Alumni Interviews
Suzan Gurkan – Alumni Interview
Dear Members of IICS Community,
It is a great joy to announce that the Alumni Office of Istanbul International Community School has recently been established.
The Office will work towards maintaining stronger ties between our alumni and our school.
As a celebration of the establishment of our Alumni Interviews section.
We are always looking forward to hearing more stories from our alumni, revealing the history of our more than 100-years old school and staying in touch to provide opportunities for collaboration with our alumni.
Contact Ms. Pelin Küney to join our alumni community and to get in touch with former IICS friends and other members of our community.
Pelin Küney
Alumni Coordinator
alumni@iics.k12.tr
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Pelin Küney: Mrs. Lewicky Gürkan, thank you very much for meeting me for this interview. It is exciting to meet you and to be able to listen to our school’s history from you.
I’d like to start by introducing you to members of our community. You are a member of our staff who’s been admitting students to our school for a long time, so most of our alumni would probably know you. What they might now know is that you are also our alumni.
Can you tell us your story at IICS?
Suzy Lewicky Gürkan:
I started IICS in 1969 in the middle of Grade 3. We had just moved to Turkey and had been traveling as an expat family. My mother being Turkish led to the decision to settle in Istanbul since my mother found it so
difficult to relocate from country to country. IICS was the only option as an international school at the time.
It consisted of one building, neighboring the current Hisar Campus, which unfortunately burned down in 1984. At the time, we were about 100 students from grade 1-9. It was a beautiful, old, wooden building with a huge garden.
I remember the old wooden windows and desks in our classrooms.
Our classrooms were also small, approximately 8-9 people. I remember our teachers yelling at us as we ran up and down the wooden old stairs. They compared us to a herd of elephants. It was such a small community, like a large family.
The teachers, majority being Americans, worked at the school for many years.
It was a great learning environment; plenty of personalized learning. Also, emotionally and socially it was a great place to grow up in.
How was the daily life in Istanbul?
We lived in Bebek and my mother would allow me to walk there by myself. No traffic, we could walk everywhere. Our days at home were spent outside, mainly on the Bosphorus University campus climbing trees, biking and roller skating– we grew up with nature.
Every weekend I visited my grandmother who lived on the Asian side. Of course no bridge at the time, only ferries. Sometimes we would go to the cinema to see Turkish movies.
I also remember that we used to have dance parties on Friday nights, someone would host a party every two or three weeks.
What are some of your fond memories at IICS?
I remember our teachers very fondly. I used to admire them a lot. For example, Mrs. Greenwood, our History teacher, was a woman who took care of herself very much. By the way, she and her children lived here, and they became teachers at the Robert College.
At that time, our school was only up to Grade 9, and after that, most of the children who were not going to continue to boarding school, transferred to the Robert College. We were 8 people who graduated, and I was the only one to enter Robert College. For our graduation, we had prepared a show from the 1920s, a charleston dance show!
The sad thing about those times is that, we didn’t have many options to stay in contact. We used to write letters to each other. When social media arrived, it was too late to catch up for us, so we lost each other. Kids today are lucky in that they can get to stay in contact.
What did you do after graduating from IICS and how did you come back here?
I went to Robert College and after that I went to the United States to study in the University of Michigan. I studied Psychology because I thought that was my passion.
Now, I always say to parents that IB gives the opportunity for children to find their passions. We didn’t have that chance.
So, after graduating from the University of Michigan, I came back to Istanbul to study my Master’s at Bogazici University.
At the time, I still thought this was my passion. After working for 10 years as a Psychologist, I realized that was not what I wanted to pursue.
I started working for IICS in 2005 and in a short time I realized that the environment was the perfect place to work and be part of a community, so I’ve been here for the last 16 years.
At that time, I was working part-time when I had applied to IICS as a substitute teacher. Omer Kipmen was the Substitute Coordinator at the time, and he used to call me in as needed.
The following year, I became a full-time substitute. After two years as a substitute teacher, I was offered the Community Relations Officer position.
I used to work with Jennifer Gokmen from the Development Office. Later the Admissions and Development departments were combined forming the Community relations Department.
As a long-term employee of the school, I became one of the faces of the school. Through the years, I developed a rapport with many companies, embassies and even individual families who came to Istanbul as an expat.
I believe that my background in Psychology also allowed me to excel in my job.. It’s a great opportunity to be working in the school environment, it keeps me motivated.
As the IICS Admissions Director, can you summarize why parents should send their kids to IICS?
I always start by saying IICS is the best international school in Istanbul and then I explain the many reasons behind this.
Firstly, we are a non-profit school. This is a very important consideration when you are picking an education institution.
Secondly, our staff are highly qualified, and we have a great teacher profile. Thirdly, being one of the oldest IB schools in the world, we offer a great IB Program. We even have a lot of contributions to the IB
program. But let alone, we are a community, strong staff-student relationship.
What do alumni and leaving students do after IICS?
I could say 99% of our students move on to university. There are only a few who take a gap year. Our alumni are all over the world..
I think our students become very global, so they continue to be globally-minded individuals.
They get accepted to great colleges all around the world, especially in countries like the USA and the UK.
Do you have any messages for fellow IICS Alumni?
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to stay in touch with our alumni very much, apart from the Centennial event we organized in 2011. It was a lot of fun then and I
believe we can create that spirit continuously. I know that the Alumni Office has launched a new alumni network and it may assist in the building of strong relations with our alumni.
I’d like to call out to our alumni to contact our Alumni Team and to join our new online alumni community – IICS Alumni Network.
Dear Alumni, come visit us when you’re near, let us know what’s been going on in your life, and tell us your stories. We always miss you!
Dear Members of IICS Community,
It is a great joy to announce that the Alumni Office of Istanbul International
Community School has recently been established. The Office will work towards maintaining stronger ties between our alumni and our school.
As a celebration of the establishment of our Alumni Interviews section. We are always looking forward to hearing more stories from our alumni, revealing the history of our more than 100-years old school and staying in touch to provide opportunities for collaboration with our alumni.
Contact Ms. Pelin Küney to join our alumni community and to get in touch with former IICS friends and other members of our community.
Pelin Küney
Alumni Coordinator
alumni@iics.k12.tr
Follow us on: Facebook I Instagram I LinkedIn
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Pelin Küney: Mr. Ferhangil, thank you very much for meeting me for this interview. It is exciting that this is the first of many alumni interviews!
I’d like to start by introducing you to members of our community. You are very engaged alumni, an involved parent and a dedicated member of our Board of Directors and I would like to thank you on behalf of all our Community for your contributions.
Ferhat Ferhangil: It’s my pleasure.
Can you tell us about your history and affiliation with IICS?
I started studying at our school in 1978 as a 3 rd grade student. It was called Robert College Community School (RCCS) then and it was located in Rumelihisarı. My family had just come from Iran and my brother and I started attending RCCS. As you know, it became ICS and IICS later. During my time, the school offered education from kindergarten to Grade 9, after which students would attend high schools. When I graduated, our school had a total population of around 170 people only. I finished the 9 th grade in 1985 and graduated.
After my graduation, I reconnected with the school when it was time for my daughter to start school in 2011, twenty-six years after my graduation. I wanted my kids to experience what I remember so fondly of at IICS.
My older daughter Yasemin and my twin daughters Farah and Leyla started attending IICS from the Early Years 3 and now they are in Grades 6 and 4 respectively.
Also, I have been a member of the Board of Directors of IICS since 2013.
Great to hear that you are raising a second generation of IICS’ers! Hopefully they will be involved as you are.
Can you also tell us about your life following your graduation from IICS and
your current endeavors as a business person as well?
I attended a Turkish high school after IICS and after receiving my high school diploma, I went abroad to study. I studied Business Administration at Eastern Mediterranean University and graduated in 1993. Following my graduation, I moved to London and worked there for 15 years for Balli Group.
Currently, I run my own private equity fund and we provide investments for textiles, construction and student housing projects. I also serve on several boards.
Going back to your experience in IICS, can you tell us how you remember life at school? How is it different between now and then?
Let me start by saying it was a different experience than now. We now have two campuses– one in Marmara and one in Hisar. When I was about the start school we were going to school in a building which was a little bigger than our Hisar campus building today. It was actually located in the white mansion just below our current campus. The current “White House” building was where music and arts classes were being held.
Also, we used to have older teachers who have been in our school for a very long time. Now, my kids have younger teachers and the teachers also change more often.
Do you remember any of your teachers?
Of course, I do. Unfortunately, most of them passed away. I remember Mrs. Fonger, Head of School. There was Mrs. Vartaliti, School Secretary. Madame Odner, French teacher, Mrs. Greenwood, History teacher; Mr. Rice, Mr. Grady and Mr. Izeri, Mathematics teacher.
For example, I remember Mrs. Kett, who was teaching Grade 3 and almost went to the space.
There are also Ms. Orhon and Mrs. Alpauti who I still occasionally run into around Istanbul.
How were relationships between students?
We had lots of fun together but our friends would often leave. This was one of the hardest parts of being in an international school.
I still have two close friends from IICS, but one of them is in South Africa and the other one is in the USA. Most of our friends left Turkey after school and we lost contact with each other. It wasn’t as easy as today to stay in touch with your friends.
So, would you be willing to reconnect with your friends from IICS and join some IICS networks if they were available?
Most certainly. For example, I travel abroad on frequent occasions and I know that some schools are great at providing these types of global networks for their alumni. I think we can have that, too. I would definitely join some events and platforms to reconnect with my friends.
As a member of the Board of Directors, how do you see our Board’s and your role for our school?
As the Board, we are here to support our school. I personally try to contribute to our school as a member of the board with my experience as an alumnus.
Even though I graduated years ago and my kids are also going to be leaving the school at some point, I am still looking forward to leaving behind a positive legacy
as a board member. Surely, we always welcome volunteers who are wishing to dedicate their time and energy to our board and contribute in the advancement of our school. I believe
that we have potential volunteers among our parents, alumni and friends of our school who believe in our mission. I would like to invite them to contribute as well.
What do you think are some of the main values that we maintain here at IICS?
How would you describe our alumni and our students?
I would say that we raise global citizens. As children at IICS, we grew up in very understanding culture. I didn’t even know the nationality, social status or religious background of any of my friends. Differences didn’t matter to us, on the contrary, we welcomed and enjoyed them. This may be one of the reasons that IICS resonates so well in my mind.
So, what is your allegiance to IICS based on?
I’m a sentimental person. I was attached to our school from the beginning. To be honest, I wasn’t one of the best students in my class. But the school always tried to get the best out of me. I believe this school’s education had a great role in making me the person I am – a global citizen.
How do you see Alumni Relations at IICS? Do you have any messages for fellow IICS Alumni?
I think that once we rekindle the school spirit, bring back some memories and establish some connections, we can grow into a more powerful network as IICS Alumni. I also think that having an Alumni Office will constitute a great part of this objective.
I consider myself to be one of the most engaged people with IICS – I don’t see many people around wearing the IICS Hoodie! Therefore, as an alumnus, a parent, and a board member, I am willing to contribute as much as I can for this cause and I call upon all my fellow IICS Alumni to do the same – connect, stay in touch and contribute to our Community.