Hello, I'm Defne, the founder of the Strong Girls program. I am 17 years old and live in Zurich. 

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I founded the Strong Girls program in May 2019 to help Turkish girls and young women improve their English speaking skills, find jobs more easily, and lead a more independent and successful life.

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The program brings together volunteers and young Turkish women for free online English speaking practice. The program and the matching take place through a mobile application.

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More than 700 students and ~120 volunteers have joined the program on the mobile app since the start, and we continue to grow every day. More than 6,000 hours of lessons have taken place in the last 2 years. There are students from all over Turkey, most of them studying in university.

 

Our students aim to improve their English conversation skills, in their words: to be global citizens, to advance in their profession, to follow international media, and to be able to communicate when/if they travel abroad.

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With the words of K.K., a student living in Adana, Turkey: “An amazing person entered my life thanks to the Strong Girls program! Every minute Tracy spends with me is very precious. My major at the university is totally in English and I was struggling a lot at the English prep class. I passed the prep class thanks to Tracy’s support. I was not able to speak in English much before I met her. I am now improving my English conversation skills thanks to her patience and support.”

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WHO CAN VOLUNTEER?

 

Anyone who can speak English and can allocate 1-hour a week to do online English conversation practice with a Turkish girl / young woman can be a volunteer.

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You don’t need to be a teacher or know Turkish to be a volunteer in the program!

 

A volunteer can take 1-4 students, depending on their preference, and can choose whether they would like to study with a beginner or intermediate English speaker.

 

Both males and females can be volunteers, but the students are only female.

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Please click here to find out how you can join the program as a volunteer!

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With the words of A.A., a volunteer living in New York, USA: “Joining 'Strong Girls' has been a very rewarding experience for me. I get to meet strong, intelligent girls from all around Turkey. I’ve had five students so far and am actively teaching two at the moment. Both of my students are smart, driven and bright young ladies.  It’s such a delight to be able to have a positive impact on their lives, while getting to know them and learning from them at the same time. Thank you, Strong Girls, for providing such an empowering platform.”

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DOWNLOAD OUR MOBILE APP & JOIN TODAY!

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BinYaprak COLLABORATION

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In May 2021, I started to collaborate with BinYaprak, the digital sisterhood network of TurkishWIN, where women in workforce share experiences with university students who are starting their careers since 2015. BinYaprak has created a safe space to share role model stories, career tips and networks for peer sharing and support. I am proud to be a member of BinYaprak, support BinYaprak members as part of my program and learn from the tremendous experiences of women leaders.

 

You can find BinYaprak's article about our program at this link.

You can find my article on BinYaprak website here.

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Sign up to BinYaprak today and learn from the experiences of thousand women while finding your role model and expanding your network.

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