Visually Impaired Leaders :

Don't Be Dream-Impaired:
I am Suleyman Ari
I was born in Mersin. I have 9 siblings. Due to an dynamite accident I lost my vision at the age of 6. At the age of 14 I received my elementary school diploma and the same year in 1989 on a scholorship I entered Mithat Enc School for the visually impaired youth. I graduated from this school in 1992 with an 9.35 / 10 grade point average and became third in my school.. I later received a scholorship from the government and attended Ankara Cumhuriyet High School. I graduated high school with a 4.60 / 5 grade point average in 1995. The same year I won an scholorship to Bilkent University to study International Relations. I was the 200th student among thousands who entered university exams in Turkey.

I graduated from Bilkent University in 2000 with a grade point average of 3.95 / 4 and became first in my department. Upon graduating from Bilkent I received many scholorships to do my masters and doctoral studies from Universities such as Columbia, Chicago, U.S.C and U.C.L.A in USA. I chose U.C.L.A to study Political Science. When I came to California I was faced with many obstacles. This was the first time in my life where I learned how to use the white cane. First time in my life I learned how to use a computer. I made many friends from other countries and other cultures. I participated in many programs and took lessons from many different departments. I first finished my masters at U.C.L.A and gave my masters theses in Fredrick Nietzsche's and Freud's social science methodology. I later continued my doctor's program here and thought classes as an assistant in many departments. At present, I am still working on my doctoral program in U.C.L A and continuing my education in Turkey as well.
At this time, I would like to talk about an experience which gave new meaning to my life. In the summer of 2007, I was introduced to YGA. My brother who was studying in Bogazici at the time mentioned that YGA was giving seminars on the empowerment of the visually impaired youth called "Visually Impaired Leaders". I decided to send my CV to the founder of YGA, Sinan Yaman. That's how my relationship with YGA started. At first, Sinan Yaman and I had a very long conversation on the phone, then YGA graduates visited me in my village. Later on I was selected to participate in YGA's Leadership School in Istanbul. Here, there were two other visually impaired youth along with me and seven other sighted participants. We were educated by leaders and by Sinan Yaman on leadership development skills, we met successful leaders from different fields and learned from their success stories. We developed social, economic and education development projects for the visually impaired youth. Upon graduating from the leadership school I was selected to participate in YGA's International Leadership camp in USA along with 6 other participants. During the camp in USA which was for 10 days we visited New York, Washington DC, Raleigh and Figure Eight Island. We met with Turkish and American leaders and NGO's. We met with Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, with professor Aziz Sancar who is the first Turkish scientist candidate for a Nobel price. We attended a class in Columbia University and participated in a social responsibility discussion session.
We were guest hosts in a radio program in Raleigh and discussed our projects for the empowerment of the visually impaired youth on air.
Upon our return to Turkey we started implementing our empowerment project.

1 - Empowerment of visually impaired university students and young adults:

a. For the first time in Turkey an information network for the visually impaired has been formed under YGA. Organizations will be able to access information regarding the youth for their work force.

b. Visually impaired youths selected from the network are being educated on computer and English language skills by YGA educators and visually impaired leaders.

c. Multinational companies such as Turkcell, Eureko Insurance,Unilever, Mercedes and Fritolay are working with YGA in providing work experince to the youth.

d. For the first time in Turkey a visually impaired youth who is an 2007 YGA graduate, Hande Keykubat ,is working as an manager in a multinational company.

e. For those youth in the work force leaders in different fields give mentoring sessions.

2- Empowerment of the visually impaired youth has also a second component which is in elementary schools:

a. In this component, YGA's Read-Think-Share Turkey program which is implemented in the disadvantaged elementary schools in Turkey, is also implemented in two elementary schools for the visually impaired youth in Ankara and one in Istanbul.

b. Selected visually impaired youth from the Read-Think-Share program are educated and mentored by leaders in leadership workshop programs.

c. Our objective with this project is to educate, train and inspire visually impaired leaders who will be successful members of the society. YGA's biggest dream for a better Turkey is for the young leaders to dream, to turn their dreams into projects and to successfuly implement these projects. This is the reason YGA is a new flame in my life. I am inviting all my dream-partners to share this flame, this dream with me.
We believe at the end of this project we will have visually impaired Sabiha Gokcens', Aziz Sancars' , Muhtar Kents', Idil Birets' and they will make us proud not only in Turkey but also around the world.
In conclusion, "Don't BE DREAM-IMPAIRED".