James Swetz
General Director
An Expression of BELS
BELS is many things and this year’s “Clapper” attempts to demonstrate exactly that. We are science
and math but we are also literature and the arts. BELS is serious, yet BELS is also fun. As you go
through the pages of this book, you will see and read about things we have done, places we have
visited, and ideas that we have. Our students have expressed themselves through literary genres,
photographs and drawings, and experimentation.
This year, the Nobel Prize came a little bit closer to BELS students through Aziz Sancer. But equally
important to us was our own Dadaş Farmer Frank and the hope that he will germinate and grow.
Various Turkish authors visited BELS and inspired our students, some of whom are aspiring authors
in English. The Gourmet Club produced delicacies throughout the year, not to be outdone by the
Math Department on PI Day with their colorful and tasty cookies.
Ceremonies and assemblies are an important part of the weekly life at BELS and on special occasions
and celebrations. Photos of our ceremonies make that clear, many of which were K-12. (Although
you may have difficulty finding many pictures of elementary and middle school students, next
year’s “Clapper” will encompass all grades K-12 – not just the realistic portrait of me as seen
above, done by out elementary students.)
Look at our budding artists and musicians, board games champions, and robotic creators. Learn
about our students involved in service projects. And discover what our scholars are learning in
IGCSE and IBDP.
In the end, we waved good-bye to students as they went on Welt Reise to Çanakkale, Spain and
other locations in Turkey and beyond, for historical reasons, to participate in Model UN activities
or to compete in sports tournaments. But for an academic institution like BELS, waves and tossing
water at buses are not reserved only for trips, but for physics class where students study waves of
all kinds, including gravitational waves. It has been quite a year.
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THE CLAPPER 2015 - 2016
James Swetz
General Director