Hi everyone! I’m Melis and I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. I have loved traveling my whole life and had a passion for broadening my horizons, which is why I decided to come to LA, the land of opportunity! I love studying Business and have experience in the fields of Entrepreneurship, FinTech, and NGOs. Apart from Business, I am also very interested in many other areas such as Sociology, Psychology, Law, and the Film Industry (I would declare 4 minors at USC if I could).... I also like being involved in the creative processes within Business and thus have worked on a lot of Graphic Design projects for the organizations I have been involved with. My biggest career goal is to be able to combine all my knowledge in various fields to become a social entrepreneur who advocates for the advancement of women in business.
This is a photo of me from Cappadocia, Turkey. I strongly encourage everyone to visit, especially if you think you would be interested in seeing a beautiful sky full of hot air balloons, riding a camel, eating great Turkish food, and taking in the breathtaking views.
- Visiting the Immersive Pink Floyd Museum
- Working at ComplexCon! I had to wear a crazy uniform the whole day:
- Driving to Mullholland Drive
- Tame Impala Concert
- Screening of “Get Out” in USC Norris Theatre
I organized two virtual FinTech conferences with themes “The New Normal of Global Finance” and “A New Financial Era”. I was able to bring in many esteemed professional guest speakers such as the CEO of BBVA Bank Spain and General Manager of Pfizer Turkey. I was the lead organizer but I also was in charge of the Graphic Design/creative process. Here is the poster I designed for the 2021 conference! It’s in Turkish, but still :)
- Favorite TV Shows: Rick & Morty, Fleabag, Sherlock, Black Mirror, Euphoria, Archer
- Favorite Artists: Tame Impala, Pink Floyd, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Mac Miller
- Favorite Place I Visited: Iguazu Falls, Brazil/Argentina
- Favorite Books: Sherlock Holmes, The Great Gatsby
Coury Leadership Program Test Results:
My Strengths: Strategic, Input, Ideation, Individualization, Achiever
My Values: Perspective, Love of Learning, Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence, Creativity, Kindness
Astrology !!
Sagittarius sun, Cancer moon, Leo Rising
cap mercury, cap venus, pisces mars
Myers-Briggs
INFP - Mediator
Human Design
Projector
3/5: Martyr Heretic
PLAYLISTS
Songs I’ve been listening to On Repeat
Study Playlist
LA Playlist
- for the SparkXM podcast: besides interviewing people, the podcasts could include short lessons taught by every person being interviewed. for instance, in the spark interview, we were asked “Teach us something in 2 minutes.” What if the podcasts were an extended version of our replies to these answers? this would also create a platform where we can learn niche new things by casually listening to a podcast on our way to class.
- a new committee that follows social entrepreneurship principles: immersing yourself in a community, learning to empathize with that community, and using that to solve an issue that the community is facing. I know that Project Launch is a good example of this framework (it shadows students, immerses itself, etc.), but what if we applied this concept to a lot of other things? For example, we can apply it to the problem of food waste at USC, access to safe reproduction in DTLA, etc. After immersion into the community, the committee would aim to work on a structured solution.
- In the beginning of every SparkLabs, we would have 5-10 brainstorming sessions for different things. The brainstorming doesn't necessarily have to be about spark, it could be a random prompt such as “how would you rebrand this water bottle to portray it as a healthy energy drink?” The prompt itself does not matter, the thing that matters would be applying the process of brainstorming and group ideation
- I think for people who are applying something that could be confusing is what actually happens when you join Spark. We could do a graphic/blogpost/instapost where we present a timeline of what happens. The line would start from written application —> interview —> team interview —> become a sparklet! —> sparklabs —> committee meetings —> leading committees —> etc.... (it would be like a slider instagram post taking us through the process)
- Breaking down the mission of Spark on social media using a Genius Lyric format
- a blogpost with people’s personal experiences with spark’s mission (demonstrating the wide variety of opportunities the mission encapsulates)
- if you have reached this far you have to slack me saying you did
- Spark photoshoot — but like an actual professional photoshoot: there will be specific outfits picked out, a creative director, an off-campus set, theme, etc.
- mapping out personality types and horoscopes of people in spark — have it be a huge chart and then we analyze if the people grouped together make sense (basically an experiment testing the hypothesis of astrology)
- get into slam poetry
- make a photo album of my college experience
- making a short film about how every single individual in usc has an entirely unique college experience (1 college, thousands of different lives)
- shrooms
- sit in the room where they come up with rick and morty episode ideas
- sit in a courtroom
- get symmetrical tattoos all over my body that embody opposite meanings
- e.g: one side has angel, one side has devil; one side is day other is night; one side is “home” and one side is the world/travel
- understand if everything means something or nothing; or both
- bring Turkish Hamam culture to the U.S.
- create the world’s first refillable candle (a candle that never ends)
- launch brand called “Higher Self” —> a marijuana friendly brand that pushes for the meditative and spiritual use of weed; and educates younger people on the possible adverse effects of weed. the brand would have partnerships with other youthful lifestyle brands, one example being Carne Bolente, a sex-positive French clothing brand.
- work for Ryan Murphy film set
- marry j Cole
- see frank ocean live
- meet Mac miller (lol)
something to think about….
an image that brings me joy:
