“Raise your voice, be your own future!”

Elif Caliskan, a 17-year old girl from our Turkish partner Acarkent Doğa IB World School, undoubtedly has clear ideas about how to be her own future! After she won the WYRED Slogan Competition under the 14-17 category, she told us about her story, her dreams and the impressive science project she designed and carried out.
Let’s leave this story to her own words:

“Since I was a child, I have always dreamt about doing something that would have the power to change the world. With the great help of the introductory WYRED social dialogue sessions I attended, I found the courage to take action. I joined the WYRED community and their slogan contest.
I knew it could have a significant impact, but I did not think I would get that far.
When my slogan ‘Raise your voice, be your own future’ won first prize, I was completely mesmerised!

I was certain to achieve something, thanks to my dedication which I have always had to accomplish my goals; on this occasion, my goal was to achieve something that would be beneficial to humankind.
My school and my chemistry teacher Mustafa Abidinoğlu, supported me in my interest towards science.
They have encouraged me to apply for the science project and supported me to discover how to carry out scientific researches.

I am particularly interested in global pollution, therefore I decided to develop something that would reduce the impact of global warming. Global demand for energy has greatly increased, due to the increase of population. This need for energy is met with fossil fuel; however, it has already been shown that it has harmful effects for human health and for the environment, not to mention its high costs. Therefore, I decided to use a salt called sodium sulphate to insulate dwellings. The salt will be exclusively from local production, therefore helping the country to supply its own. This house front insulation substance will be sustainable and environmentally friendly as well, in contrast to the ones that are currently in use.

The materials in use today are outdated and, since I believe that new age materials should be used, I realised my project. After I finished my project, I decided to send it to the National Science Competition so that everyone could hear my voice. When I presented my project to judges of different science competitions, they looked at it with great interest, and the project was chosen to be sent to international competitions. Presenting what I put my efforts in was a great feeling. I knew that this project would not save the world, however, I was off to a good start.

I am still pursuing my interest in science and searching for ways to develop myself.
I hope that my ambition will make me one of the greatest female scientists who ever lived.”

Society really needs to focus more on these kinds of everyday success stories.
Once again we are proud of belonging to the WYRED global community!

Elif Caliskan and her winning slogan