Great Success by the School of Foreign Languages Students at SOSYALFEST 2026
Students of the Karabük University School of Foreign Languages made our school proud with the achievements they earned at SOSYALFEST 2026, one of Türkiye’s most significant organizations in the field of social sciences. Organized this year at Istanbul University’s Beyazıt Campus under the leadership of Karabük University and in cooperation with Istanbul University, SOSYALFEST 2026 brought together students, academics, project teams, and partner institutions from all across Türkiye around the theme of social sciences.
As Türkiye’s first national and international social sciences festival, SOSYALFEST also attracted attention this year with its remarkable level of participation. More than 12,000 project applications were submitted to competitions held in various fields such as social sciences, health, sustainability, production, youth, family, culture, technology, and social benefit. The festival stood out as a strong scientific and social platform that encouraged young people not only to generate ideas but also to transform those ideas into practical projects offering solutions to societal problems.
As the School of Foreign Languages, a project consultancy process initiated during last summer school to support our students’ project development capacities turned into a significant achievement at SOSYALFEST 2026. Within this process, students were provided with consultancy support to help them systematically develop their ideas, prepare project application texts, structure them according to thematic areas, and present them from a social benefit-oriented perspective. As a result of these efforts, 12 projects submitted to SOSYALFEST by students of the School of Foreign Languages advanced to the finals. Among these finalist projects, 5 projects received awards in different categories.
Within the scope of SOSYALFEST 2026, Rabia Koç won first place in the “Stability in the Century of Türkiye” category with her project titled “From Sky to Forest: Reforestation of Burned Woodland Areas Using Aerial Seeding Technology.” Adem Duran achieved second place in the “Health Policies” category with his project “HealthBridge: Integrated Community-Centered Health Governance for Türkiye’s Century.” Rabia Göbek received third place in the “Youth and Future in the Century of Türkiye” category with her project “InnerOpen – Digital Support System for Overcoming Adolescent Social Withdrawal.” Şükrü Acıoğlu earned third place in the “Century of Türkiye in Production” category with his project “Integration of AI-Powered Predictive Maintenance Systems in Industrial Manufacturing.” Vahit Civelek also won third place in the “Ideal Family and Society in Islam” category with his project “IdealFamilyInIslam: Cross-Cultural Sharing of Islamic Family Traditions Through Social Media.”
The award-winning students were invited to the Office of the School of Foreign Languages Administration and congratulated for their achievements. During the program, certificates representing trees planted in Karabük in the students’ names were presented to them. In this way, the students’ academic and social project achievements were meaningfully crowned with environmental awareness and sustainability consciousness.
Director of the School of Foreign Languages, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Polat, stated that the students’ achievements were a great source of pride for the school and emphasized that SOSYALFEST plays an important role in helping young people develop skills in thinking, producing, solving social problems, and gaining a project-oriented mindset. Polat said: “SOSYALFEST is a highly valuable organization that showcases not only our students’ academic knowledge but also their social awareness, innovative thinking skills, problem-solving capacities, and interdisciplinary perspectives. The fact that the project consultancy process we initiated during last summer school resulted in such a meaningful success is a concrete indicator of our students’ potential and the productivity they can demonstrate when provided with proper guidance.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Polat also emphasized that SOSYALFEST holds strategic value for the vision of Karabük University and thanked the Rector of Karabük University, Prof. Dr. Fatih Kırışık, who played a pioneering role in the creation and development of the festival into a strong national-scale organization. Polat stated: “SOSYALFEST, implemented under the leadership of our Rector, Prof. Dr. Fatih Kırışık, makes significant contributions to spreading the culture of project production in the field of social sciences, encouraging young people to approach social issues with solution-oriented perspectives, and strengthening the scientific and social impact capacity of our university. We express our gratitude to our Rector for this visionary approach that provides such opportunities for our students, supports project culture, and encourages the productivity of young people.”
Emphasizing that foreign language education is not merely a process of acquiring linguistic competence, Polat noted that students are also supported in developing skills such as communicating with different cultures, understanding global issues, following scientific developments, and expressing themselves on national and international platforms. Polat said: “The fact that our students achieved awards in diverse themes ranging from the environment to health, from youth studies to production technologies, and from family and social values to digital solutions, demonstrates that they are capable of multidimensional thinking and possess strong motivation to produce social benefit. We will continue to further expand the culture of project-based learning, social responsibility, and scientific production at our school.”
The administration of the School of Foreign Languages congratulated all students who reached the finals and won awards at SOSYALFEST 2026 and wished them continued success. It was stated that these meaningful achievements would contribute to strengthening the culture of project development within the school, increasing awareness in the field of social sciences, and helping young people develop solution-oriented perspectives toward societal problems.