Dear students, teachers, staff, parents and friends of the ACI,

Welcome to the start of a new school year. It is good to see all of you on our beloved campus seated together in our amphitheater. The start of school always brings new energy. You can feel the excitement and energy here today. The excitement of being together...the excitement of a fresh start...maybe even a little nervousness. On Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting a few parents who were dropping off their students at the dorms. Listening to the parents talk about how happy they were to bring their children to ACI and how happy their sons and daughters were about fınally being part of ACI made my day. For many of our new students and for many of you, ACI is not only about a great school with a tradition...it is also about family and how we take care of one another.
 

I would like to congratulate and welcome all our students who have passed the requisite Turkish national exam with very high marks.  Congratulations to our Graduating Class of 2022 and your successes this past year.  Welcome new overseas and Turkish staff. Welcome returning staff. So now that we are all together as one community, one family it is time to start our new chapter... our new future...together.

As I have been preparing for the start of this year, I chanced upon a TED talk from Tom Rivette Carnac on “how to shift your mindset and choose your future”. I recommend it if you have not seen it. I found his talk uplifting... for me he had an implied message….His message is this...we need to approach this year with stubborn and determined optimism...let’s move forward and be future thinkers... Together we can be the community of hopeful beacons for humanity.

Fınally, as ACI continues on its journey, I want to remind each of you on how important we are. I want to read a quote from the 13th Century Persian Poet, Rumi, You are not a drop in the ocean...you are the entire ocean in one drop. Each of us has an ocean inside ….we all have a part to play in this future. We are linked together...each of us can make a difference. Enter to learn...depart to serve.

Let’s have a great year. Thank you.

Brad Bell

Brad BELL

Head of School

Dear Students, Teachers, Parents and Graduates,

As ACI family, we are happy and proud of meeting you once again on a September morning.

The beginning of a new academic year is always exciting to our students and to us.  A new academic year always means to us new hopes, new goals and new experiences.  As Prep students are beginning to a new school, dorm students moving to a new town, new teachers starting to work at a new school and our senior students beginning their graduating year, some are in hurry to move into new buildings, some are curious of the new lessons they are going to take for the first time, some are full of joy of meeting their old friends and some are excited to meet their new friends.  But what we all feel is the same excitement and happiness...

We are starting a new school year growing and strengthening more with 185 new Prep students, coming from different cities.  These students who passed through a difficult exam and registration period, and joined our ACI family with high points strengthening our standing as an educational institution not only in İzmir but all over Turkey.   We believe that they will achieve much more at our school, seeing the proud at their faces and the excitement deep in their hearths.

And our senior students sharing the excitement of the opening days since past four years... An intensive and hard but at the same time much exciting and unforgettable school year is ahead of them, where they will study with ambition and determination to enter to the national or foreign universities they have been aiming with the knowledge and skills they have gained till now, while they will be leading all of the school activities. They must be sure that we will be beside them at every stage of this challenging period and are confident that they will reach their goals.

This year will be full of new excitements also to our students getting a year older and starting a new school year.  With new tracks chosen, new classes, new courses and clubs, activities and social services they are going to take part, they will learn and have fun together, as they will find themselves and move on forward towards their goals.  They will learn from their mistakes, will ask help and support when necessary, and will come over all difficulties without getting desperate and by studying systematically, and will make us and their parents proud with their success.  Each student is considered as a separate individual at our school and our students’ differences, personalities, creativeness and dreams will keep enriching us.

We would also like to thank our graduates who are sharing with us the excitement of starting a new school year.  An institution’s greatest success is establishing a mutual relation with their gradues they brought into life...  We are always proud of them...

Dear Guests;

American Collegiate Institute with its deep rooted history, strong academic program, meaningfull and all-purpose social activities and services, well equipped and strong teachers, and devoted support staff, enchances its success in academic and social areas more each year in the direction of our school’s guiding statements.

ACI will keep moving forward in the direction of Atatürk’s contemporary vision and principles, raising individuals who are progressive, secular, independent and democratic, with an educational understanding embracing national and universal values, sensitive to global issues, questioning, critical and enfolding differences.

We wish all of us a happy, healthy and successful school year, learning by sharing, enjoying by learning, and maintaining our todays excitement and enthusiasm.

Didem Erel Erpulat (ACI'87)

School Principal