We are often exposed or encountered in what are the ideas and attitudes of people in Turkey towards gender context, how this perspective is reflected in the shaping of gender roles and the segregation of society on the basis of gender, in the small cells of our lives. It is obvious that the implementation of such a project by KOÇ-KAM and the Consulate General of the Netherlands has created a great wave effect in the days when every step taken to change this ground is valuable. As one of the role model leaders of the future, I am dragging this big wave to all the women I can touch. And this water never stops, we will not stop.

(Photo credit: Alp Esin)

The project of ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models`` is of course very useful for all of us to listen to valuable speakers from the business and academy and to receive mentoring, but for me the most impressive part was the round table we have made with my valued female friends from all corners of our country, from different business lines, with whom I had the chance to get acquainted with this project. Everyone shared the difficulties, advantages, sometimes obstacles and injustices they experienced in business life with each other bravely, sincerely and with great frankness, and our reasoning together created a feeling of unity and solidarity that I always wish to continue. I sincerely thank everyone for their contributions and efforts.

Along with becoming part of the project of ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models``, I have learned the theoretical background of the concept of leadership, what the meaning of leadership means to practice through seminars of experts and esteemed instructors within the framework of their own journey of change and transformation. The issue of gender equality was an area that I have always cared about. However, to be involved in this project; gender-balanced leadership in the business world, equal opportunities in access to leadership roles, the importance of diversity in managerial roles and the major contributions it can bring, and increased awareness of what NGOs, academia and business can do in this area. Mentoring sessions were also a valuable information and experience sharing platform. I think that we have gained valuable in terms of understanding the importance of networking and sisterhood by coming together with the project participants who can share their experiences and opinions from various fields. I feel very lucky to be accepted into this project. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Koç University, Koç University Women's Research Center and the entire Project team.

The project of ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models`` has enabled us to rediscover the power already existing within us. In this process, where we have the opportunity to benefit from the unique experiences of women from different sectors and ages, we have improved our equipment with the contribution of trainings and mentoring sessions. We understood that leadership is not a place to be reached, but the journey itself, and the importance of aiming for the better with the people who accompany us on this road. We had the opportunity to hear firsthand how the qualities of each woman, which sometimes appear to be disadvantageous, can be an advantage when properly formulated. Our one-year adventure with this eclectic, goal-oriented, highly motivated and sincere team was highly instructive and inspiring.

While I was doing academic studies on the representation of women in the art world, I came across the call of the The Center for Gender Studies at Koc University (KOÇ-KAM). This project was a very promising work, supported by UNESCO, entitled ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models``. This project, which I was accepted in the art category, included various trainings, networking and mentoring services for about a year. I would like to thank to Bertil E. Öder, the Director of Koçkam, and the program coordinator of the project are very dear Aslı Mert, and art category mentor, valuable art person / curator Beral Madra and other participants. For me, as a female artist and academician, I gained important information about leadership and courage. During the project, I became one of the founders of a music group consisting of three female artists called Lotus Istanbul and started our concerts. I am grateful for this beautiful project that has prepared me for the next phase of my life by adding my talent and professional love, some courage and some leadership skills.

Being a Woman and Being a Leader

Gender (in)equality is a major problem in our country as it is in the whole world. The fact that every day we encounter more tragic news than the previous one reveals our helplessness. Unfortunately, we live in a country where even being a woman is extremely difficult. Among these challenges, I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in this training, where all the information and norms we need to become a “leader woman” are provided internationally.

Thanks to this project realized by The Center for Gender Studies at Koc University (KOÇ-KAM) and the Consulate General of the Netherlands, as a role model leader woman of the future, we learned both theoretical lessons and the role model mentors, each of whom is the doyen of the sector, now I feel more valuable, more confident and more ready for the future.

Dear Project Team,

It was an honor for me to be trained in the ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models`` Project. I would like to point out that my meetings with my mentor and the general content of the training broaden my vision and increase my self-awareness. I would very much like to participate in your similar projects. I wish you continued success.

Best regards

We have been so negatively conditioned since childhood. Unfortunately, this condition did not benefit women. It further strengthened women's experience of discrimination in society. Women's capabilities, competencies, intelligence, skills ... All of this is coded with ``unfounded, unwarranted and absurd schemes`` as if it were incomplete or insufficient for men. I think that one of these false codes is the claim that women are enemies of women. However, we already have the power as women, our potential, our skills; women would be strengthened by our solidarity and companionship. Whoever feared the power of this solidarity wanted to destroy this solidarity network for years. The discourse of patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity made women worthless. We women need to support women in every medium. This is a great responsibility for all of us. I was very happy to be involved in this project. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Aslı Mert and her team Hesna, Eylül and all my sisters that I could not remember. I embrace you all with love.

I am very pleased to share sectoral problems in the field of urban and architectural sustainability with my fellow and other employees within the scope of the ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models`` and to allow Koç University to recognize this opportunity. In addition to knowing the pioneering mentor of our sector, I had the opportunity to communicate with many successful people from other sectors. I hope that this project will be a guide for future female managers, who will be experts in their fields, as beneficial to me.

As a person who applied to the project in Istanbul and came from Samsun, I am glad to say that I have been involved in the project. I am very happy to have made valuable friendships, as well as good trainings and highly productive mentoring processes.

While being and living as a woman in a world and country dominated by patriarchal order and patterns, the implementation of strategic projects such as the Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models Project is very meaningful and valuable. In addition to focusing on leadership in general, the Project's sectoral contact with the issue is one of the features that make it privileged. I am very happy to be part of such a Project; I would also like to thank them for their training, their valuable mentors, speakers, and participants. On this occasion, first of all, I would like to thank Dr. Aslı E. Mert, and my mentor Prof.Dr. Dr. Sondan Durukanoğlu Feyiz, who widen my horizon, and everyone who contributed, and I wish that many such elite and inspiring projects will become widespread.

“Women role models of the future”, reading these 5 words is enough to stimulate my feelings. There is a future, role modeling, leadership, and being women.

When I applied to this project with a letter of intent about 1.5 -2 years ago, I had no idea of its scope. All I knew was that whatever role I was in, I had to take part. Having lived through a process above my expectations was another reason for happiness.

Every human being is a universe and every human being is unique in this world because of its special mix. So I think we should know our values and make our strengths even more polished. For the last six months, I have made a special effort to determine my own values. Making a difference, being fair and being productive are my top three values. Productivity is formed if innovation, effort, and sharing are together.

Now I understand better why I ran blindly for ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models Project``. It contains almost all my values.

Above all, an enthusiastic and well-organized team greeted us. Contrary to what I expected; not only engineers; I had the chance to know the future women leaders from all sectors. This was exactly the “quality surprise”for me. Even trying to understand the differences and similarities between sectors is a big contribution to the future. We had the chance to meet inspiring women leaders both online and in person. There are two women leaders that impressed me. First; Facebook top manager Sheryl Sandberg. We watched and interpreted her TED speech with my teammate. She says, ``As women, we never sit in the front or in the middle of the table if there is a meeting somewhere. We're waiting and going back. In order to take our right, we must sit in the front and in the center of the table.” (Good news, I'm sitting in the front now 😊). When a mother travels for work, her child comes, hugs her leg and looks up into her eyes and says, “Mom, can't you go?”; I think you're not a mother who doesn't live it. I realized that we need to calm down and manage the process and that this is universal. Finally, she says, ``bargain.`` When I looked back, she was really right about that.

The second woman I was impressed was Arzu Aslan Kesimer, CEO of TAT Gıda. I can not forget the sentence;

“ In business life, women promoted according to their superior performance; men are promoted according to their potential ”.

In a nutshell, I had a time in this project that I knew, met, learned, shared, believed that I had made friendships and enjoyed being in.

Happily I've lived

Happily I did.

If there is a woman, that means there is a color 😊

The key to making a difference in the future is where women and men are equal!

The impact of ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models`` projects on our lives...

I am grateful to Dr. Aslı E. Mert and the project team for the ``Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models`` project, which brought about changes that I cannot predict the impact on my life.

I was informed that my friend Food Engineer Handan Ket forwarded the project announcement to me. However, when I first read the announcement text, I was in a period of collapse that I could not see the features in myself. This collapse has not been voluntary. Unfortunately, the attitudes of my opposite sexes in my business life towards successful women were caused.

While I was about to admit that I was the wrong person and the one who had failed, I woke up with the shout of my friend (my sister). “Seda, pull yourself together!``, she shouted over the phone.

I gathered courage and wrote about what I experienced, sincerely. On the other hand, I could not control my tears as I remembered. Even though I was not accepted to the project, I wanted someone to hear the mobbing and resistance that I experienced.

The day I found out that I was accepted into the project, it was when I started to get up on my knees from where I fell. My friend Handan, who saw me as a role model, was most pleased with my acceptance to the project.

I continued my project trainings. I even got connected during my travel abroad through volunteer friends in the project. Every training gave me new beginnings. During the project, I stood up on my knees and became more giant: a giant 1.55 meters 🙂

After the first trainings, I gathered courage and sent e-mails to the teachers abroad for post-doc work. Even though I rarely received a return, I kept sending emails. Each time I returned to Çanakkale after the trainings, we shared my experiences with my friends and became even stronger. Every month after the training meetings, we acted together.

Together with my sisters Dr. Dilvin Ipek and Dr. Burcu İleri, we sent e-mails to create a consortium for the European Union Projects that are suitable for our field. We prepared a Scientific Research Project with my little sisters Burcu Kara, Melike Nur Tosun and Gizem Taylan. I applied for YOK Foreign Language Scholarship. I made attempts to establish a company in Çanakkale Teknopark to make real my ideas. And I didn't stop at all the injustices. I didn't hesitate to tell you the truth. Together with my sisters. I realized I wasn't wrong: I was just alone. But now I have a very big sister family.

So what have we achieved in the end? We started our scientific research project worth about 25.000 TL, I won the YÖK Foreign Language Scholarship and became the guest of the teachers I met abroad. I attended FAO and WFP meetings abroad. As part of the PRIMA program, led by Dr Pilar García (Spanish National Research Council-CSIC), we were jointly involved in the European Union project funded from the Ufuk2020 program budget. Moreover, we have passed the first stage in the project application. We were the only applicant consortium, who pass the second stage from Turkey. Nowadays we look forward to the second evaluation results with impatience. But even this success has bound us to the principles we believe again and showed that we are on the right track. My husband Yavuz Selim Tepeli did not spare me moral support by waiting for me at Koç University campus during the trainings. I also founded Codelexity Technology Trade Limited Company with my husband in Çanakkale Teknopark.

The difficulties that I have experienced or experienced are coming to me again, but now they make me bigger. I want to express without hesitation: every failure my male executives accuse me has made me even more successful. I know that being a manager and being a role model leader is as different as black and white.

I love my profession because I'm the light of the role model leadership spirit, not the sense of management, to hundreds of students in every education period.

Thank you. Prof. Aslı Mert and Koç University

National Project Sisters

My ``European Union Project`` sisters and our sports teacher.

My teacher, who hosted me abroad, is incredibly motivating and humble.

My abroad class, where I had incredible fun.

It was an amazing journey to be with this group of women and this experience contributed to crucial aspects of life as in art, academic, health industry. What I gained from the project is: “Leadership types may vary, yet decisiveness and being hardworking are unique traits. Being united is also an extremely key element for #sisterhood and #genderequality. By putting the bricks of the wall -that is gender equality- one by one, we will be united and with this sisterhood spirit, our network of role model leader women will flourish. To all those who have contributed to this project, once again: big thank you!

Being a candidate to become the role model woman of the future, it sounds cool. When I received the first e-mail I was accepted for the project, I was very happy and proud. I can't thank you enough for giving me that chance. What was shown to us during the trainings throughout the project contributed a lot to me to improve myself. I have learned how important body language is. The warm-up movements recommended in training in the morning are an indispensable part of my life. I have studied the genetics of molecular biology, which is my only ideal, and I am working on my field. For many, I'm lucky. I have to improve myself to be useful to my sisters. The presentations in our own subject are great examples for us to look to the future with hope. I think our role models were unique. During my interviews with our mentor, whose subject is health, I took my notes from my mentor's experiences as homework. Besides what I have learned from the trainings, the project has a special place for me. It was a good motivation for me to attend the trainings of the project every month and to meet with the other participants and the valuable project team. It made me strong in the face of a health related family problem. It's a good thing I was able to get this project, and I'm glad I joined. It will always be a very special place for me. I know my goal of joining the project is that I will soon go further to make it a real. Thank you very much for your contribution. Hope to see my sisters on the days when I can be useful.

It was an unforgettable experience for me to have taken part in the Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models Project. I had the opportunity to meet well-educated people from many different sectors. In general, during the training, we discussed the issues we encounter in our work life and how we should approach them, and one of the most important of these issues was ``inequality``. The task of a leader and a manager is not only to provide the team with good guidance and management, but also to train people. For me, growing up and developing starts with understanding the concepts of justice and equality. In the process of leading women education, we have touched on these concepts very much and we have tried to produce solutions by sharing our experiences with each other. Apart from this, we shared our successes and works with each other. To sum up, I was honored and happy to have taken part in such a project. I would like to thank Koç University and all our trainers for their efforts.

This project, in which I am involved in the academy, inspired me with its eye-opening theoretical knowledge and findings supported by scientific facts. While my theoretical knowledge deepened my vision of my leadership role on a sectoral basis, the findings on gender inequality in the light of scientific research enriched my solution-oriented perspective. In one-on-one meetings with my mentor; I had the opportunity to discuss innovative ideas for my sectoral and social goals. I am delighted to be involved in this project that brings together women from different sectors that are the focus of the problems we face in our time, as well as ideas and transformative leadership roles.

Being a role model, being a woman, being a mother, being a wife and being an engineer. In other words, to accommodate more than one woman in a body and try to make each of them know each other and their surroundings.

In order to understand the different roles we have assigned to ourselves or assigned to us, we have told and listened. Each time we talked more, we listened more. We were amazed, surprised, laughed and sad. We blended the different roles of different bodies so that each of us became a part of the other. We know that in order to become a role model, we will evolve and evolve with what we take from each other and we will always carry the other shelter in the best way. Endless thanks to everyone who made this experience possible for us and contributed to our experience.

Throughout history, gender inequality has always been an obstacle to women. Inequality has an impact on many areas, from participation in economic and political life to educational opportunities.

I think women in this unfair race need a lot of support from each other. I believe that the progress of our society will be with the success of women and I think that women should be in solidarity with their fellow citizens.

Thanks to the Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models Project, I found myself in a ``sisterhood`` environment. This was exactly what we needed to achieve equality. Throughout the project, we took lessons from our very successful instructors, attended seminars of distinguished names, had a chance to chat with our mentors and listen to their experiences, and also had the opportunity to meet other female participants in the project. I am very happy to have participated in this project.

I would like to thank to project coordinator dear Dr. Aslı Mert and everyone who contributed.

Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models Project organized by KOÇ- KAM added many things to me. I am very happy and proud to be one of the 10 women selected in the ``Science and Technology`` category and breathing this atmosphere. The most useful thing for me within the scope of the project; to meet experienced and successful women from me and to consult with them. I have received a lot of help with how and where to behave and take precautions to address the challenges I face in this process and the challenges I may face in the future. In addition, this project process allowed me to unleash the power within me to do things that I did not think and dare. I would like to thank Dr. Aslı Mert, as she provided us this opportunity, organize trainings and workshops throughout the project, and to our instructors who inform us in trainings, and Assoc. Dr. Burcu Özsoy, who is a Science and Technology mentor.

The stereotypes embroidered deeply make daily life difficult as well as work life. And some of them grow directly inside us, we may not even notice. I wish there were more pieces of training that helped to dismantle these stereotypes. We, as the “Technological Women” of the program, are confident that: Women are better engineers and scientists. Women are not too sensitive for leadership and management positions. “A woman is not a wolf to a woman”. Above all, this program has given me a beautiful group of women like me, where I can share my hard times in business. While writing our leadership stories as a woman, she showed the importance of supporting each other and growing by sharing our views.I would like to thank everyone who contributed.

The greatest contribution of Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models Project was to meet with women from 10 different sectors in order to expand my social environment, and to talk about the difficulties faced by women in business life with Koç University professors and to understand that I am not alone in this sense that all women are experiencing similar problems. It gave me a different perspective to overcome the challenges of my business life. The meetings I had with my mentor helped me to see opportunities I could not see from daily routine work. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the project for making me realize these gains.

Enhancing Women's Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models project was excited me very much. I am proud and happy to be selected for this project. I have the chance to be one of the selected participants in the first year of the project. I congratulate their creators and everyone who contributed. While this project supports women on the path of leadership, it has proven that women can overcome any obstacles they face. It provided the participants with strength and motivation. I am one of those who believe that success and leadership come naturally when you do your job with love. While it is necessary to work with determination to continue this, it is very important to listen to the suggestions of the experienced women. This project achieved this through the mentors we matched for a year. As our leading female mentors who shed light on us on this journey, trusting yourself in any sector is one of the cornerstones of leadership. I hope that this wonderful project will continue for many years and will guide every growing leader woman.

While we are being raised as the Leading Model of the Future, we lead the way with the light of the leading women, as well as many Leader Women who will lead with the light of us in the future.