.jpg)
MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL
Welcome to Tarsus American College. TAC has a rich and vibrant history and you are invited to explore our website to learn more about our history and current educational programs. As we begin TAC’s 135th year of providing an engaging and rigorous international school education there is much to celebrate:
-
A long history of excellent student achievement, academic, and
athletic successes
-
The IBDP exam average of 36 points for TAC students continues to be
above the world average
-
22.95% of TAC students placed in the top 10,000 and 68.85% of TAC
students placed in the top 100,000 on the Turkish National exam
-
There are diverse and exciting academic and extra-curricular opportunities
for day and boarding students in Turkey and abroad
-
An excellent graduation record and placement for students in top
universities in Turkey and around the world
-
A long history of developing successful leaders
TAC is an academically rigorous environment which develops the abilities of students to be confident, capable, and passionate lifelong learners who adapt creatively and innovatively to life and work. At TAC all students attend the prep and grade 9 program. At the end of grade 9 students may select the Turkish National track or apply for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Both options provide an excellent educational experience and prepare students for university in Turkey and abroad.
To join the TAC’s community is to join a family who values the past, present, and future. There is incredible history at TAC that has occurred over the years and we are very proud of our current students’ and alumni’s accomplishments. To be a part of the TAC community is to join a family for life and TAC graduates can be found all over the world. Our students and alumni truly fulfill our school motto, “Leaders for Turkey, Leadership for the world”.
Amanda Sunderman
Head of School
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
I greet you with love and respect in the excitement of embarking on a new year.
We are on the brink of another year when our school, established in 1888 in Tarsus, a city which has been home to many civilizations since 2000 years ago, will harness the united energy of its community towards serving civilization and modernity. Tarsus American College, which takes its roots from both universal values of honesty, knowledge, tolerance, citizenship and international understanding and the Turkish Republic’s founding values of secularism and modernity as set out by its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk has contributed to national education for 134 years. Times change, trends change, and the processes of teaching and learning evolve according to the needs and conditions which emerge. The world is rapidly changing and transforming. There is a change in all areas with regard to accessing, using, transferring and producing information.
Education, which is the process of bringing about behavior change in an individual, should take its share from this rapid change and naturally be engaged in self-renewal, as the ways and the pace of access to information change the individual's expectation from education. Information is now everywhere. The task of a school is to educate individuals who can produce, not memorize, information. The aim is to develop the learner’s skills of understanding, analyzing and problem solving. Innovative and creative thinking develops versatile and critical thinking.
The most prominent feature of education today is that it is student-centered with the goal of helping each child recognize his or her own values and to prepare them to contribute to society through the lens of these values. Our institution has always kept, and will continue to keep, abreast of changes in new educational trends and programs.
Yet, there is an unchanging dimension in the understanding of education which normally and naturally lends itself to change: the maintenance and sustainment of social culture. The culture of a given society and its value judgements should be carried on to new generations through education. Taking responsibility for one’s learning and the use of various sources rather than being presented with ready and stereotyped knowledge, is one of the cores of this culture and this new understanding of education.
In this age of rapid consumption and change when there is not enough time anymore for anyone, the most basic foundation for the sense of success is our social culture and values. Our school has traditions. In an institution which internalizes essential human and global concepts such as knowledge, honesty, tolerance, citizenship and international mindedness, everyone needs to approach one another with respect and tolerance and maintain a climate of peace and solidarity. An individual who reflects, questions, thinks creatively and critically does not see themselves superior to others, does not judge or dominate others. They are egalitarian and participatory; they help and share. This spirit should be reflected in the most common situations of school life and the daily relationships it harbors. Only then can a real understanding of education be promoted.
A “real and strong education” reveals the talents of its students. Processing these talents to the benefit of both individual's own goals and the goals of the broader society will be the real success of such an educational process. I want to add, as a new member of this great family which, with its motto "Leaders for Turkey, Leadership for the World" has raised valuable learners, has contributed citizens for Turkey and the world for so many years, that our most important duty as educators is to be in harmony with these changing realities and the new educational trends at the maximum level. Mindful of this responsibility, we should continue to structure our school according to the requirements of modern education in a climate of peace and solidarity.
I wish everyone a happy and rewarding academic year!
Regards,
Ahu Arslan
Principal