ACHIEVEMENTS

Along my way, I was told often from people around me, some of them I called friends, that it is impossible for me to accomplish my ridiculously high set goals which include studying in the United States and working afterwards for a prestigious global company in top management or as a CEO. When I was talking to them in middle school about those dreams of mine and where I see myself in ten or fifteen years they sometimes laughed and made fun of me. The same phenomena occurred when I moved back to Germany after I finished three and a half years of elementary school in Turkey. By then, I found myself in a very challenging situation. I forgot German as easily as I learned Turkish about three years ago. Moreover, I found myself being alone with no friends. I received barely passing grades, but always with the remarks that I was active in activities, interested in material, friendly, and unusually motivated. The bad grades, the report further explained, resulted from my lack of language proficiencies. In the pivotal fourth grade in the German school system where you get a recommendation to one of the three main school types after elementary school which  are the so-called "Hauptschule," "Realschule," and the "Gymnasium," I was placed in the lowest level of education, the "Hauptschule." It lasts from the fifth grade up to the ninth grade and after the ninth grade I could achieve the lowest certificate of education. In the "Realschule" there are those who learn faster and they are taught until the 10th grade. They can achieve the medium level of education. In the "Gymnasium" students have the opportunity to leave after the tenth grade with a certificate. However, according to the student's marks and their engagement they can go on until the 13th grade and pass the "Abitur-Test" (The A Test) that enables them to go directly to a university which is the highest level of education in the middle school stage in Germany.      As I entered the "Hauptschule," I was determined to jump to the highest level of middle school, the "Gymnasium" with a special placement test after the seventh grade. Since in the history of the school I visited only two other students managed to make that transition and were successful in their further pursue of higher education, other students as well as some faculty looked at me in disbelieve and stamped me with living in a dream world. This further fueled my motivation and I immediately began working on my deficiencies, and was able to achieve high grades and honors in all of my classes. After a short period of time my German was better than a native speaker's which enabled me to be granted into the most prestigious "Gymnasium" there was in Mainz, where I lived.       With more confidence in myself, I also widened my social skills and was even elected student body president in my high school three years in a row. I can't imagine not living up to the fullest and being the best person I can be. It was impossible for those so called friends to think outside the box and jump into new challenges for the price of giving up their convenience.  Fortunately, not all of my friends were as narrow minded as those people. The greater percentage of my friends, lead by my family, supported me and still does, and I am very thankful to have such people around me.      At Riverside Community College, my first college in the United States, the International Club was a major interest field and one of my biggest projects. As President of the Club I had a lot of responsibilities and had to dedicate a huge amount of time for fulfilling those responsibilities. For this hard work I was acknowledged by Riverside Community College with a "Gold Outstanding Achievement Award" two semesters in a row (see pictures). This Award is only offered to students who engage in 200 or more hours in extracurricular activities in a Club. I was one of only about 30 students who received the golden Award in Fall '04 semester and the same in Spring`05 semester. I also received the Platinum Award which is awarded to aproximately 5-10 people in one year for overall success and two scholarships through RCC during my studies there.      Furthermore, I love taking on challenges and solving them and most importantly working with people. After finishing high school, I entered AVIS Car Rental with the intension to excel my skills in dealing with customers. Shortly after that I opened my own Business, the BEY Gebaeude Reinigung which is a combination of a cleaning company and a dry cleaner in Mainz, Germany. With a total of fourteen professional full-time workers in the fields of window-cleaning, construction cleaning, office cleaning, and dry cleaning. I am proud to say that at my young age I am responsible for providing fourteen families with their monthly income. Moreover, recently I opened up a restaurant in Germany with Italian and Turkish kitchen. With my education here in the United States I hope to bring this phenomenon to a higher level.