Vali İhsan Dede Anatolian High School

Our school is a high school with its about 1500 students, 55 classrooms, 4 administrative staff, 4 school counselors and 88 teachers in the city center. We have students ranged from 14 to 18 ages, from different nationalities, 70% is Turkish, though. We have special needs kids as well. It was founded 4 years ago, and this education year is very important for us as we will be graduating our new students, we are proud! And we are quite excited for our first project! We are interested in projects about science classes, foreign language learning process, environmental issues and psychology, we are open to new areas and your projects, though. We are lucky to be in one of the most precious cities of Turkey, Konya is a city identified with the world famous philosopher Mevlana. It is one of the first inhabited cities in the history of mankind, and still contains traces of many ancient civilisations which gives it the atmosphere of a museum city. Because of its locations in the middle of the barren Anatolian steppe, it used to be one of the most important trading centres on the Silk Road. The fertile land around the city means Konya is also the heart of Turkey’s grain industry, with farming a major industry. Steeped in tradition, it is one of the most conservative and religious places in the country, and best known as the adopted home of Celaleddin Rumi, the Sufic mystic who founded the Whirling Dervish sect. Today it is still a centre of Sufic practice and teaching, and one of the highlights for visitors is the Mevlana Museum, the former lodge of the dervishes. Although Konya is one of the world's most ancient cities, it is most famous as the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate from 1097 to 1243, when the city acquired most of the monuments of interest to the visitor. In addition to royal foundations of the Seljuks, Konya also attracted at this time the famous Islamic poet and philosopher Jalal al-din Rumi (), the founder of the Mevlevi Sufi Order. After the fall of the Seljuk Sultanate, Konya continued to receive adornments from the rulers of near-by Karaman until the entire area was conquered by the Ottomans in 1468. Following the Ottoman conquest, Konya became a provincial capital and most of the Ottoman architecture in Konya consists of buildings originally dating from Seljuk or Karamanid times which were later rebuilt by the Ottomans. Today, Konya is one of Turkey's major industrial cities, one of the rapidly growing "Anatolian tigers" of Turkey's emerging industrial heartland. Konya has terrestrial climate with tough winters (cold and snowy) and hot and dry summers. Annual average temperature is 11.5°C. The hottest temperature is 40°C and the lowest is -28.2°C. It has a natural beauty, Lake Beysehir, which is the second in the world to enjoy glamourus sunset. It is also 2-hour-distance away from Cappadocia, which is a very famous impressive natural area in the world. And our city is in such a good location that you can reach one of the top touristic area of the world, Antalya, only by driving two and half hours. We are eager to find partners and it is a big pleasure to be a piece of your project.