Raindrop Turkish Language Program offers Turkish courses at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced level.
The aim of all Turkish lessons at Raindrop is to develop all students' listening, speaking, reading, writing, and socio-cultural interaction skills. There are a lot of options! It is very easy to enroll in the program! After you submit your application document, you will be contacted by one of our corresponding Raindrop branch.
Have you ever tasted delicious Turkish food? Do you want to learn more about authentic Turkish cuisine? Raindrop Turkish House offers Turkish Cuisine cooking classes. You are going to be actively participating in creating fabulous masterpieces of Turkish cuisine during the class. Our experienced instructors will teach and help you improve your cooking skills. And of course, you are very welcome to join the feast at the end of the class!
It is very easy to enroll in the program! After you submit your application document, you will receive an e-mail from our corresponding Raindrop branch.
Theme: “Achieving a More Peaceful World: What Needs to Change?”
DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2012
Raindrop Turkish House organizes Annual Essay Contest for Texas middle and high school students.
Program Objective: To have children in middle and high schools think about and be involved in contributing to solving social problems and/or issues in our world today such as intercultural and interfaith understanding, respect towards others, etc. We want our future leaders to be aware of social problems at an early age and to think globally. The program is geared towards an interdisciplinary approach to solving world and community issues in that the theme of the program looks towards global peace.
Program Participants: Texas middle and high school students.
Program Focus: To recognize and create ways for young people to think both locally and globally in order to contribute to a more peaceful world. Program Theme for 2011-2012: “Achieving a More Peaceful World: What Needs to Change?”
Middle and high-school students are invited to submit an essay work on the theme of "Achieving a More Peaceful World: What Needs to Change?” Its purpose is to help ponder upon global problems that are salient in today's world and facilitate peace through cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue, understanding, reconciliation and cooperation.
Students may reflect on the following questions as a starting point for their own work:
What are the major problems in today's world that hinder peace?
What specific steps can I take as an American to establish peace around me in particular and in society in general?
What should the media industry be doing to promote peace in our society in particular and around the globe in general?
What are some ways that government, society, the media, or an individual can do to calm tensions among nations and peoples that hinder peace in the world?
How can I as a person or we as a society improve understanding and cooperation among different nations and cultures?
What can be done by the citizens of the world to reduce polarization among conflicting nations and promote mutually beneficial relationships and partnerships?
Eligibility:
All middle and high school students from public or private schools in Texas
ESSAY CONTEST RULES
Contest is open to 6th-12th grade students currently attending the TEXAS schools. Grades 6, 7 and 8 will compete in the Middle School Category, while grades 9 through 12 will be grouped into the High School Category.
Essays must be original, unpublished, and written entirely by contestants.
The essays submitted should not be research papers, but instead, should contain each student’s original thoughts on the topic.
Each essay should be no more than 1000 words in length and should be typed, double-spaced and prepared in an electronic format using a word processing application. Do not submit your essay in PDF format.
Essays should not contain the student’s or school’s name. An identification number will be assigned for each essay to ensure anonymity during scoring. Essay entries must be received no later than 4:00 PM on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd, 2012. Winners will be announced by Friday, March 16th, 2012.
Participants consent to transfer copyrights of their essays to Raindrop Turkish House.
Essays have to comply with standards of Chicago , APA or MLA in regard to citations and bibliography
To receive their awards, winners must be present in the Award Ceremony on Saturday April 14th, 2012 in Houston.
Students will be rewarded based on placements. ( See AWARDS (STUDENTS) section below)
Students can enter the contest with only one entry.
Sponsoring teachers of the winning students will be rewarded, too. In the case that a teacher has more than one winning students, they will receive the prize amount for the student with the highest ranking award. ( See AWARDS (TEACHERS) section below)
Time line
February 3rd, 2012
Deadline for Students to submit their works
March 16th, 2012
Results Announced
April 14th, 2012
Award Ceremony
AWARDS (STUDENTS) MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL CATEGORY
For High School
Grand Award (1 winner) : $300 award Golden Awards (2 winners) : $200 award Silver Awards (4 winners) : $150 award Bronze Awards (7 winners) : $75 award Honorable Mention Awards (11 winners): $50 award
For Middle School
Grand Award (1 winner) : $200 award Golden Awards (2 winners) : $150 award Silver Awards (4 winners) : $100 award Bronze Award (7 winners) : $50 award Honorable Mention Awards (11 winners): $40 award
AWARDS (TEACHERS) MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL CATEGORY
For High School
Grand Award (1 winner) : $200 award Golden Awards (2 winners) : $150 award Silver Awards (4 winners) : $100 award Bronze Awards (7 winners) : $75 award Honorable Mention Awards (11 winners): $50 award
For Middle School
Grand Award (1 winner) : $150 award Golden Awards (2 winners) : $100 award Silver Awards (4 winners) : $75 award Bronze Awards (7 winners) : $50 award Honorable Mention Awards (11 winners): $40 award
Raindrop Forum is one of the initiatives of Raindrop Turkish House. Raindrop Forum organizes Breakfast & Morning conversations, Luncheons, Conferences and Debates where distinguished personalities come to give speeches and share their points of view on important topics. Raindrop Forum is a series of public conversations that draw together diverse minds to discuss critical issues and engage in cooperative social action. It helps participants and society in general to broad and share their visions about the recent topics.
Raindrop ties together the vision, values, and cooperative spirit of Houston's different communities to work together toward common ground. Visit project homepage at www.turkishhouse.org/forum.
As Raindrop Foundation, we have established an aid program called Raindrop Helping Hands. The purpose of the Helping Hands is to help the needy people and aid everyone affected by natural disasters in local areas and different parts of the world.
The purpose of Raindrop Helping Hands is to convey your contributions and donations to the needy people without discriminating on the basis of gender, nationality, religion, etc.
Raindrop Turkish House is organizing the Annual Turkic Cultures and Children’s Festival to celebrate the rich heritage of such Turkic sister nations as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Bosnia. The Turkic Fest also invites various guest countries each year, which will add to the lively color of the festival. Visit turkicfest.org for more...
In order to encourage Turkish language training, Raindrop Turkish House has been organizing Turkish Language Olympiads since 2007. The competition is hosted in Houston where 600 finalists from Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Kansas, Louisiana, and Arkansas who competed in 8 categories including Turkish language competition, singing, poetry, talent, Turkish cuisine contest, picture and figure, folklore, and state exhibition contests gathered together. The finalists will be the candidates to represent the "Lone Star State" in International Turkish Olympiad in Turkey among the representatives of more than 100 countries. Visit www.turkisholympiad.com.
Raindrop Foundation offers tutoring on math, science, literature and social sciences.
At Raindrop, we understand that not all programs work for every student. We have varied our programs to fit the individual needs of the student. Working closely with area schools and communities, we offer a multifarious arrange of programs ranging from one-on-one tutoring, to Group training sessions of 6-8 students for subject and test preparation, in-center training, and out-call training sessions for ACT/SAT preparation for most area schools and centers. Our goal is to provide a program aimed at a child successfully acquiring tools for the future while helping provide convenience for parents and community members.
The History and Culture of Turkey (A non-credit personal
development course offered Spring 2010 at Rice University)
The
only country to lie in both Europe and Asia and one of the oldest continuously
inhabited regions in the world, Turkey is a rich amalgamation of cultures with
a riveting history. In a sweeping survey of this history, from antiquity to the
Ottoman Empire, Atatürk and on to modern times, participants will explore some
of the major components of Turkish identity as well as a number of linguistic,
cultural, religious and political traditions in their historical context. Lectures
on Turkish history will be complemented with a look at significant forms of
Turkish culture, including the traditional arts of calligraphy and ebru,
Nasreddin Hoca stories, Bursa's shadow puppet theater, Rumi poems, architectural
masterpieces of the Seljuk and OttomanEmpires, Turkish music and more.
Instructor:
Jeannette S. Okur, PhD, an active member of Houston's Turkish-American
community, teaches Turkish at the University of Houston. Her published work includes
topics which address literary and cultural analysis, translation theory,
teaching methodology and socio-religious history. Dr. Okur is currently working
on a translation of Mustafa Kutlu's book of short stories "Sır" and several
chapters of a book about transnational socio-religious phenomena originating in
Turkey. She holds a PhD in
comparative literature from Ankara University in Turkey. A
discussion of Ottoman history will be presented by Timothy Fitzpatrick, PhD,
visiting professor in history at Rice University.
Dates:
Eight Tuesdays, February 16-April 20,
7:00-9:00 p.m. (no class March 16 and 30)
Location:
Rice University
Fee:
$155, if registering by February 2; $165,
after February 2; $145, Rice alumni
Co-sponsors:
Raindrop Turkish House and the Institute
of Interfaith Dialog
For more information and to
register online, visit gscs.rice.edu or
call 713-348-4803
For the Second Annual Essay Contest Award Reception and Ceremony Pictures Please 
Raindrop Turkish Language Program offers Turkish courses at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced level.
Have you ever tasted delicious Turkish food? Do you want to learn more about authentic Turkish cuisine? Raindrop Turkish House offers Turkish Cuisine cooking classes. You are going to be actively participating in creating fabulous masterpieces of Turkish cuisine during the class. Our experienced instructors will teach and help you improve your cooking skills. And of course, you are very welcome to join the feast at the end of the class!
Raindrop Forum is one of the initiatives of Raindrop Turkish House. Raindrop Forum organizes Breakfast & Morning conversations, Luncheons, Conferences and Debates where distinguished personalities come to give speeches and share their points of view on important topics. Raindrop Forum is a series of public conversations that draw together diverse minds to discuss critical issues and engage in cooperative social action. It helps participants and society in general to broad and share their visions about the recent topics.
As Raindrop Foundation, we have established an aid program called Raindrop Helping Hands. The purpose of the Helping Hands is to help the needy people and aid everyone affected by natural disasters in local areas and different parts of the world.
Raindrop Turkish House is organizing the Annual Turkic Cultures and Children’s Festival to celebrate the rich heritage of such Turkic sister nations as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Bosnia. The Turkic Fest also invites various guest countries each year, which will add to the lively color of the festival. Visit 
In order to encourage Turkish language training, Raindrop Turkish House has been organizing Turkish Language Olympiads since 2007. The competition is hosted in Houston where 600 finalists from Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Kansas, Louisiana, and Arkansas who competed in 8 categories including Turkish language competition, singing, poetry, talent, Turkish cuisine contest, picture and figure, folklore, and state exhibition contests gathered together. The finalists will be the candidates to represent the "Lone Star State" in International Turkish Olympiad in Turkey among the representatives of more than 100 countries. Visit 
Visit 
