Posted on / by Turkish Cultural Center New Jersey / in Bergen County, Central Jersey, Festivals, Passaic County, South Jersey

11th international Turkish Olympiads

With pre-qualifying rounds the 11th international Turkish Olympiads has been held in America as well as all over the World.

The Turkish Olympiad hosted 130 students from 15 schools in the northeast region, winners will represent the region in the Olympiads which will be held in Istanbul.

The Turkish Olympiad was organized at Monclair State University and mainly sponsored by the Turkish Cultural Center. Students who participated were from 9 different states between the ages 12 and 18 years old and competed in singing, poetry and cultural folk dance. Students showed their signing skills not only in Turkish but also in Chinese, Spanish and English. The program opened with the American National Anthem and Turkish National Anthem. The Opening speech was done by President of TCC Oguzhan Senturk. He thanked all the teachers and who contributed to the Turkish Olympiad, he said, “expects to win this year’s Turkish Olympiad which will be held in Turkey.

In the competition, teams of Turkish and American students, performanced on cultural folk dance of Bilecek and the Giresun region. Amity School Brooklyn took first place with the Bilecek cultural folk dance.The Paterson School took second place with the Giresun cultural folk dance and the Bergen School took third place. The amphitheater was so packed up that the audience was singing along with the contestants.

The Categoriesof singing in Turkish, Liann Aris who is student at Amity School took first place, she sang “Hor Görme Garibi(Don’t despise poor by Orhan Gencebay)”. She will represent her region in the Turkish Olympiad. Sevili Muminzhanova who is student at James Madison High School took second place with singing “Gunun Birinde (One day)” and finally Alexander Harris who is student at Central Jersey School took third place, he Sang “Hakim Bey (Mister Judge)”. The Audience enjoyed the wonderful musical performance and also a group of students danced with the rhythm of Kemence, which was applauded for a long period of time.

The Students’ performance in reciting verbatim poems amazed the audience in the category of poetry recitation in Turkish. Elizabeth Bowman who is student at Liberty High School took first place; she recited “Baglanmayacaksin by Can Yucel”. Mariam Quraishi who is student at Amity School Brooklyn took second place, she recited “Merhaba (Hello)” and finally Shannon Grierson who is student at Paterson School took third place, she recited “Istanbul’u dinliyorum (Listening Istanbul)”.

Category of singing in English, Nathanail Paige who is student at Central Jersey School took first place. She sang Diamonds by Rihanna. And her performance was praiseworthy. Zehra Abacioglu who is student at Amity School Brooklyn took second place. And Tatiana Hernandez who is student at Bergen School took third place.

Category of singing in Spanish, Suzan Akpinar who is student at Amity School Brooklyn took first place, she sang Poromporompero. Tess Kamuanga who is student at Pioneer Charter School took second place and Alexander Harris who is student at Central Jersey School took third place.

Category of Singing in Chinese, Emma Riglin who is student at Young Scholars of Central Jersey School took first place and Nicholas Hausler from Central Jersey School took second place.

Category of Poetry in Native Language, Gulnur Avci from Amity school Brooklyn took first place, Leyla Ulusoy from Pioneer School took second place and Hacer Kok from Bergen School took third place.

Winning students of the contest will be rewarded on May 4th, 2013 at Pace University in Manhattan.