A nation devoid of art and artists cannot have a full existence
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

SEMA BAŞOL, global marketing and public relations executive

Sema Basol is a global marketing and public relations executive with over 25 years of experience both in the U.S. and Turkey. She has worked with multi-billion dollar corporations, small businesses, start-up ventures, non-profits such as educational and cultural institutions, business executives, government representatives and public figures in both countries. She has launched new businesses and organizations, organized high profile events and executed publicity programs for corporations and individuals.

Sema worked close to 19 years at Mattel Inc. where, as Director of Consumer Products, she built Mattel brands into new businesses that generated annual sales of $300 million in international markets. Under her leadership, sales tripled in the last four years through product launches in new categories and channels as well as through dramatic improvements in quality and design of licensed products.

Over the years, Sema has taken an active role in non-profit organizations, Turkish-American affairs, community organizations and arts. She is currently Program Director for Global Women’s Leadership Network, sponsored by Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

During the last fifteen years, Sema has organized numerous events and fundraisers for U.S. government representatives such as Congressmen Dan Burton, Jim Moody and Stephen Solarz. She has also hosted Turkish diplomats, visiting Turkish business executives and government representatives.

Collaborating with the museum officials and the U.S. organizing committee, Sema coordinated the Southern California fundraising benefit for the Treasures from the Topkapi Exhibit on the West Coast. As the Turkish-American community liaison, Sema had the opportunity to work with the internationally acclaimed theatre, opera and television director Peter Sellars who produced and directed the biennial Los Angeles Festival, a celebration of arts from around the world.

Sema has a B.A. degree from Bogazici University and an M.B.A. from UCLA Anderson School. Her studies in the U.S. were jointly sponsored by U.S. AID and Turkish Educational Foundation. Sema is married to Dr. Bulent Basol and has two sons. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and San Jose, California.

posted by meltem on 07.20.07 @ 4:48 pm

EMEL SINGER, businesswoman

Emel SingerEmel Singer, a native of Turkey and President/CEO of Banner Personnel Service, Inc., was recognized in the Top 25 list of “Chicago’s Largest Women-Owned Firms” as published in Crain’s BOOK OF LISTS 2005. Emel and her late husband James M. Singer founded Banner in 1970 shortly after graduating from college. Upon Jim’s untimely death in 1987, the company became a woman business enterprise (WBE), certified by the City of Chicago.

A privately-held regional staffing firm, Banner consistently ranks in Crain’s top 25 listing of “Chicago’s Largest Staffing Firms”. Celebrating 36 years in business, Banner Personnel Service, Inc. continues to supply qualified temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire talent to thousands of Chicago area businesses through their five offices located in Chicago, Libertyville, Naperville, Oak Brook and Schaumburg, IL.
A graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, IL, Emel is currently serving a second term on the Bradley Board of Trustees. Having recently been presented with the “2005 Volunteer Company of the Year” Award from the Walter & Connie Payton Foundation, Emel continues to support various charitable organizations, including Friends of Anatolia, American Field Service (AFS), American Cancer Society, Y-Me Cancer Research Organization and Children’s Memorial Hospital of Chicago. (more…)

posted by meltem on 03.27.06 @ 10:18 am

ADALET BUDAK, hope of girls in Şanlıurfa


Adalet Budak, 33, was born in Hilvan-Şanlıurfa, Turkey. She was the oldest of 5 children. After finishing primary school, despite her pleads to continue her studies, her father forbid her from going to school. However, she still managed to study from home, preparing herself for the school exams, and eventually managed to finish the Anatolian University, Department of Economics, (Distance Education Faculty). Her father’s reasoning was his fear of the society’s reaction for sending a girl to school. This mediaval mentality still prevails in the region, preventing thousands of girls from attending school, depriving them from even learning to read and write.

After completion of her studies, Adalet was ready to work and change the destiny of the region. Today, she’s the hope of every girl in the region, as most of them still face the same restrictions Adalet faced. However, with an ever present energy she works hard to convince the fathers of the girls and carry them to school. She set an example for her own sisters as well and three of them also finished university. The difficulties she and thousands of girls face in the region prompted her to initiate the GAP ÇATOM Scholarship Project, which she founded in 2001.

When she finished university, she was awarded a one year scholarship by “Anakültür” to study english in New York. While everybody around her believed she would never go back to the region after having been in New York, she proved everybody wrong and returned with greater ambition to change the existing taboos surrounding the women of the region, to help them develop skills, to join the work force thus contribute in the development of the region.

Today, she is the person in charge of the ÇATOM’s (Multi Purpose Community Centres) in the Provinces of Şanlıurfa, Şırnak and Diyarbakır, and works for Southeastern Anatolia Regional
Development Program (GAP) Regional Administration.

Previous occupations:

** The specialist of Women Entrepreneur Support Center at GAP Regional Development Administration, Şanlıurfa Governership and Entrepreneur Support Center.

** Person in charge on behalf of GAP for the “Wheelchairs for Peace” Project in collaboration with Beyoglu Rotary Club and the Wheelchair Foundation.

** Social and economic surveys and fieldworks in Southeastern Anatolia Region Turkey.

** Participatory Rural Development Project fieldwork and project planning, Yüceli, Mardin.

** The Third World Water Forum, Water Voice Project fieldwork.

** Rapid Appraisal and Need Analysis For Rural Development Component of the GAP Regional Development Program.

** Delegation of European Union Commission to Turkey, Trainee Assistant, NGO Development Program.

** 1998 – 2001 Yakubiye Multi Purpose Community Center- Educator and the Field Manager of Yakubiye ÇATOM Women’s Center

International Trainings, Seminars and Activities

2006-2007 The Women’s Leadership Scholarship (WLS)
•Agris Mundus Masters Program in Agricultural Development /Sustainable Development in Agriculture at The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL) in Denmark

8-10 March 2005 GAP RDA and Kent State University
• Women Leadership Program Şanlıurfa, Turkey

September 2004 Delegation of European Union Commission to Turkey
• Project Management

May 2003 NGO Development Program, Project Cycle Management and Communication. Ankara, Turkey

September 2003 FAO and GAP Regional Development Administration
• Communication in Participatory Rural Development Projects, Izmir, Turkey

March 2003 The Third World Water Forum
• The presentation of findings of Water Voice Project’s fieldwork, Kyoto, Japan

May 2002 FAO and GAP Regional Development Administration
• Participatory Rural Development Approaches, Şanlıurfa,Turkey

November 2002 UNICEF and French Water Academy
• Workshop on Water and Cultural Diversity, Fez, Morocco

December 2001 British Council
• NGO Youth Training, Istanbul, Turkey

November 2000-November 2001
• Cambridge Language School, New York USA

Honours and Awards

2003 Second Prize, the Third World Water Forum Water Voice Project Kyoto, Japan

2002 First Prize, Junior Chamber International, The Outstanding Young Persons of the World, in the category of “Contribution to Children, World Peace and Human Rights” (nationwide) , Istanbul, Turkey

2000-2001 Anakültür Scholarship for Language Education in New York, USA
2001 Cambridge Certificate in English, New York. (received: 09/01/2001)

Public Appearances

A documentary film named “Yarınım Aydınlık Olsun” about Adalet Budak’s story by Turkish Radio and TV Institution (2004)

In the media:

WLS Recipient
O artık kızların umudu

Urfalı Adalet’in Urfa’dan New York’a büyük yolculuğu

Urfalı Adalet New York’ta

Urfa’dan Japonya’ya uzanan başarı öyküsü

İİBF mezunundan büyük başarı

9/11 Stories

email: budakadalet@yahoo.com

posted by meltem on 08.05.05 @ 10:54 am

MELTEM BIRKEGREN, Owner & Editor-Turkish Digest, Businesswoman

Meltem BirkegrenBorn in Izmir, Turkey, Meltem (Yaşaroğlu) Birkegren graduated from T.E.D. Ankara Koleji in 1969. She studied at the Academy of Economical & Commercial Sciences in Ankara (AITIA), majoring in Foreign Trade. After graduation in 1973, she joined Ericsson Türk Ticaret, Ltd as Assistant Trade Director, and eventually became the Trade Director. She remained in that position until May 1985 when she got married and moved to Sweden, where she was rehired by Ericsson to work at their headquarters. After two years in Stockholm, she moved to Nassau, Bahamas with her husband where she stayed until August 1988 when she moved to Ft.Lauderdale, Florida in the U.S.A. where she still resides.

She started her own Export company in 1989, and has been in the same business ever since. Her company exports heavy duty machinery parts, especially for ships engines, as well as equipment and parts for larger hotels. She also provides Turkish interpreter services, and she is a partner at Europe House, Inc.

Meltem who always wanted to be a journalist fulfilled this dream partially, by first posting news articles on different Yahoo groups and the Turkish Forum, then she started her own electronic online newspaper called Turkish Digest.

The news in Turkish Digest is in English and about Turkey, collected daily from a variety of sources. In a very short time the site reached a reader capacity of couple thousand “hits” per day.

(more…)

posted by meltem on 07.21.05 @ 11:47 am

SEMA KARAOGLU, Daughters of Ataturk founder

The following article appeared on Sun Post News.
March 10, 2005
Connecting Turkish Women Worldwide
Citizen of the Day column by Miki Cumming
Caption under a 4 x 6 picture:
Sema Karaoglu of San Clemente founded the “Daughters of Ataturk” to provide a network for professional Turkish women around the globe. The organization is named for Kemal Ataturk.
Side caption: “Contrary to what many people believe,the majority of the Turkish women are quite well-educated though people tend to think that Turkey is still a third world country. …With one e-mail, I could reach about 100,000 Turkish women. It’s still mind-boggling to me.” Sema Karaoglu
In 1999, Sema Karaoglu founded an organization called“Daughters of Ataturk,’ designed to bring together women of Turkish birth and/or descent who now live inthe United States and other parts of the world.Turkey’s history, though not very well known, is one of fascination. Sema’s background is Turkish, but she was born on the island of Cyprus (south of Turkey)which, at the time was part of the British Empire.She had some schooling in Turkey, but not much –instead, she went to elementary school and college here in Southern California. She had an aunt who lived here, which was one of the reasons the family chose to move here.“I used to work for one of the big accounting firms, but my husband is semi-retired and I feel it’s a good time for me to stay at home. I have been very active in the Turkish American community every since I was a little girl – either representing Turkey at the schoolplays or at Christmas – and it just grew from that,”Sema said with a smile.
You founded the organization “Daughters of Ataturk”what prompted you to do that?“I realized there was nothing for Turkish American women in the United States and actually,internationally. No women’s clubs – I’m not talking about social clubs, but I wanted something very professional that would help the Turkish American women with some networking internationally. Contrary to what many people believe, the majority of the Turkish women are quite well-educated though people tend to think that Turkey is still a third world country. However, women are in all the professions there. Example: the first combat pilot ever in the world, was a woman, born and raised in Turkey. Her name is Sabiha Gokcen, and there is a documentary about her. The Turkish Air Force was just being founded in the 1930s and Ataturk was into the emancipation of Turkish women. It was also the time we became full-fledged citizens and given all rights of men. All the laws were changed. Prior to that, wef ollowed a mixture of Islamic law and the Ottoman.With the independence movement, Ataturk made a lot of reforms – the alphabet was changed and the emancipation of women included changing the dress to Western clothes.“We also had the first woman judge in Europe because it was the time of doing things – of producing whatever could be done with Turkey, and of sending young women and men to be educated in Europe, then bringing them back to Turkey to teach others.
(SECOND PAGE CAPTION: CITIZEN: TurkishProfessionals)
“There was anti-Semitism in Europe under Hitler in the‘30s and ‘40s. There were a lot of German Jews thatwere trying to get out of Germany and they were welcomed in Turkey’s university to study in thed epartments of chemistry and of engineering. It was a wonderful time for Turkey. Those were the reasons I wanted to bring those things out. I wanted an Internet site to reach the people. I decided to do it in English because it’s the most used language in the world.”
Tell me about Kemal Ataturk“
He was the founder of the Republic of Turkey and could be compared to George Washington. He had a very good educational background and it was right about the end of the First World War. The Ottoman Empire at that time was being divided into many countries – one of the reasons was the petrol. For example, the present-day Iraq and the present-day Lebanon were all part of the Ottoman Empire. Once the oil was found,the superpowers of the time decided that the Turks should not have that. We were also on the side of the Germans and Austrians, so basically, we lost the war and that meant division of the Empire. Some Turks decided there had to be a Turkish homeland, so under Kemal Ataturk’s leadership, they fought the War of Independence, mostly from foreign powers. He was smart enough and had enough vision to realize that we couldn’t hold on to the whole of the Ottoman Empire –that some parts had to go and what we called Anatolia should be the homeland of the Turks. Once that was formed, he said that Turkey should now become a modern nation – there should be a separation of church and state – it should be a democratically elected country and he also emancipated women, giving them equal rights as men and the right to not only vote, but to be elected!”
What is the population of Turkish/Americans?
“Turkish immigration to the United States began in 1880. At that time, there were about 80,000 Turkish people that came here as contract workers, but they came by themselves. Some of them married here and stayed and blended in with the population. Some non-Turkish, but Ottoman citizens from other ethnic groups also came. Now the population is about 500,000 and are basically the new generation.
How does your husband fit into this?
“He says, “When I married you, I didn’t realize I was marrying the entire Turkish nation!” Sema laughed.But he actually helps me with a lot of things and is very understanding and tolerant.”Sema said that she wanted to help the Turkish American women here because she remembers in the early ‘70s that the educated Turkish professional woman blended in and were not a threat to the American man. But she was a foreigner – something affecting an American nickname – and her native culture was completely lost. Now, they are Americans by naturalization, or born here, but both parents were Turkish born and they need to have their presence felt. Unlike other immigrants groups, they have no organized church, Sema said. So the Internet has been a vital tool and a blessing, in getting these women together.
Your Web site: www.dofa.org
lists a number of women in wide ranging professions. How do you find them?
“Usually, by word of mouth. I send out e-mails asking for people who are prominent in their field, and some of them become “Women of Distinction.” Usually through the Internet and other local clubs in the U.S.
It’s how I got international, through the other clubs across the globe. With one e-mail, I could reach about 100,000 Turkish women. It’s still mind-boggling to me. They’re from France, Germany, other European and Asian countries, and from Latin America.”
Sema invites you to visit her Web site at www.DofA.org
Is there one thing that your organization has done that you would like to share?
“When I say I’m from “Daughters of Ataturk,” I would like people begin to recognize what that is – even in our little community of San Clemente – because we have a done a couple of things. We’ve raised money for the Senior Center, for example. Their lunch tickets had gone up and there were some seniors that were having difficulty with that, so we decided to raise money for them. We have also done some things with different libraries.
Do you have a favorite childhood memory?
“I was in elementary school in the San Fernando area during the Korean War. Every day it was in the news.The Turkish regiment was on the side of the American forces – like now. The kids would say, “What is theTurk?” I remember my teacher, making me stand on a chair and she would say, “This is a Turk.” I suppose they expected something different – but I felt very proud to be standing in front of the class – on a chair – and I was a Turk!”

posted by meltem on 05.28.05 @ 11:01 am