Our Students Learnt About Life Through Experience Programs

Our Students Learnt About Life Through Experience Programs

To make summer holidays more productive for our students, we initiated “Experience Programs” this summer. Elementary, secondary and high school students experienced life with the program. Through the program, they took responsibility and developed their social and communication skills.

Experience programs are planned in a way that our students can closely observe different lines of business, communicate one-to-one with customers and employees, carry out studies that will enable them to learn the jobs on the field, take responsibility and perform the assigned tasks.

Experience programs have been created to enable students to gain experience in an out-of-school environment. With the experience programs that are planned with the aim of developing students’ perspective on life and empowering them about carrying out activities that are beneficial to humanity, our students had the opportunity to see how they would possibly work in the future before they are fully embarked on business life. Thus, their social and communication skills developed. They also learned to establish dialogue with out-of-school environment and people.

By observing the environment, they had a chance to understand which department and which position was appropriate for them. Providing an opportunity to guide their careers had a positive impact on students’ design for the future. Our students also had the opportunity to observe whether their dream career was appropriate for them in real life. The theoretical knowledge at school was put into practice with the experience program. The students learned what the slightest mistake could cause. With the knowledge they gained experience in the first steps of their professional life, their self-confidence improved.

NUN Schools R&D Coordinator Tuğba Ece explained the program as, “Our students took responsibility within the scope of this program, improved their social and communication skills, observed how business management and cooperation function as well as the communication rules and vocational language. Our experience programs varied from graphic-design to wooden workshop, from hearing and visually impaired schools to retirement homes, from working at a grocery store to learning about the plants in the botanical park. Some students had the opportunity to observe the technology design at Baykar Makina and some others had the opportunity to work at the United Nations… Our students had the opportunity to observe the work experience in many different fields from banks to advertising agencies, from a technology company to a science center, while learning about their professional preferences for their future lives. Our students shared their experiences with us via their presentations. We have already started to make our future plans based on these presentations.”

4^th grader Ahmet Emir has been working in a kebab restaurant for 5 days as a part of our experience programs and he expressed his experience and explained the impact of the program on his life, “I understood what it meant to work, the value of money, the hardship of putting an effort. I’ve seen how many people to put an effort in places we dine. I used my money for social responsibility projects. I took the bus and the subway to work. Now I can use public transport on my own.”

Elanur gained experience in technology design at Baykar Makina with the program, said, “I knew that technology design was one of the most important lines of business in the 21^st century. I’ve always dreamed of becoming an engineer. I was very happy to see a profession I dreamed of and to benefit from the experiences of the people there. I believe that there will be great advantages of this experience in my future professional life.”

10^th grader Beyzanur had her experience program in a veterinary clinic and said, “I was very happy to be close with animals and to help with their troubles and problems. In order to help our friends that we share our planet with, I can choose this profession in the future.” Another 10^th grader, Sueda was one of our students that has experienced the program at the United Nations and shared her experience as, “I was having difficulty communicating with people I just met. With this experience, I began to communicate easily. I felt the happiness of working for the benefit of humanity by getting to know people from different nationalities. I understood that working life is a process that requires patience and fortitude. I understood the importance of being good-humored for professional life. I was even more encouraged to work for the benefit of humanity.” NUN Education and Culture Foundation Board Member Dr. Tamer Yılmaz underlined that the students of NUN Schools gained self-confidence with this program and said, “This kind of working experience positively affects the students’ view of life. We are opposed to limit our students’ education between the walls of the school. We believe that education is a process that intertwined with social life. We are planning to improve the nature of these programs that we started for the first time this year and will implement them in the following years. We want NUN Schools’ students to encounter the challenges of life. We support lifelong learning. We saw the happiness on the faces of our students that earned money for the first time. Our parents also shared the changes that they witnessed in their children through this program. We prepare our students for life on the one hand and university on the other. “

The administrators of our school had the opportunity to evaluate the outcomes of the program with the students’ presentations about their experience program to their friends and teachers; they stated that such practices will continue with different alternatives in the upcoming years.