A Legacy That Lives On The Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke Society

For many alumni, Robert College represents far more than an education. It is a place where lifelong friendships began, values were shaped, and opportunities were created that continued to influence their lives for decades.

Some members of our community choose to extend that impact even further by including Robert College in their estate planning. A legacy gift is a deeply personal decision—one that reflects a commitment to future generations and helps ensure that talented students continue to benefit from a Robert College education for years to come.

To honor this extraordinary commitment, Robert College established The Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke Society. The Society recognizes individuals who have chosen to include the school in their wills or estate plans, celebrating their lasting investment in the future of Robert College.

The Society honors the memory of Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke (1884–1976), whose devotion to Robert College culminated in the largest bequest the school had received at the time. Her remarkable generosity helped secure the future of the institution and continues to inspire others who believe in the transformative power of education.

Legacy gifts may take many forms, including charitable bequests, trusts, retirement plans, securities, real estate, business interests, insurance policies, or other planned giving arrangements. Every donor’s circumstances and wishes are unique, but each gift reflects a shared belief in creating opportunities for future generations.

Those who make this commitment become part of the Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke Society—a community of individuals whose generosity will continue to shape the lives of Robert College students for years to come.

f you would like to learn more about legacy giving or the Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke Society, the Institutional Advancement Team would be pleased to provide general information and answer your questions. As with any estate planning decision, we encourage you to consult your legal, financial, or tax advisor.

The most meaningful legacies are those that continue creating opportunities long after we are gone. Through the Elizabeth Dodge Huntington Clarke Society, Robert College is honored to recognize those whose vision and generosity will inspire generations yet to come.

 

A Life of Science, A Gift of Gratitude: Korkut Bardakçı RC ENG 57

Robert College has received a significant bequest from the Professor Korkut and Ruth Bardakçı Living Trust, one that will benefit generations of students to come. It is a gift that reflects not only extraordinary generosity, but also a lifelong connection to Robert College, shaped by gratitude, intellectual discipline, and a deep sense of belonging.

Bardakçı, who passed away on March 16, 2024, in Oakland, California, was a distinguished physicist whose life and work exemplified the values Robert College seeks to instill.

After graduating from RC, he earned his PhD from the University of Rochester in 1962, pursued postdoctoral appointments at the University of Minnesota and the Institute for Advanced Study, and joined the UC Berkeley Physics Department in 1966. Over the course of his career, he became a Sloan and Guggenheim Fellow, held visiting fellowships at Cambridge, and published more than 80 influential works in quantum chromodynamics and string theory.

et beyond his international standing, those who knew him remember a man of quiet wit, deep curiosity, and an unmistakable RC spirit. His yearbook captured these qualities perfectly, recalling him deep in thought, halfmurmuring to himself: “Azizim bu öyle basit değil… Hele şu demaraj bobinindeki gerilim düşünümünü hesaplayayım da…” (“My dear, it is not as simple as that… Let me first calculate the voltage drop in that starter coil.”) Indeed, the habits of mind he carried throughout his life – precision, curiosity, and humility – were already visible during his years at RC.

For all his international recognition, RC remained central to who Bardakçı was. Together with his beloved wife, Ruth Bardakçı, who passed away six years before him, he made a decision that spoke volumes about loyalty and gratitude. In 2001, they designated Robert College as a beneficiary of their estate, ultimately leaving one-third of it to the school that had shaped his earliest intellectual foundations.

This bequest cannot be separated from the life that preceded it: a life of depth, intellectual rigor, and integrity, for which RC was a formative force.

Korkut Bardakçı RC ENG 57’s legacy lives on where it began: at Robert College. It will be remembered with respect, affection, and enduring pride.

Demil Family’s Gift to the Future

When Cemil Ahmet Demil RA 68 and his wife, Maggie, decided to include Robert College in their estate plans, they were thinking not only about the future, but also about the past—about the people whose love, encouragement, and sacrifices shaped the life they have built together.

The couple chose to establish the Dr. Cevat Demil Family Scholarship Fund, named in memory of Cemil’s parents, Dr. Cevat and Nevvare Demil. Through this scholarship fund, their names will continue to support generations of Robert College students long into the future.

Born in İstanbul, Cemil attended the English High School for Boys before transferring to Robert Academy, graduating in 1968. He continued his studies in Civil Engineering at Robert College and went on to build a distinguished career as a structural engineer in both Türkiye and the United States, eventually founding his own engineering firm in California before retiring in 2025. Looking back, he credits Robert College with providing an education that shaped both his personal and professional life.

“I have always had very fond memories of my years in Robert Academy and Robert College,” he says. “The education I received greatly helped me succeed in life.”

For Cemil and Maggie, establishing the scholarship fund became a natural way to express that gratitude while honoring the memory of Cemil’s parents. They wanted their family’s story to live on by creating opportunities for young people whose lives, like Cemil’s many years ago, could be transformed through education.

By honoring his parents through education, Cemil and Maggie have ensured that their family’s story will continue to inspire future generations of Robert College students for years to come.

Meet the Institutional Advancement Team

Behind every alumni gathering, publication, giving campaign and event at Robert College is the Institutional Advancement (IA) team, which works to strengthen connections across the RC community and support the school’s mission.

Under the leadership of Director of Institutional Advancement M. Yıldız Günay, the IA Office works closely with alumni, parents, and friends of the school in Türkiye and around the world.

The Alumni Relations and Fundraising team, coordinated by Burcu Saraçoğlu Berent RC 96, cultivates relationships with alumni and helps build engagement through events, initiatives, and annual giving efforts.

Donor Relations Coordinator Melisa Korkmaz RC 03 manages relationships with donors and secures support for major gifts as well as major projects while developing strategic initiatives and new giving opportunities.

The Communications team, led by Head of Communications Rana Tanıl, oversees the school’s institutional communications efforts. The team manages school-wide events, social media channels, websites, RC Quarterly, media relations, publications, and other projects that connect the RC community with the life of the school. Digital Communications Manager Bilge Eren manages the school’s growing digital presence and online engagement efforts.

Supporting the office’s daily operations are Office Assistant Tülay Ayangil and Archivist Zeynep Torkak, who oversees the Robert College Archives and the preservation of the school’s 160- year history. The team is also joined by interns, young RC graduates who contribute to ongoing projects.

Together, the IA team helps strengthen the bonds that connect Robert College’s past, present, and future.

The Rise of Girls’ Flag Football at Robert College

The RC Girls’ Flag Football Team won the 2026 Turkish High School Championship.

Winning the 2026 Turkish High School Championship in flag football represents more than a successful season for RC. It marks a milestone in the growth of a sport that has expanded rapidly across Türkiye in recent years. Robert College has been part of that growth from the beginning.

Flag football is a non-contact variation of American football. While still relatively new in Türkiye, it has become increasingly popular, particularly among girls and young women globally. The RC Flag Football Club was established more than a decade ago. Founder Yasemin Tekgürler RC 15 recalls that the idea emerged almost by chance after she learned the game from friends on the boys’ team. “There was no major plan behind it,” she says. “We were just excited to create a team.”

Building a team meant introducing people to an unfamiliar sport and challenging assumptions about who could play it. “We were constantly explaining the sport and trying to show that women could play it seriously and competitively,” Tekgürler remembers. The initiative gradually grew into a lasting program. This year, the first national championship tournament for high school girls’ flag football was held in Türkiye, and under the leadership of Coach Jake Becker, the Robert College Girls’ Flag Football Team captured the national title.

Tekgürler is delighted: “We wanted more girls to join, we wanted the team to continue after we graduated, and we wanted more women’s teams to form,” she says. As flag football continues to grow nationwide, this first championship will be remembered as an important moment in the sport’s history. For RC, it also stands as the culmination of more than a decade of dedication, community, and belief in a game that few could have imagined would come this far.

Mert Turna RC 23 and Oğuzhan Karaca RC 23 Secures Pre-Seed Funding for Their Startup

US-based startup Derya founded by Mert Turna RC 23 and Oğuzhan Karaca RC 23, has secured $1.1 million in preseed funding. The investment round included Y Combinator, Turkish venture capital pioneer 212, and Ubicloud cofounder Umur Çubukçu RC 97. Derya is also part of the Y Combinator startup accelerator program.

Derya provides an end-to-end AI infrastructure designed to automate freight forwarding and logistics. By replacing slow, manual processes with an automated engine, it manages documentation, carrier qualification, shipment tracking, and compliance. The funding will scale its operations, logistics financing, and data processing capacity.

urna and Karaca taught themselves to code and started earning money in ninth grade by building websites, subsequently creating many projects together. They state that they were always interested in machinery and traveling far away, a natural link to logistics technologies:

“We are first and foremost problem solvers. We are especially drawn to legacy industries such as logistics, where the problems are not obvious from the outside because the work is so operationally complicated. Freight is fragmented, cyclical, and difficult for any single incumbent to fully own. That creates room for new companies to enter if they combine cyclical financial stress of asset heavy competitors with a technological advantage.”

Turna and Karaca believe RC was helpful in making them both very analytical yet deeply in touch with the social aspects of work: “Debate, friendships, and the school’s international environment gave us a broader creativity that has been immensely helpful in finding opportunities and building startups, as well as working on more abstract disruptive strategies within our industry.

 

Arjin Roni Şimşek RC 16 and Ata Nizamoğlu RC 17 Join Forces in NewFrame

NewFrame is an artificial intelligence system specialized in advertising and content production.

Though they shared the same hallways and had mutual friends at RC, Arjin and Ata really connected through their shared belief that generative artificial intelligence would rebuild the creative sector: “We both felt that we were at a turning point where technology was ceasing to be an ‘assistive tool’ and becoming a partner capable of thinking; that intuition brought us together.”

NewFrame works like a part of brands’ creative teams. It is not a traditional production tool; it is designed as a creative partner that learns the brand’s language and tone and can think on its behalf. The company now works with over 70 brands, and advertisements produced with NewFrame have been shown in more than 80 countries.

Arjin and Ata feel RC has played a tangible role in their careers: “The most valuable heritage from RC was the reflex of critical thinking and macro perspective: trying to see how a technology, a trend, or an idea will reshape the world in the next ten years. RC taught us not the ‘right answer,’ but how to ask the ‘right question.’ NewFrame is actually the product of this reflex; the answer that emerged when we asked what the next ten years of advertising will look like.”

Ada Olpak RC 30 Wins Gold Medal in Freediving

She broke her own record and became the world champion

At just 15, Robert College Prep student Ada Olpak became a junior world champion at the 2026 CMAS Freediving World Championship in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Representing Türkiye, Ada competed in four pool disciplines: Dynamic Apnea with a Monofin, Dynamic Apnea with Bi-fins, Dynamic Apnea without Fins, and Static Apnea. Her defining performance came in Static Apnea, where she held her breath for four minutes and 37 seconds, breaking her personal record and claiming the world title. She also completed distances of 113 meters with a monofin and 100.5 meters with bi-fins.

Ada’s journey to the podium demanded extraordinary perseverance. Growing up in Edremit as the daughter of two teachers, she began freediving after her family noticed her natural confidence underwater. Following the sudden death of her first coach, the limited availability of trainers meant traveling hundreds of kilometers for practice—sometimes spending five hours on the road for a single hour in the pool.

After entering Robert College, she often attended six a.m. sessions before rushing to class. She qualifies for the national team in April 2026, and was competing for Türkiye just two months later.

“You are all by yourself underwater,” Ada says. “If you have belief and passion, there is no limit to what you can do.

Rüzgar İmren RC 27 Makes Waves as a Teen Entrepreneur

His company Atlantic received investment over a 5 million dollar valuation.

Rüzgar İmren taught himself coding at age 13, and, by 14, he was already working as a software engineer at startups, while studying at RC! The experience he garnered along the way gave him his latest startup idea: “I saw firsthand how much time teams lose to coordination chaos, with information scattered across Slack, Jira, email, and dozens of other tools. That frustration became the idea behind Atlantic, the AI agent platform I co-founded with Ege Mustafa Çelik.”

They launched their company in the US in March 2026 and by June 2026, they had raised an angel round of investment from Galata Business Angels at a $5 million valuation. İmres save that what drew him to entrepreneurship is simple: “It is the fastest way to turn a problem you personally felt into a solution thousa nds of people can use. Seeing a real pain point and engineering your way out of it is incredibly rewarding.” İmren emphasizes RC’s influence in his path: “The intellectual rigor, the habit of questioning, and the confidence to pursue ambitious ideas all come from this school.”

After RC, İmren plans to move to San Francisco and build Atlantic from the heart of the startup world: “ My focus is on scaling: growing our customer base in the US market, expanding our team, and developing our Atlas model family. In the long run, I want to build a global AI company and prove that world-class technology can come from founders of any age, no matter where they start.”

 

Oya İnal RC 85 Launches A Olive, a Premium Olive Oil Brand

What started as a passion project turned into a premium olive oil brand for Oya İnal. İnal acquired one olive grove in Ayvalık in 2010 and now has a business harvesting over 9,000 trees.

This success was achieved through the use of smart agriculture, which integrates modern technology to traditional farming to better manage economic volatility and climate change. The brand has a certificate for Organic Olive Oil production and also holds the Ayvalık Coğrafi İşareti (Ayvalık Geographical Indicator).

İnal aims to ensure that the 1,000-yearold monument trees in the groves are handed down to the next generation in even better condition. Leaving the soil richer and the story of Ayvalık stronger is her measure of success. Reflecting on her RC experience, İnal maintains that RC is a breeding ground for independent minds: “What excites me the most about the RC network, especially through platforms like RCCEB, is the incredible crossgenerational synergy.”