Hi Everyone! My name is Sanay Tüfekçi and I am a rising third year at the University of Florida. I am studying political science and international studies with a focus on the Middle East. A Columbus native, I’m excited to be home this summer and working with Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services through the Columbus Foundation Summer Fellowship! 

ETSS is an amazing organization which serves as the focal point of societal integration for immigrants, refugees, and low-income individuals. They offer education, training, supportive services, and self-development opportunities to these Columbus communities. Everyone has been incredibly warm and welcoming to me in my first few days.

This week kicked off strong with staff training for the Summer Youth Enrichment Program, a free summer camp for 1st through 8th graders from refugee, immigrant, and low-income families. The staff are clearly passionate about creating a fun, safe, and educational space for the kids. The training has been really valuable even though I’m not an educator, including seminars on de-escalation and trauma informed care. 

SYEP serves many roles: it provides free childcare for working parents, breakfast and lunch to the students, a positive and constructive environment that keeps kids from destructive activities, and an opportunity for in-depth tutoring in math, literacy, STEAM, and other subjects to prevent summer learning loss. I learned yesterday that without intervention from these types of high-quality educational programs, low-income youth often fall several months behind their more affluent peers over the summer. I will have the opportunity later in the summer to visit a few sites and get to know some of the students, which is exciting! 

My main project with ETSS is planning the Youth Summit event on August 8, which brings together every SYEP site to celebrate their successes each year. My wonderful supervisor Sarah Huffman has helped me put together a to-do list for the event, including marketing, volunteer coordination, logistics, securing donations, and food! Next week, I hope to dig into some of these details.

Hope to see you next week!

Sanay