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Kaya
TUNCER Receives 2004
Ellis Island Medal
1)
Kaya TUNCER, Founder of the Global Friendship Through
Space Education &Space Camp Turkey receives 2004
Ellis Island Medal of Honor; 2) Mr. TUNCER is with Michael
Parlamis, the Greek-American businessman,
former medalist himself, who nominated Kaya for the
award (left).
Global Friendship Chairman Kaya TUNCER was honored with
the 2004 Ellis Island Medal of Honor at a Gala ceremony May 15th on Ellis
Island. Established in 1986 by the National Ethnic Coalition
of Organizations (NECO), the medal pay tribute to American
citizens for their understanding contributions to their
own ethnic groups, their ancestral countries and American
society.
Mr.
TUNCER was nominated by Michael PARLAMIS, a former medallist,
who is a successful Greek-American businessman and a
friend of the Turks. According to Mr. PARLAMIS, Mr.
TUNCER's "philanthropy and the residual effect
on the students will have a more lasting effect on world
peace than most other efforts--either private or public."
With
this award, Mr. TUNCER has been recognized for his philanthropic
work as Chairman and founder of Global Friendship
Through Space Education. He believes
that connecting youth with their peers throughout the
world through education and friendship will help lead
to peace among nations.
Mr.
TUNCER personally provides scholarships to enable students
to attend Space Camp Turkey (which he founded in 2000)
where they participate in science and space-related
activities, learn team-building and leadership skills
and make friends with young people from different countries
and cultures. This year, over 800 scholarships are being awarded enabling
qualifying students to attend a six-day session at Space
Camp Turkey together with youth from 15 different countries.
Global Friendship Through Space Education also has an educational
program that connects teachers and students in different
countries with the objective of expanding the students'
knowledge of math and science and promoting cross-cultural
understanding through collaborative research and hands-on
science and math activities.
Space Camp
Turkey is located in Izmir at the Aegean Free Zone,
Turkey's leading industrial park. Kaya TUNCER is the
founder and chairman of ESBAS, the company responsible
for developing and operating the Zone. Located on 550
acres, the Aegean Free Zone currently employs about
12,000 and will eventually provide jobs for 35,000 people.
It is presently used by some 350 firms, a third of them
non-Turkish. In 2003, the annual business volume at
the Zone reached U.S.$ 2.7 billion.
Scholarships:
This year Global Friendship will provide 800 scholarships
for youth from 15 different countries, including the
U.S., to attend a six-day session at Space Camp Turkey
(founded by Kaya Dunce in 2000) where they participate
in science and space-related activities, learn team-building
and leadership skills and make friends with young people
from different countries and cultures.
Year-long
educational programs: The Partner School Science
Program connects teachers and students of different
countries through NASA Distance Learning curriculum.
The objective is to expand students' knowledge of math
and science and promote cross-cultural understanding
through collaborative research and hands-on science
and math activities. With the help of e-mailing and
videoconferencing technology, the students and their
teachers are able to interact with each other and discuss
not only space-related questions, but also share what
their lives are like in their home countries. Currently
a total of 13 schools in the U.S., Turkey and Israel
are participating in this program.
E-Pal
Week at Space Camp Turkey: As a culmination of their
year-long collaboration, these students will get together
at E-Pal Week (July 4-10, 2004) at a special week-long
session at Space Camp Turkey. A group of over 150 students,
counselors and teachers representing five different
countries will have the opportunity to meet each other,
learn from a visiting NASA expert and share their experiences
as participants of this global program. Representing
the U.S. will be a group of 40 students, teachers, administrators
and parents from four New York and California cahoots.
_ . _
For further information, please contact Sema
Basol at (310) 546-7027 or e-mail to: info@gftse.org
For a complete list of 2004
Ellis Island Medals of Honor Recipients contact
Donald Kaplan at 212 843 8065.
Also:
Space
Camp Turkey: Filmmaker's Diary
by Binnur Karaevli
Global
Friendship Through Space Education
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