The Journey Continues
My name is Helios Fatih Osmanoglu, currently a senior, double majoring in Business Entrepreneurship and Sustainability. I was born in Heraklion, the capital of a small island named Crete, but lived most of my life in one of the biggest and most diverse European cities – Istanbul. During my senior year of high school, when I studied abroad in the state of Maine, I started looking at the issues of sustainability in an urban space more closely. Maine as a state being so natural it really does leave much to be desired for the polar opposite Istanbul. I studied abroad in Hong Kong with the Global Sustainability Studies Program.
It has been a little over four months since I have returned from Hong Kong. It was a life changing experience. I still remember every single field trip and how it felt to step outside when the humidity levels were over 90 percent. It can be hard to hold onto the knowledge we gain over the years, but I have seen myself applying the concepts we learned about during the lessons even in my life now. As I think of applying for graduate school the topics on urban sustainability learned in Hong Kong is what I keep referencing when looking at my program options. It gave me a great opportunity to analyze sustainability issues in a metropolitan area as an outsider, so that I was more objective as well as more excited to experience to learn from all of these issues, which I wish to apply in Istanbul.
My knowledge at the time before this program was very limited. I had only taken a few intro level classes in the subject and just read a lot in my spare time. So much of this changed after Hong Kong. I now not only feel so much more knowledgeable about the subject, but can also say that I learned a lot from everything, including my peers. The group selected for this trip was very untraditional; it included students who are in the graduate programs already, ones that are applying to these programs, as well as a couple of undergraduate students like me. Having such a large diversity in terms of knowledge allowed the learning atmosphere to spark between all levels.
Since returning, one of the biggest things that has changed in my life is my major. Sustainability was my minor added to my main degree, Business Entrepreneurship, therefore I was going to graduate in May 2016. After learning much more about sustainability, I decided to change my minor into a major, resulting in an extra semester. I am happily staying to pursue my knowledge on sustainability. The second biggest change was deciding to pursue my career in sustainability while keeping my entrepreneur side. Although, my interest in sustainability gave me the idea of studying this subject in further graduate school plans before the program, it was only after the program that I wholeheartedly felt like it is something I really do wish to pursue. I am now in process of selecting the programs that I will be applying to in the near future. I have currently selected three excellent programs in Sweden, Denmark and Scotland in the areas of Sustainable Management, and I cannot wait to see where my studies take me next.