The Way I See It: 4 days in Istanbul

By Elisabeth Kalomeris
Special to the Rice News

While many Rice students made the two-hour trek to Austin for fall break, seven social-sciences students, including myself, did something a bit more “unconventional” and took a 13-hour flight to Istanbul. We went as part of the School of Social Sciences’ Gateway Study of Leadership (GSL), hoping to expand our program to our partner university in Istanbul, Koç University.

Rice Gateway Study of Leadership students in Istanbul.

On Sunday, we met the Turkish students who would be shadowing us while we conducted interviews with Koç professors. The goal of this visit was to provide the opportunity for them to set up their own research fellowship within their Global Engagement Certificate Program. It was also a chance for us to engage with Turkish students and create long-standing partnerships with them that will not only benefit GSL, but also ourselves.

There are quite a few sights that are considered “must-sees” in Istanbul, so we spent part of the weekend weaving our way through the historic district. We visited Hagia Sophia, where we saw the result of shifting religious influences over the centuries. Then we walked around the alleyways of the Grand Bazaar, trying to bargain for gifts to bring back home while dodging speeding waiters. We finally ended the day drinking salep (a hot, milky beverage made from orchid tubers) and looking over to Europe from across the Bosporus. Houston’s Galleria can’t compete with the Hagia Sophia, and neither can the Bayou with the Bosporus. But I couldn’t help but make comparisons between the two cities. This theme would also appear when Ipek Martinez, the associate dean of the School of Social Sciences, mentioned past projects from Global Urban Lab, which compares aspects of the two cities.

Although we spent our weekend exploring the new city, we went to Istanbul with a purpose. Over the years GSL has grown from modest beginnings to a program with over 25 members, including fellows, senior fellows, international liaisons and our two co-directors. After this trip, our numbers now include seven new Turkish students. Their aim is to set up a parallel program at their university and create a research presentation and the “Turning Points” series, booklets that showcase excerpts from our interviews with professors. Reading these engaging stories from faculty is what really convinced me to get involved with the GSL when I was a freshman.

We spent Sunday hosting an orientation meeting, getting to know the Turkish students and discussing our ideas about leadership. Everyone has different opinions and ideas about what leadership means, and we were especially curious to see if their definitions of leadership would differ from ours, based on our different cultural contexts. One of the most rewarding parts of this experience was getting to know the students at Koç University. They were all so welcoming, and it was interesting to hear the perspective of students from around the world.

Rice Gateway students with staff members Ipek Martinez and Alex Wyatt enjoying dinner near the Bosphorus River.

On Monday, we conducted our interviews with Koç professors on their campus. This not only gave us some insight into Koç faculty, but also into student life on campus. In addition to conducting interviews, we heard from two speakers. The first was  Oğuz Babüroğlu, who discussed the relationship between research and consulting and what academic institutions will look like in the future. Zeynep Aycan also gave us a presentation later that day that discussed her research in the field of leadership and the difference between management and leadership in organizations.

I can’t believe how lucky the seven of us were to have had this opportunity to go to Turkey. Not only to see how beautiful Istanbul is, but also to have an active role in shaping the future of an organization with which we are all deeply involved. We are so grateful to Dean Lyn Ragsdale, Alex Wyatt and Ipek from the Gateway team who made this trip possible, and for the faculty and staff at Koç who worked to bring GSL there, such as Dr. Aycan and Mert Cetinkaya. The Koç University students will be continuing the work we started Oct. 12 throughout the next year. We are still resources to our Turkish peers, yet it will be up to them to shape the program at Koç University. Luckily, we could not have ended up with a better team of Koç students. Their excitement for the new program and learning about GSL was probably the largest contributing factor to the success of the trip, and we are looking forward to seeing our friends again someday soon.

— Elisabeth Kalomeris is a senior fellow of the Gateway Study of Leadership program and a sophomore at Martel College.