2021 – 2023 Period - Göztepe Soroptimist

ROBOTICS CODING / “OUR GIRLS TOWARDS THE FUTURE”

Today, technology is everywhere. The fact that the future is not independent of technology increases the importance of coding for young students. Since the professions of the future will be predominantly on technology, the Robotic Coding project, which was initiated by Izmir American High School students on December 2021, with the idea that young students should be ready for the future.

Robotic Coding is a set of written instructions by which the programs of a robot or computer can be read and processed. Thanks to visual programs that facilitate learning to code, it is aimed to establish the foundations of coding with these studies.

Within this scope, “Girls in Tech Club” and FCR (First Robotics Competition) Club students of Izmir American High School supervise Tynker and Scratch programmes for the girls from Our House project who study in junior high school. The duration for FCR Club’s training was through December to April while the other club’s training covered two months, December and January. 7 to 10 years old students attended the sessions each week on Wednesdays. The FCR Club undertakes the training of those who will participate in the FCR Competition, which is an international competition. Girls in Tech Club is on a mission to close the gender gap in technology and organize various activities for girls to have more opportunities in technology and STEM.

After having trainings of Tynker, which is a programming that gives kids the pleasure of learning with games and supports them to learn coding skills including game design, web design, animation and robotics, and of Scratch, the graphic program language that provides the opportunity to create their own stories with its entertaining content and various tools such as music, picture and sound, to design personal animation and computer games, students had the opportunity to improve their imaginations through their own designs.

CROCHET and KNITTING NEEDLE TRAINING

Göztepe Soroptimist Club’s project ‘Crochet and Knitting needle Training’ which supports the economic empowerment of women is planned to start on December 2, 2021 and end on April 28, 2022. The participants are reached through Gündoğdu Contemporary Community Volunteers Association. The women are able to improve their hand skills and contribute to the family budget by selling and using the products they produce. Within the scope of Our House project, women in the Buca Gediz neighborhood were trained by club members Duygu Yurtseven, Bergün Kardeş and Yıldız Belger on products made with crochet and knitting needle. Three hours training in two groups as morning and afternoon sessions was organized on every Thursday as knitting bags and sewing/felt making alternatively on each 15 days. The club provided materials for the production of the first 2 bags and created capital for women by selling them. Afterwards, materials were provided with the income generated. The items produced by the women are sold at the handicraft bazaar organized by the club at the end of April. A picnic was held in İnciraltı City Forest on May 12, 2022, with the participation of club members to celebrate the achievements of women and getting together again for pleasant moments. The women prepared the food and the club provided the drinks. The club also bought candies for the women’s children. 12 women benefited from the 25-week project.

I DID IT, YOU CAN DO IT TOO – 2

Gündoğdu Contemporary Community Volunteers Association and Göztepe Soroptimist Club supported the Social Responsibility Project of the third and fourth grade students, under the supervision of Prof. Aysun Doğan, Department Head of Development Psychology in the Faculty of Literature, Psychology Department of Agean University and the students of Psychology Department of Yaşar University. The target group was secondary school students aged 11-14 who live in socio-economically disadvantaged regions within the service area of both associations. The project is realized by the university students aged 18-25 as mentors. The project was carried out as 1,5 hour presentations every week on Fridays between March 14, 2022 and June 3, 2022 . 23 secondary school and 23 university students pursued the project and members from both associations were observers. Club members Bergün Kardeş, Buket Karadeveci, Nükhet İzmiroğlu and President Zeynep Edes were the contributors.

The project has two main objectives: First aim is to enable socio-economically disadvantaged secondary school students to participate actively in education life. For this purpose, university students serve as mentors and transfer the skills necessary for academic success and personal development to secondary school students within the framework of their success stories and create a positive role model for them.

The second aim of the project is to contribute to the professional development of the university students who undertake the task of mentorship, by increasing their knowledge and practical experiences regarding the adolescence period. For this purpose, Dr. Seçkin Berber, Academician, Executive Mentor, Team Mentor, TA Facilitator, Trainer and Speaker, provided preliminary training on mentoring practices.

Specialist Psychologist Özge Alkanat conveyed the points to be considered in the interviews with the students, while Aysel Gürbüz, the representative of the Gündoğdu Contemporary Community Volunteers Association, shared important details about the socio-cultural contexts of the students and their families.

You may follow the analyses of last year’s project on the same topic, on our website under the information of “2019-2021 Term Projects”; I DID IT, YOU CAN DO IT.

When the project ended, a ceremony was organized with the participation of the staff, the members of the associations and the parents of the students in June 12, 2022. The certificates of participation were distributed to the secondary and the university students. The consultant of the project and the coordinator, secondary school and university students were presented with tea/coffee mugs with their names on them as a memento, by the Göztepe Soroptimist Club. Also, eight secondary school students were presented with İpek Ongun’s book titled ‘Life is a Sparkle’ for their deep interest on presentations.

With this project, mentors succeeded in increasing the academic motivation of secondary school students. University students have also increased their knowledge and practical experience regarding adolescence.

If we mention the future benefits of the project; The vital qualities of personal development skills acquired by secondary school students have concrete effect on the possibility of a lifelong continuity.

It is stated that gaining experience in working with adolescents will create a professionally sustainable infrastructure for mentor students. In addition, the knowledge and skills they gain in mentoring to be used in other fields will be a secondary sustainable benefit.

PATCHWORK

Patchwork workshop is planned for the mothers of Buca, Gediz house of Gündoğdu Contemporary Community Volunteers Association. Introduction of the activity was held on November 10, 2022 and a commemoration of Atatürk as is the date of the anniversary of his death. Patchwork training started on November 18, 2022.

12 mothers attended the courses every week on Thursdays, in two sessions between 10.30 to 12.30 am and 13.00 to 15.00 pm. 6 mothers in the morning and 6 mothers in the afternoon participated according to their availibility. Materials for the craft are provided by the Club. The training of the patchwork technique continued until February 23, 2023.

The New Year celebration was held during the training session on December 29,2022. There were no trainings during January 26, 2023 to February 2, 2023 due to the midterm.

The project was carried out by club members Yıldız Belger, Bergün Kardeş, Figen Özdem and Duygu Yurtseven. Besides training in skills, they established friendship in order to get acquainted with the family problems of theirs in order to find solutions by guiding them and help them to gain self confidence as being a role model.

MACRAME

Workshop for macrame was carried out as another handicraft workshop for the mothers of the Buca, Gediz House of the Gündoğdu Contemporary Community Volunteers Association starting on March 9, 2023. On the first training day, a celebration program was held for March 8, International Working Women’s Day, mentioning the importance of the day. Ladies received slippers as a present.

Project coordinators, Club’s Secretary Merve Çelebi and club member UnionTreasurer Gül Gürses were present at the celebrations.

The club members Yıldız Belger, Bergün Kardeş, Figen Özdem and Duygu Yurtseven, the project coordinators, not only taught mothers a skill, but also reinforced the friendships established among each other from the beginning of the term.

MENTEE – MENTOR

The project which is organized by Scholarship Committee President Begüm Huntürk was applied as Group Mentoring by Project Coordinator Özge Yılmaz. The project was planned as 2-3 hours of training every Saturday morning for 6 months.

The group got acquainted with each other and a brief presentation on mentoring was delivered at the first meetings on November 5, 2022 and November 19, 2022.

Expectations and concerns about the program were shared. Each mentee and mentor talked about what she thought she could add to the group.

Group and individual development goals were determined as priority at the next meeting a week later. As a result of voting and discussion by all mentees, development goals were determined as Stress Control and Time Management.

Each mentee was asked to list 5 items that they should overcome or think they should do in order to reach the goal in the field of development. Everyone was asked to explain their methods of coping with stress and to write down at least one method.

Individual and Group targets continued to be discussed in the third meeting held on December 24, 2022.

It was observed that they were aware of physiological reactions in the Stress Management Development Area; A mentee stated that they reacted dermatologic, another gastroenterological, another mentee reported stiffness in the back and neck, 3 people stated that they reacted with confusion/hand tremors and behavioral alarm, and one mentee stated that they reacted emotionally with anger.

Anxiety and Methods of Coping with Anxiety (A.W.A.R.E – R.A.D.A.R) were explained by mentor Benal İnceer. Breathing exercises were performed individually. They were asked to write down their anxiety reactions as Cognitive, Physiological, Behavioral and Emotional for the next meeting. They were asked to pay attention to which part of their body they stored anxiety in and to focus on relaxing the whole body and especially that part with breathing exercises.

However, after the December meeting, the project stalled. Schools were closed and the planned meetings could