I usually leave the blog posting to the education experts at Firat Education, but I felt compelled to write one about remote learning. Ibrahim and I have a rising 3rd grader. Our seven year old, like all other students across the world, was thrown into remote learning in March. During the quarantine, we didn’t teach him math, english, or reading. While those subjects mattered, other things mattered more: how he could manage his time, use his laptop, log on to Zoom, send proper emails to his teachers when he had questions, and much more… All. By. Himself.

We’ve been asked as parents what we plan do with our, now eight year old. Because we own an education company, maybe we have some sort of perspective? Well, we do. It has nothing to do with virtual learning, masks, pods, or COVID-19. It has to do with our kids. Since March, we have seen that families need support in a variety of ways, and we’ve noticed a gap. There are many students who have the ability to learn independently but don’t know how.

Again, I’m not talking about math, english, or reading. I’m talking about independent learning. Independent learning doesn’t just help with the now during the Covid-Era, but with academic goals, college goals, and future goals. Firat Education has consulted over 1,000 students in 12 years. Our goal for those 1,000+ students has always been to prepare them for college and for the future.

A little fun fact is that our original logo back in 2008 has a slogan: “Educating our future with solutions for life.” (The evolution of our logo is a whole other blog post.)

Our strengths lie in preparing kids – of all ages – for college and for life.  We believe that starts with teaching “entrepreneurial-thinking” skills to foster independent learning in students, even as young as seven years old.

What are “entrepreneurial-thinking” skills? In short, it is the ability to recognize problems and provide solutions. Those skills include communication, time management, tenacity, organization, innovation, problem solving, flexibility, vision, ownership, curiosity, self-motivation, and self-care.

With those skills, our students, at ANY age, can be successful independent learners. And these skills are vital, now more than ever, because when our kids are not learning independently, we, as parents, are adversely affected too: no mom wishes her 16 year old still need her approval to schedule a meeting with his counselor. We want that 16 year old to know his schedule, move things around as needed, and have the confidence to schedule/cancel/reschedule and “own” the outcomes, not at 16 years old, but at six, seven, eight…

We, at Firat Education, have put together a program for families. Learn more about Independent Learning Support and contact us to get started. While we did drop the slogan from our logo, we have not wavered from our original mission – to educate our future with solutions for life.

Logo version 2.0 (2012)

Yours,

Josephine Firat
CEO, Firat Education

As a college admissions consultant, students come to me for advice quite often. COVID-19 bombarded the world with strong feelings of unease and unpredictability. Consequently, the future of higher education is a topic of concern. The big question – what productive things can I do this summer to improve my college applications now that my original plans were cancelled?

Don’t worry, I have an answer to that question that hopefully won’t disappoint!

Because many areas of the country are not operating at full capacity, I had to be creative. I pieced together resources students need to stay productive during this pandemic, so they may stand out against others. After all, the goal of college applications is to make yours stand out amongst the thousands of others that cross the admissions representative’s desk.

I created a spreadsheet that includes a variety of opportunities students can still apply for this summer. Each experience is either free, paid, application-based, or simply requires registration. Ultimately, there’s an option for everyone in this list!

Interested in checking out the opportunities? Click here to view the spreadsheet. Each summer opportunity has a brief explanation, applicable costs and deadlines, and a direct link that takes you to the website.

Don’t forget – summer time is the perfect time to get a jump start on college essays and organize applications before school starts! Contact Firat Education to set up an Education Assessment today to get started!

Ibrahim Firat joins the Board of Directors for the Independent Educational Consultants Association

Houston, TX (May 31, 2019) – The Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) is a not-for-profit, international professional association representing experienced independent educational consultants. After having served for the IECA in several leadership capacities, including College Committee Vice-Chairman for two years, presenter for various breakout and pre-conference sessions, and college tour planner, Ibrahim Firat was announced as an IECA Board Member.

IECA Board Members’ responsibilities include: