American Collegiate Institute

Infobox Secondary school
name = American Collegiate Institute

motto = Enter to Learn Depart to Serve
head_label = Director
head = Charles C. Hanna
type = Private Co-educational
grades = Prep, 9, 10, 11, 12
students =
established = 1878
city = Izmir
country = Turkey
campus = Urban
colors = Blue, White, Red
website = [http://www.aci.k12.tr Official Web Site]

The American Collegiate Institute (ACI) is a co-educational high school located on a seven acre, garden-like campus in the middle of the modern, commercial city of Izmir, Turkey. Originally founded by American missionary educators in 1878, ACI today is a managed by a private Turkish charitable foundation. The name of ACI in Turkish is Ozel Izmir Amerikan Koleji.

History

The American Collegiate Institute was founded over 125 years ago in the city of Izmir, then known as Smyrna. ACI is the oldest private school in Izmir and has gone through dramatic changes over the past 125 years; it has served as a kindergarten, a girls’ school, boys’ elementary school, and is now a co-educational high school. However, throughout these many changes, the school has continued to inspire its students with the ideals expressed in its motto, “Enter to Learn; Depart to Serve.” ACI’s future is as bright as its past, its graduates are annually accepted into the top private and public universities throughout the world. Students continue their participation in the social service clubs and experience the ACI “Spirit” which its alumni know well and its future students will be fortunate to experience.

Philosophy

ACI goals:

*to establish a democratic life
*to implement a strong curriculum
*to achieve a multi-lingual, international education
*to realize the individual development of the student
*to carry out an effective extracurricular program
*to prepare for life after secondary school
*to renew continuously

Academics

Current ACI facilities include multiple computer labs, a campus computer network with Internet access, a library/media center with online databases, over 43,000 texts, Internet access, and video-conferencing facilities, a purpose-built science building with multiple science labs, a performing arts center, a multi-court sports hall, outdoor sports courts, and several purpose-built academic and office buildings. An associated elementary school occupies the same campus. Entrance to ACI is through a competitive national exam which students take at the end of their 8th grade year. Furthermore, all new students who meet the school’s rigorous academic entrance requirements have the choice to take an English promotion exam which may result in the student bypassing the intensive-English preparatory year and directly entering the Lise 1 (grade 9) year. The school program is now five years in length, with the first year being an intensive year of English language preparation. This five-year program consists of a Lise Preparatory Year and Lise 1, Lise 2, Lise 3 and Lise 4 class levels which are equivalent to grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. In 2005, the school was authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) starting in the 2006-2007 school year. In June 2008 the school will have its first graduates from the IBDP.

Activities

Extracurricular activities are an important part of the ACI school culture. ACI’s motto is “Enter to Learn; Depart to Serve.” We stress our social service clubs and require all students to participate in one such club before graduation. Other school clubs emphasize personal hobbies and interests. ACI also has a student council, yearbook committee, Model United Nations (MUN) club, and Junior Achievement (JA). The school has both boys and girls teams which participate in nationwide competitive school sports leagues and in private invitational tournaments.

Accreditation

ACI is fully accredited by the Turkish Ministry of Education (MEB). In addition, ACI has been accredited since 1994 by the European Council of International Schools (ECIS), and was re-accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) in 2003. CIS is the body created by ECIS to handle all accreditation duties and is widely recognized as being the premier international school accreditation body. Furthermore, CIS accreditation is recognized by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) in the United States through the NAIS Recognition Program.

External links

* [http://www.aci.k12.tr ACI Web Site]

ources

*www.aci.k12.tr
*http://www.fabsit.org/aci.gif