Fulfilling my Academic Potential
My acceptance into Turkey's top-ranked Bogazici University stands as one of my greatest accomplishments, as it shaped my understanding of hard work and showed me how much I can achieve when I test my own limits. Bogazici accepts only the top 0.2% of all students who take the nationwide university entrance exam, and was the first American College outside of the United States.
Even though I was at the top of my high-school class, I was aware that my competition was from students attending the most prestigious high schools in Istanbul. Many students prepared for the exam with expensive study materials and private tutoring which I could not afford. I commuted four hours from Tekirdag to Istanbul by bus to prep classes in Istanbul every weekend for three years in order to prepare for the test. I slept on the buses, studied at the stations, and lived on a tight budget because I knew I needed to make up for the advantages my competition would have.
I applied only to Bogazici, and I was accepted to its Chemical Engineering department in 1994. I cherish this experience, which taught me that with determination and commitment, I can overcome the greatest of challenges.
Single-handedly Recruiting a Turkish Student Body for Chalmers University
The next significant achievement I would like to discuss came during my graduate studies at Chalmers University in Sweden, when I went over and above my role as the Vice President of the university's international student network, not just acting as an "ambassador" for Turkish culture but actually recruiting many Turkish applicants to the school, in effect creating a Turkish student body at Chalmers where none had existed previously. When I joined their Production Management Master's program, I was their first-ever student from Bogazici University.
My role within the international student network was both challenging and rewarding, as I frequently assumed the role of diplomat and intermediary for 100+ international students. Reaching out to the larger Swedish student population, I organized inclusive events and marketed our group as an accessible, welcoming global network.
It felt good to share my own culture and heritage with my Swedish and international classmates, but I wanted to do something more for my own countrymen and women. I began contacting major universities in Turkey, offering to explain the opportunities available for graduate studies in Sweden. I worked with Chalmers International Reception Committee (CIRC) and created an online forum to answer questions from Turkish students and help them through the application process. Back in Turkey for vacations and school breaks, I gave numerous presentations about the education system and my own experiences in Sweden. By the time I graduated from Chalmers, the Turkish student population had increased from one person (me!) to more than 50 and it has continued to increase since that time, building on the foundation laid by my efforts-now, the Turkish student population at Chalmers is approaching 100. My professors at Bogazici still have their current students contact me for mentorship and assistance with their applications to Chalmers. This experience greatly improved my abilities as a motivator and a leader, and really helped me understand how best to reach out to others and turn my ideas into concrete results.
Building Synergies at Ashland
There are four divisions within Ashland, each of which operates independently, in spite of the fact that we all have the same "mother" company. As a result, people who work for the same company do not know each other, even within the same territories. Recently, I took the initiative to propose a collaborative effort between my division (Ashland Water Technologies) and another division, in the hope that we could help each other-and more importantly, our parent company-by utilizing a unified, synergistic approach.
Ashland is the world's third biggest water treatment company, and most of our clients-a list that includes Coca Cola and Ford-have corporate agreements with us. Our division's primary focus is "specialty chemicals," non-commodity products like polymers, coagulants, and sanitizers. Ashland's Distribution and Environmental Services division, on the other hand, deals with commodity chemicals, such as caustics, acid and salt.
Over the past 18 months I have been working on a project in Fresno, CA involving Foster Farms Company, which has two chicken processing plants in this city. Due to California's strict environmental regulations, Foster Farms was looking for more efficient and cost-effective ways to handle waste water treatment.
Looking beyond Fresno, I learned that Foster Farms has various plants all over the west coast, all of which were working with local water treatment companies or with our competitors, such as GE Betz and Nalco. Perceiving a major opportunity if I could offer a "one-stop shopping" solution to the company, I asked our vice president to introduce me to at Ashland Distribution and Environmental Services(ES); we started to work together.
I prepared a presentation illustrating the various ways that we could provide a synergistic, cost-effective package solution to our customers and also increase each other's network & territory sales volumes. Ashland Water Technology division has invaluable expertise, but our ability to get our foot in the door at such places as power plants, food-processing plants and refineries is often limited by their stringent confidentiality regulations. This is where Ashland Distribution and Environmental Services comes in-since they already have established customer relationships in various plants, they could easily bring us to the table. With this in mind, I planned to position us as one big water treatment company.
Both my boss, Galen, and our VP, Bob, liked my idea and introduced me to Eddie Addison at Ashland Distribution and Environmental Services (ES); we started to work together. I soon discovered that ES was providing commodity chemicals to Foster Farms in Washington state and in the Seattle area, and that they had an excellent relationship with Foster Farm's headquarters in Livingston, California.
Drawing on ES' in-depth knowledge of the specific problems faced by these plants, I crafted a presentation according to their needs and using their own preferred terminology. I gave my presentation at ES' annual account review meeting with Foster Farms; they were intrigued, and asked to hear more about what AWT had to offer them throughout the state of California. Next, I guided four other account managers in California to prepare a corporate proposal for a unified, customized solution for Foster Farms, combining product lines and technical services from AWT and ES.
This new approach met with some resistance from the plant managers, who were not eager to embrace such a radical change in processes. To counteract this negative response, I offered Foster Farms a free three-month trial of one of our products-this cost us $450,000, but gained us remarkable good will from Foster Farms' upper management. During this trial period, I spent nights and weekends at the Washington and Fresno plants to make sure that everything was running smoothly. My efforts impressed the managers and operators at Foster Farms and helped me build strong relationships with them both personally and professionally.
Within six months, My sales increased by more than $1.1 million USD, and as of September 2008, Foster Farms and Ashland signed a three-year contract. Thanks to my success with this project, and the strong relationships I built within our corporation with everyone from technical consultants and marketing folks to the regional vice president, I am now in line to become Southern California's next district manager. My actions have since inspired many other joint projects within Ashland worldwide, for companies such as Tronox, Georgia Gulf, and Akzo Nobel.
This experience gave me the opportunity to lead and others across business functions; it also helped me fine-tune my ability to take and quantify risk. Perhaps most importantly, it confirmed my already-strong belief that my ability and willingness to communicate and cooperate-along with my clear vision-are my most important business strengths.
I slept on the buses, studied at the stations, and lived on a tight budget, because I knew I needed to make up for the advantages my competition would have.
WOW, this is high quality stuff.
After staying focused despite this adversity , I applied only to Bogazici, and...
I love the second one! Great job! "Countrymen and women" does not work, though. How about:
...but I wanted to do something more for the men and women of my own country.
The word countrymen is powerful, but it is chauvinistic, and you can't even fix it by saying "countrymen and women," because "countrymen" technically can include women. So, I guess it is better to get rid of the chauvinistic word...
Four divisions exist within Ashland...
The corrections I am making are all nitpicking ones, not necessary because the essays are already great.
Congratulations!
