Turkey. Public and private schools at all levels perform sports events in observance of this day. Atatürk dedicated this day to youth and promoted sports activities, saying “A healthy mind is found in a healthy body”.
Our whole-day event at Sharjah Women’s College featured comprehensive poster displays about Turkish history and culture; Turkish food, “delight” and hot beverages sales, traditional Turkish handcrafts exhibitions and sales, the “Fire of Anatolia” dance show on plasma screen, Turkish music, a promotional video of tourism in Turkey, a Turkish drama series corner and Turkish language section.
At the end of the day, students enjoyed the occasion and they were excited to have an opportunity to have fun learning about Turkey. We also received a lot of positive feedback on the diversity of the event as well as the professional attitude displayed by the club members on duty.
As the supervisor, I feel proud of all our students’ dedication and would like to thank them here one more time for making this day a memorable one for the whole college community.
Turkish Club Supervisor: Selin Erzin
Turkish Club Co-supervisor: Lark Escobar
