Empower a First-Generation College Student

As the 2025/26 academic year draws to a close, we find ourselves looking back with genuine gratitude and pride at what we have accomplished together.

This year, thanks to the generosity of our donors, 1,138 young women across Türkiye received scholarships that helped them pursue their dreams. They came from all kinds of backgrounds and fields: 221 studying medicine, 174 in engineering, 141 in education, and hundreds more across a wide range of disciplines. At a time when STEM fields are opening more doors than ever before, especially for women, seeing so many of our scholars stepping confidently into these spaces feels like exactly the kind of progress we set out to create.

With your support, these young women are becoming engineers, nurses, dentists, doctors, and teachers. They are building lives of their own, giving back to their communities, and waking up each day to work that means something to them. Rather than focusing on the difficulties they have faced along the way, this report is about what they have made of the opportunities in front of them.

We receive their thank you letters and videos constantly, and each one reminds us why this work matters. We would love to share a few lines from Gülsen's letter with you:

"Four years ago, I became the first girl from a family of ten children in a rural Turkish village to win a place at university, defying the expectation that girls should marry young rather than study. With no financial support, I worked seasonal jobs to cover my expenses, and thanks to the generosity of a stranger from a country I didn't even know, part of my education was funded. After years of hard work, I graduated, earned a high exam score, and was appointed as a nurse. Today, I live in my own home and keep the promises I once made to that little girl: to stand on my own feet, to heal others, and to carry forward the hope that someone once gave me."

It is hard to read words like these and not feel the weight of what a single act of generosity can set in motion. This is what your support makes possible, not only an opportunity but a sense of dignity and belonging. Thank you, sincerely, for being part of this.

Links:

• Track Your Impact with the BTF Scholarships Dashboard

The 2025/2026 academic term has commenced, and we are proud to announce that 1,600 scholars are receiving scholarships made possible through the generosity of our donors. This support is vital in addressing the growing global concern of school dropout in higher education, which has been consistently linked to long-term socioeconomic disadvantages such as youth poverty, limited career opportunities, and social exclusion. 

For Türkiye, the issue is particularly urgent given the country’s young population, where this could either drive economic growth or, without sufficient investment in education, lead to a demographic crisis.According to the 2023–2024 data of the Higher Education Quality Council of Türkiye (YÖKAK), higher education enrollment has reached seven million overall, including four million in formal education programs. However, dropout rates have also increased sharply, from 2.7% in the 2012–2013 academic year to 17% in 2023–2024.

Economic disadvantage plays a central role in perpetuating dropout rates, creating structural barriers that limit access to and success in educational settings. Students from lower-income backgrounds often face challenges such as inadequate educational resources, the necessity of working while studying, and limited social capital, all of which hinder academic performance and persistence. Addressing these inequalities through scholarships and support programs is essential to ensure that higher education fulfills its role as a driver of social and economic progress.

We sincerely thank you for continuing to stand with us in supporting education during the 2025/2026 academic term.