Excitement of young volunteers for certificates

Volunteer students of the ‘Human First in Every Geography’ project, implemented by Yeşim Group to promote the development of volunteerism and social responsibility awareness among young people, received their certificates at the closing event held at Yeşim Academy. Participating in the 2023-2024 academic year, Şükrü Şankaya Anatolian High School, Private 3 Mart Ulviye – Ziya Gökalp Özer Anatolian High School, and Private 3 Mart Halil Güleç Science High School students actively served and successfully completed the period received their certificates at a special ceremony organized at Yeşim Academy. The ‘Human First in Every Geography’ project, shaped by Yeşim Group’s initiative and carried out under the coordination of Bursa Contemporary Education and Culture Foundation (ÇEKVAK), concluded the 2023-2024 academic year. A total of 67 volunteer students participated in the project this year. The certificate ceremony held at Yeşim Academy was attended by Mehmet Balkaya, the Branch Manager Responsible for Secondary Education at Bursa Provincial Directorate of National Education, Behiç Gülşen, VP of Human Resources and Organizational Development at Yeşim Group, Dilek Cesur, Corporate Communications Director at Yeşim Group, Ali Kara, Chairman of the Board of Bursa Contemporary Education and Culture Foundation (ÇEKVAK), Süheyla Toppamuk, Vice Chairman of the Board of Contemporary Education Cooperative, and Project Coordinator Prof. Dr. Rüyam Küçüksüleymanoğlu, along with Yeşim Ömeroğlu Ünlü, the Principal of Şükrü Şankaya Anatolian High School, and Kaan Selçuk, the Principal of Private 3 Mart Anatolian – Science High School. The volunteer students shared the trainings and experiences they received throughout the year at the ceremony through photos and videos and received their certificates. Mehmet Balkaya, the Branch Manager Responsible for Secondary Education at Bursa Provincial Directorate of National Education, expressed that it is everyone’s responsibility towards this world, stating, ‘We all must fulfill our duties properly because we all have responsibilities towards this environment, this world. It is very meaningful and truly valuable for a business to carry out such social responsibility projects alongside its main activities. I am very happy that our young people are involved in such a project. I am proud of them as their elder brother.’ Emphasizing that Yeşim Group has been operating with the philosophy of ‘Human First’ since its establishment, Yeşim Group’s Corporate Communications Director Dilek Cesur said, ‘With this project, we aimed to instill a lifelong sustainable responsibility in young people in high school by combining the philanthropic understanding of Yeşim’s founder Şükrü Şankaya with social responsibility and volunteerism awareness. The project not only supported learning and strengthening between institutions but also provided a ground for peer-to-peer experience sharing. Children in state schools do not have access to these experiences that are subject to fees in private schools. The project is of great importance in providing experiential equality in this sense.’ Ali Kara, Chairman of the Board of Contemporary Education Cooperative (ÇEKVAK), stated, ‘As Bursa Contemporary Education and Culture Foundation, we are very happy to be part of this project for both our students and teachers. Every project that involves people is very valuable to us. Regardless of who they are, what they are, where they are from, which structure they belong to, they are valuable. We are very strong together. Therefore, everyone should support each other, lend a hand.’ Prof. Dr. Rüyam Küçüksüleymanoğlu, faculty member at Uludağ University Faculty of Education and project coordinator, said, ‘The main goal of the project was to raise awareness among high school students on social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, multiculturalism, digital competencies, and 21st-century skills and to enable each student to produce projects both individually and with their team members. Each student received 53 hours of training and carried out 120 hours of volunteer work within the project framework. They carried out 10 different social responsibility projects in the field. They received 21 hours of mentorship and exchanged ideas with 14 different NGOs. It made us incredibly happy to see the difference between where our students started and where they ended up, and to realize the values that the project added to them throughout the school year.