We thank all our students, teachers, and our community members for supporting the Berkeley Turkish School’s mission which is to:
Inspire the children of the Turkish-American community to learn about their rich and diverse Turkish heritage and language, to engage confidently with and within a changing diverse world, lead positive, peaceful and purposeful lives in their communities, and become strong world citizens with solid foundations and values.
The Guiding Principles of the Berkeley Turkish School:
We Believe in standing as a community united against hate.
We Welcome anyone who wants to join our community where peace, diversity, inclusivity are valued, respected and encouraged.
We Collaborate as a tight volunteer team to teach the children of the Turkish-American community in their ability to understand, speak, read, and write Turkish.
We Foster a safe and secular environment through our school program, curriculum and community events which enhance our community members' understanding of the rich and diverse Turkish Culture and heritage while welcoming different backgrounds.
We Facilitate innovative solutions to challenging problems relevant to their lives in our evolving curriculum.
We Encourage a global perspective and learning that’s inspired by different traditions and encourages different ways of thinking.
We Learn together as a community so we are better stewards of a peaceful and sustainable world.
Together and with your help, feedback and our community’s endless energy and support we:
Celebrated four International Children’s Day Festivals, three Republic Day Ceremonies, three Holiday Parties, three Mothers’ Day Events, four Graduations, six Parent Registration Events, three teacher appreciation dinners, and many birthdays
Hosted Parent seminars and workshops where we explored relevant topics to our community including: Kidpower; how to save for college; how to care for ourselves as parents; how to parent by connection; how to pursue excellence; the nuances and intricacies of multicultural parenting; how mindfulness can help our resolve and many more
Shared our favorite family recipes and dishes at our countless garden potlucks where important and meaningful conversations began over coffee, while most of us pondered over how delicious Yildiray Bey’s Suboregi is and how he achieves excellence consistently every time
Made some mistakes which we quickly learned from and took cautious steps to not repeat the same ones again
Built East Bay’s first Children’s Turkish Library
Rejoiced with a sense of pride and a feeling that we are connecting our past with our future when our children performed and sang our childhood songs in Turkish under Fatosh Hanim’s leadership
Learned how to folk dance ourselves and danced with our children with Mehmet Bey’s leadership
Established our Adult Folk Dance Team and had so much fun learning together
Collaborated as families on collective art workshops including ebru painting
Hosted meaningful conversations between other Turkish organizations and their leaders such as American Turkish Society, TCA, TAAC and many others.
Lead the Engage innovation studio where the CCA industrial design Students designed Turkish Cultural educational products with the help of our students and teachers under Basak Altan’s leadership
Played informal Sunday soccer games
Laughed, cried and danced hand in hand to many halays together
We accomplished all this together as a community through our collective efforts and dedication to our mission, and by not tolerating divisive and disruptive behaviour.
Should you have any questions about our organization, please feel free contact our board.
Thank you, from all of us at The Berkeley Turkish School
