YOUPPI
BY PIXEL
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Contents
13 2
Editor's Note Şiir Şeren About Pi Youth Association
3
Pi Official: What is the Office Team? Natalia Adrianna Potera
5
Pixel Report Yaprak Aslan
13
Pi Destination Youth Organization Ligzda
17
Pi Family Gizem Ezgi Kök
21
Pi Special Opinion - Invest (in) yourself
25
Izmir
27 30
Pi-Calls
Editor: Şiir Şeren Writers:
1
02
Şiir Şeren Vladimir Jovanovski Yaprak Aslan Yankı Akın S. Yağmur Dinç
Designers: Esra Güdür Şiir Şeren Ege İncili Melahat Yavuz Yankı Akın Vladimir Jovanovski Aydanur Gençay S. Yağmur Dinç
Translators: Yaprak Aslan Ege İncili Vladimir Jovanovski Contact: Akdeniz Mah. 1353 Sokak No:1 Taner İş Hanı Kat:5 D:503 Konak 35210 Izmir, Turkey 0 232 483 03 14 iletisim@pigenclikdernegi.org
YOUPPI
BY PIXEL
PI SPECIAL Opinion
Invest (in) yourself
I passed the thirties, one would wonder why I am writing to the youth. The answer to me is simple; it was those years of my life that defined how and where I am now as a person. It was during that period when I commenced traveling, which eventually led to me living in nine different cities outside my Macedonia in the last ten years. It was exactly in spring ten years ago when I first moved outside the borders of my home country, and I did so completely on my own; to the other side of the Atlantic. Despite all the hardships and failures, living in a different country away from my family’s protection taught me so much. It shaped the man that I am now. Meeting people while you travel, or simply chit-chat with locals in the places that you spend time in, can offer you an unmatched education. Speaking another language, or coming into contact with another culture can alter the way you view things or the world. We live in a very privileged era, traveling can be simple and inexpensive, given the available opportunities. We also have the benefit of living in one of the most advanced and tolerant societies in the world. There is simply no excuse anymore for narrow-mindedness. Despite all its faults, the EU together with the partner countries, including Turkey, can offer each one of its young citizens opportunities that would simply not be possible in their own communities. And it is of utmost importance for the leaders of Europe and elsewhere to understand that limiting the progressive policies can only harm the future. All the policies are vital to form a mobile, multilingual, educated, and diverse future generation, which will benefit the country’s economy in the long term. For it is this kind of youth that will give an advantage to the society
when
comparing
its
competitiveness
with
other
countries or regions. The best investment that state leaders can make, is securing the future with a cosmopolitan, highly skilled, and educated working class.
If you leave better children to the world instead of leaving a better world to the children, the problem will be solved by itself. - Aziz Nesin 25
YOUPPI
BY PIXEL
Yet, reading this mostly gives us some abstract impressions and the idea of securing the future for the next generations just hovers around, if I do not give concrete examples. In this digital era, it is the Generation Z, with their obsession with screens, that will lead the progress, the innovation, the trends, the changes. Let me briefly present to you two exceptional instances of young innovators and leaders. The first is Neval Çam, who at 16 years of age, developed software for translating sign language in real-time; consequently helping millions of speaking and hearing-impaired people, and winning herself a full scholarship at Stanford University. The second one is a duo of young entrepreneurs Pia De Marchi and Elif Özsahin who discovered how to ease the needs and fears of millions of students when moving to other countries especially for studying. Namely, their startup ‘The Ned|Lon’ encompass services (housing, transportation, moving, and wellbeing & mentoring) they were struggling to find while they both moved to study abroad. Therefore, they chose to compete in five cities: London, Hamburg, Milano, Tilburg, and Toronto, and in the arena filled with people, who are business-wise experienced but are lacking the practical knowledge of being a student abroad.
Be curious, travel, and learn languages. As result, you will become the necessary pillars of a fairer, more progressive, more prosperous, and more diverse society that in return will benefit you and your families. If you want to leave your mark and shape your and your community’s future, grasp the opportunities that are available to you now. Become the change that you want to see.
future generations if you do not
EVEN
TRY! Neval Çam
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Text & Design: Vladimir Jovanovski
And remember that will blame you
