ALUMNI
NEWS
FACULTY
FRIENDS
Pelin Seyhan RC 03
Pelin writes: "I did not have any idea that I would find myself strolling in the foreign streets
of S h a n g h a i , C h i n a . How I ended up here interning for a global c o m p a n y is a story to be
r e m e m b e r e d . After my a c c e p t a n c e to Lehigh University, I had a vision that this long journey to
the States would open up the doors to others. Lehigh not only gave me a well founded
education in the field of Honors Integrated Business and E n g i n e e r i n g , Industrial Engineering
major and E c o n o m i c s minor, but gave me a chance to enrich my soul with several c o m m u n i t y
projects at L e a d e r s h i p L e h i g h , taking parts in the musicals and theatre productions, publishing
articles, taking leadership roles in many student organizations including Turkish Students
A s s o c i a t i o n , Team '07, P e e r Tutoring and International A m b a s s a d o r s .
I looked for ways to contribute more so I started working for the Dean's office. I have
agreed to be a grader for Engineering C o m p u t a t i o n s class. Last year, I added a third
responsibility by agreeing to assist the Industrial E n g i n e e r i n g C h a i r m a n . I have to admit that
my available time has b e c o m e very limited but the results have been rewarding. Not only have
I established very strong relationships with my professors and my college, I have been
nominated to receive the Outstanding J u n i o r W o m e n award, received the honor to be in
Dean's List every term, a n n o u n c e d to be the Hans Baer S c h o l a r and was elected to be a part
of the engineering honor society, Rossin J u n i o r Fellows. I would guess that these were the
a c c o m p l i s h m e n t s that have driven me to take on a bigger challenge: Tauck S c h o l a r s h i p .
After learning the tragic fact that I could not possibly study a b r o a d and graduate at the
s a m e time because of my credit load, I was enthralled to see the cc-ed email from a professor.
Business College was offering a Tauck S c h o l a r s P r o g r a m that would elect three applicants and
offer t h e m the c h a n c e of interning a b r o a d . A l t h o u g h it was a very challenging task to get
s e l e c t e d , it got even more challenging when I learned that no international students were
s e l e c t e d in the past due to their state of already being "international." However, I broke the
record and that's how I am enjoying the chopsticks, the crazy KTVs, the enlarging economy,
the cheap a c c o m m o d a t i o n and the oriental culture of S h a n g h a i . The things that I have learned
and will continue to learn would fill up ten pages, but the most m e m o r a b l e thing that I am
proud to indicate is to be assisting the senior m a n a g e r of Business Development D e p a r t m e n t
and work on $100 M projects in addition to learning a totally different language: Chinese."
Pelin can be reached at pes2@lehigh.edu
Andrew and İpek Tingleff
RC faculty m e m b e r s Mr. and Mrs. Tingleff
would like a n n o u n c e the birth of their daughter
Yasemin Tingleff. She was born J a n u a r y 11, 2 0 0 6
at Acıbadem Hastanesi in Kadıköy. Mrs. Tingleff
spent the first eight months with Yasemin and
took a leave of absence from the s e c o n d s e m e s t e r
of the last s c h o o l year. Also, thanks to snow days
and holidays Mr. Tingleff had a m o n t h long
paternity leave. Yasemin is already an active
m e m b e r of RC and has even been on stage during
a flag ceremony.
Sayat Özyılmaz RC 04
Sayat spent his years in Robert College expanding his bug collection and
founded the scientific m a g a z i n e K i n g d o m R o b e r t e a . He went to D a r t m o u t h
College with a desire to study Evolutionary Biology. A l o n g with age came
survival c o n c e r n s , and he decided to choose the well-trodden path of studying
E c o n o m i c s , but on the side he still nurtured his passion for biology by getting
involved in ecological agriculture in the Black S e a region of Turkey. He is going
to Nicaragua during C h r i s t m a s and Brazil in the spring to pursue his interests in
ecological agriculture. He also p e r f o r m e d a D a r t m o u t h funded research project
last s u m m e r researching the agriculture s e c t o r and marketing strategies. This
past s u m m e r he did an internship in finance and p e r f o r m e d e c o n o m i c a l
consulting for a senator. On top of all this, he is only a junior in college. Sayat
also works on c a m p u s , and can be found distributing college newspapers on his
bike in the wake of day. His next venture might be in the ports of M o r o c c o or in
the forests of S o u t h Africa...
John Freely
Long-time Boğaziçi professor,
Istanbul historian and writer J o h n
Freely celebrated his 8 0 t h birthday
recently. A c o m m i t t e e led by Boğaziçi
rector Ayşe Soysal A C G 67 organized a
special c o n f e r e n c e at Boğaziçi's Albert
L o n g Hall on J u n e 23rd in his honor.
Ralph Jaeckel
Linguist Ralph J a e c k e l , who taught at RC between 1959-1965 is s e n i o r
lecturer e m e r i t u s in the D e p a r t m e n t of Near Eastern L a n g u a g e s and Cultures at
University of California, Los A n g e l e s . In N o v e m b e r 2 0 0 5 the Middle East
Studies A s s o c i a t i o n honored him with its 2 0 0 5 M e n t o r Award for his career as a
t e a c h e r of Turkish and O t t o m a n with the words '' With deep appreciation for his
inexhaustible power to coax, e n c o u r a g e and inspire language learning from
students of wildly different aptitudes; and His ability to instill s u c h a love of the
Turkish language and Turkish culture that details s u c h as grammar, modals,
agglutinative s e q u e n c i n g , and vowel harmony b e c o m e s e d u c t i v e '
challenges rather than i n s u r m o u n t a b l e obstacles,''
The M E S A Mentoring Award was established in 1995 and first
given at MESA's 1996 annual m e e t i n g . The award recognizes
exceptional contributions retired faculty have made to the
education and training of others.
J a e c k e l wrote to the RCQ about his ties with RC and istanbul.
''While I was at Robert College, I taught only in the English
L a n g u a g e Division headed by S h e l d o n Wise. In my last years
there, I was a m e m b e r of the team that produced the early v o l u m e s of the series
" S p o k e n English for Turks" and included, in addition to Wise, Hikmet Sebuktekin,
our chief expert on all matters of the Turkish language, and M a t h e w C h a r l e s . In
the s u m m e r of 1965 I helped train m e m b e r s of the Peace C o r p s in the teaching of
English.
My fond m e m o r i e s of Turkey, s o m e in the form of photographs I took in
Istanbul and other areas I visited during those years, and my teaching experience
at the college and elsewhere in Istanbul with many friendly, eager, and
enthusiastic students, s h a p e d my career when I returned to the United States.''
J a e c k e l ' s long awaited reference work A Dictionary of Turkish Verbs has
recently been published by G e o r g e t o w n University P r e s s .
61