Jesse White In 2015, Akgun Temizer established a $1.3 million scholarship program for students at his former high school in Ankara, Turkey, to attend New College. The scholarship covers out-of-state tuition costs, living expenses, and transportation to and from Turkey for breaks and holidays. In 2017, Temizer enhanced the scholarship fund with an additional $1.2 million gift.

The source of Temizer’s passion is simple. Learning transformed his life. He wants to offer that same transformation to other Turkish scholars.

“Education is my priority,” says Temizer, who has been a U.S. citizen since 1969 and now lives in Sarasota. “I was fortunate to have received a great education from elementary school through university in Turkey. My desire is for the Turkish students to come here and experience this great nation. Once they graduate, they can go back to Turkey and apply what they learned from the United States.”

Ozan Gökdemir ’15 was the scholarship’s first recipient. “This dream opportunity was far above the means of a middle-class teenager in Turkey,” he says. “It’s changed the course of my life tremendously.”

Gökdemir graduated from New College this summer with a degree in computer science. He notes that the Temizer Scholarship advanced his studies in that specialty, but also provided a well-rounded, liberal arts education. According Gökdemir, “That combination laid a solid foundation for my future academic and professional endeavors.”

In 2017, Gökdemir received cutting-edge Android developer training, thanks to a Google Developer Challenge Scholarship. He shared his newfound skills at New College, as part of a semester-long tutorial in Android development for students in the Computer Science, Environmental Science and East Asian Studies departments. MIT Teaching Systems Lab also tapped Gökdemir for its paid undergraduate research opportunity program (UROP). In the summer before his senior year, Gökdemir was part of an interdisciplinary engineering team. That team developed cutting-edge educational technologies for training and assisting K-12 teachers.

For Gökdemir, these opportunities have been life-changing. And he’s grateful for the person who made it possible.

“Mr. Temizer is a well-accomplished man who defines himself as a product of the Turkish public education system,” Gökdemir says. “He created this scholarship to give back to his home communities in Turkey and Sarasota. Now he’s passed the torch on to us, and we intend to carry it forward.”

Now Atalay Kutlay ’18 and Nisanur Genç ’19 will be carrying that torch forward. They’re both also studying computer science.

MaryAnne Young, New College Foundation’s vice president of advancement and executive director, shares Temizer’s passion for learning.

“We’ve had several conversations about the power of education,” she says. “Mr. Temizer has seen the impact of his scholarship first-hand, and he’s thrilled to have played a part in transforming this student’s life. We are all so indebted to Mr. Temizer for creating a second scholarship at New College. It’s had an amazing impact so far, and this is only the beginning.”