Naz Uzunhasanoğlu

Artist, Musician, Performer, Student, World traveler

Greetings, I'm an 12th grade student at Üsküdar American Academy who wants to become a successful surgeon one day. During my time in the school community I aspire to reach a broader audience than just our faculty and students which is why I'm interested in organizing a TEDx event at our school campus so that our voice is heard as a community.

Music and ballet. I've been a ballerina for as long as I can remember and I've been playing the piano for ten years now. These activities that were just pastime at the beginning but they became a passion for me when I realized how much work I have put into in order to be good at what I'm doing and that I was glad to be spending time practicing and taking lessons.

It all started when I became a student at Üsküdar American Academy; teachers here often use TED talks to give the students a perspective on subjects we're not really familiar with on regular basis. Since prep year a lot of my teachers showed me TED talks on various aspects of life and some were truly inspiring. How I became a part of the TEDx club, however, is a different story: the clubs advisor Mrs. Çağlar was my English teacher and she encouraged me to attend the club meetings. After a few weeks I was already head over heels for being there and taking part in organizing something bigger than just a few people, a TEDx conference that reaches out to communities other than our school, our closed bubble. After that I was given the honor of being the head organizer of this year's TEDx conference.

Planning and organizing major events. This started to be something I was noticeably good at prep year of high school, when I started organizing small practice groups in the musical club for specific people and later I started to plan every public occasion with my friends, with my family and even with the school community. I just love to be able to program the event ahead of me and being able to follow up to a schedule that's been carefully thought.