SAC Leadership Conference 2017
This year’s SEV Schools Leadership Conference hosted by SAC (SEV American College) brought together Student Council representatives from all SEV American colleges for three days.
SAC, the youngest member of the four sister schools governed by the Health and Education Foundation, hosted this conference for the first time. Student Councils who met at SAC on December 7th received their leadership T-shirts and departed for their arranged accomodations, houses of hospitable SAC students, for the duration of the conference. The students, who met early next morning and had breakfast together, attended the opening ceremony. The ceremony featured impressive performances prepared by SAC music teachers and students. Afterward, a sharing session was held in the school library. Here, the students played, "2 truths and 1 lie". This was followed by an interactive interview facilitated by Mr. Baybars Örsek, Chairman of the Board of Directors of İzlemedeyiz Association for “data driven social publishing and capacity building to foster Turkey’s governance capacity”. Örsek explained the mission and importance of the İzlemedeyiz Association and then in the second session, divided the students into groups, asking them to fact-check the allegations made by ministers and other high-authority officials. After this successful activity, students had a lunch break followed by a meeting in the library to make their own presentations. School presentations, one of the most important parts of the leadership conference, makes it possible for each student council to learn from each other, while inspiring innovative activities. Individual student councils took the stage to talk about a year’s activities and the place of truth in their school culture. TAC’s Student Council impressed the participants with their presentations on which they had worked for weeks. Then arrived the most anticipated moment of the day: the "CSI" (Crime Scene Investigation) game. Divided into four groups, the students worked as a team to prevent a bomb attack by using clues in classrooms which were converted into hotel rooms. They searched for criminals, while trying to locate and diffuse the bomb. The participants improved their collaboration, problem solving and understanding as a group by learning to adapt to new individuals working in the team. The students received their well-deserved certificates at the end of the day. After a fun and tiring day, guest students left the campus with their SAC hosts ready to meet again the next morning.
The third day of the conference was set aside for a cultural trip. All participants went to the "Istanbul Museum of Modern Art" in Karaköy. The theme of the exhibition was "time" and the students spent three hours at this contemporary art haven, and then, went to dinner together.
At the end of the conference, it was the time to say goodbye to the students who gained new perspectives, ideas, and goals. The TAC Student Council, whose members thoroughly enjoyed the three days in Istanbul, made new friendships and returned to Tarsus with a greater enthusiasm to work towards helping to make our school a better place.