2. Dil Olarak Türkçe Okullarının Önemi ve Avantajları

Dear Turkish American community:

We would like to invite you to the webinar (in Turkish) where we will discuss the current situation of Turkish Schools in the USA, and the potential benefits that students may get when they take Turkish classes. The guest speakers are the teachers from 3 main schools from the New York, Seattle and Los Angeles area.

Looking forward to see you at the webinar!

Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) presents a webinar on

“2. Dil Olarak Türkçe Okullarının Önemi ve Avantajları”

Sunday, January 12, 2024, 1pm EST

(or scan QR code below)

Guest Speakers

Bengü Bostancı

Director, American Turkish Academy of Washington

Ayça Ergisi
Principal, TWLA-NY Atatürk School

Dilek Kıncal
Coordinator, ATASC Turkish Schools

Moderator

Nilüfer Esen-Bilgin
President, Assembly of Turkish American Associations

Biographies

Bengü Bostancı

She moved to the Seattle, WA area 24 years ago after completing her degree in science education, in Türkiye. She has worked in the Lake Washington School District as a science teacher. and is the founder and president of the Turkish-American Cultural Association of WA Social Support Network. Bengü is also the head of school and director of the American-Turkish Academy of WA (Turkish School) and has been for the past 10 years. She currently serves as the president of her daughter’s school’s parent association. Her biggest passion is education-related philanthropy work. She enjoys traveling a lot with her family and visits Türkiye every summer. She is a huge advocate of protecting the future Turkish American generation’s Turkish heritage through teaching language and culture.

Ayça Ergisi

After graduating from Ankara Gazi University Faculty of Communication, she started teaching by taking Pedagogical Formation. She worked as an elementary school teacher and assistant principal in Şanlıurfa and Istanbul in Turkey for many years. She was certified as an expert teacher by the Ministry of National Education in Türkiye. She studied languages at Baruch and La Guardia in New York. Mrs. Ergisi has been the principal of New York Atatürk School since 2021.

Dilek Kıncal

She got her BS degree in Chemistry from the METU in Türkiye. Then she moved to USA to study and got her master’s degree as a research assistant at the University of Florida Food Science and Human Nutrition Department. She worked in Nutraceutical and Food Companies in the USA, and in TUBİTAK and METÜ in Türkiye. Since 2017 when she and her family moved to San Diego she dedicated her free time to the Turkish American organizations in the region. She served as the Education Director, Vice President and President on the Board of Directors of ATASC San Diego Turkish School for 3 years. For the last year, she has been continuing her volunteer work as the Education Chair on the Board of Directors of Association of Turkish Americans of Southern California (ATASC). ATASC has three schools under its umbrella. They are ATASC-SD San Diego Turkish School, OCTA Irvine Turkish School and LATAA Los Angeles Turkish School.