On a string of weekday evenings as the cohort wound down, the Zoom grid kept repopulating with the familiar faces who had carried the girls through the year. Andrew McCrea clicked in from a small town in Missouri, ready with one more parable about place and possibility. From Pittsburgh, Heather and Ece at the University of Pittsburgh’s English Language Institute waved hello and tuned a guitar, the room already leaning toward melody. In Oklahoma City, Eriech Tapia adjusted his webcam and invited the girls to sharpen one last set of questions. Samantha Bell, in North Carolina, leaned toward the lens to see their newest sketches –floor plans edged with English labels – and offered the kind of notes that make a young designer stand a little taller. Sydney Zupnick joined from Ohio with the calm cadence of music-therapy still in her voice. And from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Michael Sullivan arrived like clockwork, an easy presence who could turn a vocabulary warm-up into laughter. In Hatay, Mirey Baz anchored the room, steady as a metronome.
Each of those final sessions became a quiet ritual of gratitude. The lesson would proceed – one last story, one last chorus, one last interview – and then the girls would take a minute to say what they had learned from that person in particular: how to listen for the good question, how to hold a note to the end of a sentence, how to let a drawing carry meaning across languages. Thank-yous crowded the chat. The screen felt less like a classroom than a relay baton passed across time zones: Missouri to Hatay, Pittsburgh to Antakya, Oklahoma to Iskenderun, Allentown to everywhere the girls would carry their voices next.
What struck an observer wasn’t spectacle but ease – how ordinary and borderless it all seemed. Weeknight evenings in Turkey aligned with American afternoons; a handful of artists and teachers, scattered across maps, made a single room feel inevitable. BVG had built not just a program but a practice: a community that transcends borders by showing up, week after week, until the distance between squares disappears.
From the very start, Be the Voice of Girls was designed as a bridge between cultures. The program’s mission explicitly aimed to “strengthen ties between Turkey and the United States” through education. But over time, those ties have multiplied to include many more places and people. BVG’s community is now a tapestry of contributions from individuals and institutions spanning at least four countries. This part of the series is a tribute and exploration of those ties – the mentors who lent their voices, the partners who provided resources, and the global network that continues to sustain and expand the program. As coordinator Mirey Baz put it, “our project… enabled [the girls] to become vocal advocates for themselves and cultural ambassadors for both Turkey and the U.S.” Yet, it wasn’t a one-way street: in the process of making the girls cultural ambassadors, BVG itself became a magnet for cross-cultural collaboration. Each volunteer and supporter brought a piece of their world into the BVG experience, enriching it immeasurably.
A Tapestry of Mentors and Friends
At the heart of the global support network are the volunteer contributors – a passionate, eclectic crew of educators, artists, professionals, and creatives who gave their time to mentor the girls. These individuals are more than guest speakers; they became role models and friends. The girls looked forward to sessions with them, often peppering them with as many personal questions (“What’s your favorite movie?”) as topic-related ones. Let’s meet some of these key figures and see what they brought to BVG:
- Andrew McCrea – A storyteller, author, and community advocate from the American Midwest. Andrew has been involved since the very first cohort, leading a storytelling masterclass that leaves a big impression. In cohort three, he expanded his role, joining multiple times to share stories of American culture and small-town revitalization. Through Andrew, the girls “traveled” to Minnesota to hear about a dazzling Lighted Tree tradition, and to Utah to learn how planting flowers transformed a town. He also taught them about the Corn Palace in South Dakota and the Enchanted Highway sculptures – quirky Americana that fascinated the girls. Andrew’s sessions were not lectures but conversations; he had a knack for engaging the girls with questions, making them feel their ideas were as valued as his. “Andrew’s way of telling stories made me want to tell my own,” a student noted gratefully. He often stayed after the official session end to chat casually – asking the girls about their towns, listening to their stories. In him, they saw an adult who genuinely cared and was delighted by their voices. Andrew later remarked how impressed he was by the participants’ creativity and noted “the potential for even bigger impact if such cross-cultural mentorship continued”. Indeed, he has become one of BVG’s biggest champions stateside, sharing the girls’ accomplishments in his community. Andrew embodies the cross-cultural ethos of BVG: he not only taught the girls, he learned from them and carried their voices beyond the program.
- All Ears English (Lindsay McMahon & Team) – BVG’s collaboration with All Ears English (AEE), a popular American English-learning platform, is a perfect example of mutual benefit. In October 2024, Aubrey Carter, AEE’s charismatic teacher and podcast host, led a special session on dining etiquette (as we saw). This wasn’t a random one-off; it was part of a broader partnership. Lindsay McMahon, the founder of All Ears English, and her colleagues believe in making English learning fun and real – values that align closely with BVG’s. They provided learning materials (like curated podcast episodes) and live sessions that added a new dimension to BVG. Through AEE, the girls learned “everyday American idioms and slang” that they would never find in a textbook. They delighted in expressions like “spill the tea” (to gossip) and “hit the books” (to study hard), and tried using them in conversation. One girl proudly recounted how she said “Let’s hit the books” to motivate her friend before an exam, a phrase she only knew thanks to All Ears English. In surveys, nearly all respondents mentioned discovering aspects of American culture they hadn’t known – and specifically cited idioms and casual speech learned through AEE. Aubrey’s session on food and the ensuing cultural comparisons left a lasting impression, evidenced by the girls flocking after the session to follow AEE on Instagram and YouTube, eager to keep learning. The respect is mutual: AEE’s team has featured BVG in their content, highlighting how these Turkish teens are blazing an innovative learning trail. This partnership illustrates how BVG’s community isn’t limited to individual volunteers – it extends to organizations in the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) world. The AEE team, including Aubrey, Lindsay, and Jessica Vorster, have been explicitly thanked by BVG for their dedication. As part of this retrospective, we echo that gratitude. By sharing their expertise, AEE gave BVG girls the gift of voice with flair – the ability to not just speak English, but to do so with idiomatic confidence.
- Heather and Ece (University of Pittsburgh’s ELI) – Deserving of special mention are Heather and Ece, the musical English instructors whose sessions struck a chord (pun intended). They essentially turned English lessons into jam sessions, as described earlier. But beyond the fun, they built real relationships with the girls. After the “New Year’s Melody” session in January, Mirey Baz actually traveled to the U.S. and met Heather in person – a moment that symbolized the friendship forged. Over coffee in Pittsburgh, they discussed each girl’s progress, brainstorming how to further support them. Heather and Ece even recorded personalized video messages for the cohort’s graduation, expressing how proud they were and inviting the girls to stay in touch. The girls, in turn, idolized these two. “Heather and Ece’s lessons were a very good example,” one participant wrote when suggesting future improvements, “they gave us some grammar in a fun way and important idioms… maybe we could have more teachers like them.” To have students asking for more lessons (and even grammar!) is a feat of these two’s engaging approach. It’s clear that Heather and Ece’s cross-cultural, musical mentoring left an indelible mark, blending language with life lessons. BVG has publicly thanked Ece and Heather as key contributors, and rightly so – they tuned the girls’ ears to the music of English and taught them to sing with their hearts.
- Eriech Tapia – A journalist by trade, Eriech introduced the girls to the Art of the Interview. Over several sessions, he taught them how to prepare questions, listen actively, and tell a story through someone else’s words. In feedback, one student singled out Eriech’s sessions, saying they expanded her perspective on journalism and helped her find her own interviewing style. Eriech was impressed by how perceptive the girls’ questions were. “They don’t just ask what or when – they ask why,” he noted. “It shows how engaged and thoughtful they are.” Indeed, he fielded some tough questions from them about media ethics and representation of women in journalism. Eriech continues to follow the girls’ journey; he’s the kind of mentor who has said his email inbox is always open if they want advice on a school paper or project. By opening the world of journalism to them, Eriech helped many find their courage to ask questions – a skill that transcends any one field. BVG formally thanked him for “mastering the art of the interview” with the girls, and his contribution is a shining example of how professional expertise can directly empower youth. He taught them that their curiosity is an asset and their voice can uncover truths.
- Samantha Bell – We met Samantha in Part 2 as the art and design maven. What bears emphasis here is how Samantha’s involvement from the beginning exemplifies sustained international mentorship. She and Fatma originally connected through a professional network, and Samantha was eager to help BVG even from afar in North Carolina. She provided lesson plans on design thinking and virtually co-led brainstorming sessions. For cohort three, Samantha took on a larger role: leading the “Designing Community Spaces” workshop alongside her daughter. The girls absolutely adored the presence of a mother-daughter team – it subtly reflected BVG’s own origin (Fatma and Alara) and reinforced the notion of women supporting women across generations. In thanking Samantha, BVG highlighted her “arts integration and creativity,” which indeed unlocked many a creative door for the girls. Perhaps Samantha’s greatest gift was the confidence she gave the girls to call themselves artists. She would frequently comment in follow-up emails that she was blown away by the girls’ ideas and would love to collaborate with them on a project someday. Imagine the boost a 14-year-old gets from a real designer saying, “Your idea could be in a magazine!” One participant quoted in the evaluation said Samantha helped her “believe in [her]self as an artist”. That belief – that one’s artistic voice is valid – can be transformative, especially for young women who might be told that art is frivolous or that they’re not talented enough.
- Sydney Zupnick, Stephanie Matthews, & A Tribe for Jazz – Sydney’s influence was most pronounced in the concluding chapter of the cohort (as covered in Part 5), but her role in the community context is significant too. She represents an organizational partnership bearing fruit: through A Tribe for Jazz (led by Stephanie Matthews), BVG tapped into a wellspring of resources in the arts and education sphere in Ohio. This partnership exposed BVG girls to music therapy, jazz history, and creative professionals they wouldn’t otherwise meet. Sydney herself formed deep connections with some participants; one girl privately emailed her after the session to ask for advice about handling anxiety. Sydney wrote back with encouragement and a few breathing exercises. Such one-on-one mentorship, spurred by the trust built in a single session, speaks volumes about how open and caring this global network became. When Sydney returned for the final session, the girls greeted her like an old friend, immediately typing “Welcome back Sydney!” in the chat. The BVG blog lauded the collaboration with A Tribe for Jazz as “a reminder of what the initiative strives to achieve: creating spaces where young women can connect, grow, and find their voices”. Sydney’s contribution, and that of her organization, demonstrates how community extends beyond individuals to entire organizations aligning missions. Thanks to her, the girls realized that their BVG community is part of a larger movement valuing arts and youth – a comforting and empowering thought.
- Michael Sullivan – Joining nearly each week, sometimes from the Philippines, other times from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Michael didn’t so much “drop in” as hold the room, leading or co-leading roughly half of the cohort’s sessions and becoming the program’s quiet constant. A veteran educator with a comedian’s timing, he treated storytelling, debate, and live practice not as separate modules but as one elastic craft: warm-ups bled into improv prompts, which became scaffolded arguments, which turned – almost without announcement – into short, shaped speeches. He had a knack for making the grid feel like a circle. When a student froze before a debate rehearsal, he would take her part first – exaggerating, wrong on purpose, inviting laughter – then hand it back with, “Now you do it, but better than me,” and the courage would arrive right on cue. Vocabulary drills became riffs; shy voices learned to land a sentence; “evidence” stopped being an abstraction and started behaving like something you could lift and place. He noticed who hadn’t spoken and built them an on-ramp; he noticed who was coasting and raised the bar with a question that required a real thought. The girls mention him in clusters – “the storytelling activities with Mike and Andrew,” “debates with Mike,” “Mike’s warm-ups” – because his presence stitched the weeks together, easing them from caution to fluency by repetition and cheerfully exacting feedback. In the evaluations his name recurs like a refrain, gratitude shading into ownership: he helped them hear themselves, then insisted they keep talking. If BVG is a room where language becomes voice, Michael was the dependable throughline – showing up, weeknight after weeknight, to keep the tempo while the girls found their pitch.
- Jon Mullineaux – A librarian-educator and writing coach from the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Jon arrived with a deceptively simple proposition: writing is a structure you can learn, and structure is a kind of kindness to the reader. His handbook, The Successful Writer’s Pyramid, became the quiet spine of our Art of Writing module; each girl received her own copy – clean and taut on day one, then quickly dog-eared, margin-starred, and ribboned with sticky notes as the weeks went on. Jon’s sessions felt less like lectures than like learning how to see: begin at the base with purpose and audience; climb to a clear claim; frame paragraphs that actually hold (topic sentences that carry weight, evidence that earns its keep, transitions that don’t wobble); only then polish the summit – cadence, economy, the luxuries of a precise verb. He taught by questions instead of rules – What are you really trying to say? Where does the reader enter? Which sentence does the work, and which only looks pretty? – and the room shifted accordingly, trading “good job” for “stronger verb,” replacing vagueness with examples, discovering that a cut can be an act of generosity. Drafts came back stitched with carets like constellations; a student who had never finished a page found herself defending a topic sentence; another learned that a paragraph can pivot like a dancer if the hinge is set just right. “Your reader is a person, not a judge,” he’d say, and you could feel shoulders drop across the grid. In the evaluations, several girls credited his framework with making revision feel less like punishment and more like craft; one noted that, for the first time, she knew what to fix and why. If BVG treats language as a bridge, Jon was the one laying the planks in order – so the crossing felt possible, then natural, then proud.
- Mirey Baz & Carl Holtman – Finally, the two co-leaders themselves are a vital part of this community fabric. Mirey, being on the ground, was the surrogate mother/aunt figure for the girls, but she was also a cultural bridge. As a Turkish educator with global experience, she could interpret and contextualize the foreign concepts introduced by international volunteers in a way the girls grasped. She often followed up a guest session with a reflective discussion in a mix of Turkish and English, ensuring nothing was lost in translation emotionally. Meanwhile, Carl built partnerships and brought in support, yes, but he also personally mentored the girls through his writing and presence. Each week on the blog, he penned thoughtful recaps of the sessions, frequently mentioning individual girls’ contributions to uplift them. Imagine seeing an article by your program’s co-founder praising your insightful comment or your improvement; it undoubtedly made the girls feel seen and valued. Carl also tapped into networks like Rotary International to widen the circle of support. By attending Rotary meetings, Carl introduced BVG’s story to people from dozens of countries. Mirey and Carl nurtured a culture of gratitude within BVG: always thanking every volunteer publicly, encouraging the girls to make thank-you cards for guest speakers, and modeling appreciation. This not only is the right thing to do, it taught the girls how to build and sustain a network.
Bridging Cultures, One Interaction at a Time
What’s remarkable is how BVG girls and these contributors formed genuine bonds despite differences in age, culture, and sometimes language. The program’s emphasis on cultural exchange created a two-way street of learning. The girls were not passive recipients; they actively shared their own culture with the volunteers. Remember the session where Andrew talked about the Lighted Tree festival in Minnesota? The girls responded by sharing how they celebrate New Year’s and describing their own festive traditions. Andrew later said he learned a ton about Turkey from the girls – including how in Turkish culture, New Year’s Eve has some Christmas-like traditions such as decorating a tree, which he found fascinating. In Heather and Ece’s singing sessions, after learning English idioms, the girls taught a few Turkish idioms to the Americans (who eagerly noted them down). Aubrey Carter’s dining etiquette lesson turned into a fun cross-cultural exchange about Turkish vs. American table manners. These interactions underline that the community was built on mutual respect and curiosity. The girls were treated not as charity cases or mere students, but as interesting young people from whom the world could learn something too. This did wonders for their confidence. One participant wrote, “Many girls expressed amazement that people from around the world cared about their opinions and talents. It turned the abstract concept of being ‘the voice of girls’ into a reality – their voices were literally heard by international figures.” Indeed, how powerful is that? A teenager in a small city realizes her perspective is valued by an adult on another continent. It validates her sense of self and belonging in the wider world.
The gratitude that permeates BVG’s community is mutual and reinforcing. The girls thank their mentors and program team at every turn, often with handmade notes or, in one case, a surprise thank-you video they compiled featuring each girl saying a message of thanks in English. The contributors, in turn, often say they feel they get more than they give. “They have truly become voices of change,” one volunteer remarked admiringly. Some have called the experience eye-opening and inspirational for themselves. It’s not every day an American journalist or an educator gets to connect deeply with teenage girls in Turkey – it expanded their own cultural understanding and gave them hope for the future generation.
In essence, BVG’s community and global ties show that it truly “takes a village” – in this case, a global village – to empower a girl. Each mentor, each partner, each supporter is like a pillar holding up the platform on which these girls stand and raise their voices. And the platform is expanding. Today BVG is actively recruiting ambassadors around the world – volunteers who can champion the cause in their own communities, helping identify girls in need or organizing supporting events. The call to “Join us to Be the Voice of Girls” has gone out far and wide.
A Community United by a Vision
If one word could sum up the spirit of BVG’s network, it might be “unity”. Not a homogenous unity – the community is beautifully diverse – but unity in purpose. The key themes the program emphasizes (empowerment through English and arts, cross-cultural connection, socio-emotional development) are not just buzzwords; they are values sincerely shared by everyone involved. That alignment of values created an instant sense of belonging among participants and contributors. A Tribe for Jazz’s mission to preserve jazz through education dovetailed with BVG’s mission to empower through arts. All Ears English’s motto is “Connection NOT Perfection,” which might as well be a BVG slogan too – focus on communication and building relationships over flawless grammar. Rotary International’s focus on youth development and peace through understanding underpins Carl’s expansion efforts and resource network. In other words, BVG tapped into existing currents in the global community that prioritize youth, education, and cultural exchange, and funneled those energies into one small but potent program.
The result? A microcosm of what we might hope the world to be: people of different nations and ages coming together to lift up the next generation of young women. A Rotary district governor who learned of BVG remarked that the program was “building peace, one girl at a time” by fostering mutual understanding and confidence. It might sound lofty, but consider this: these girls now have friends and mentors in multiple countries. They see Americans and others not as distant strangers but as caring individuals who invested in them. And the volunteers see Turkey not as a mere news headline but as the home of talented, bright girls they know by name. Such humanization is the foundation of empathy and peace. It’s what cultural diplomacy strives for, achieved here not through high-level politics but through grassroots connection.
In their reflections, the girls often mentioned how they became more aware of the world. “I learned about American presidents and important women and I was never bored,” one girl noted, adding that she wished her history teacher at school taught like that. Another said she started following international news more because she felt “connected to people outside” after meeting so many foreigners through BVG. She realized that when something happens in the U.S. or UK, it’s not an abstract faraway thing – it might affect or involve people she knows. That sense of global citizenship blossomed in many of them. In a final essay, one participant wrote: “BVG made me a world person. I feel I have sisters and teachers everywhere now.” If that isn’t a sign of a strong community, what is?
As BVG moves ahead (as we’ll discuss in Part 5), it carries with it this robust and loving community. The voices of the girls may be the centerpiece, but they resonate louder and farther thanks to the amphitheater of allies surrounding them. Each “thank you” from the girls is met with an even louder “thank YOU for letting us be part of this” from the supporters. It’s enough to give one hope – that when people rally around a cause as pure as educating and empowering girls, the usual barriers of language, culture, age, and distance can fall away. What remains is our shared humanity and a collective belief that every girl’s voice matters.
In the concluding part next, we will look at the road ahead – how BVG plans to harness this incredible momentum and support for the future. With such a community behind it, one imagines the sky is the limit. But what exactly lies on the horizon? What dreams and plans are stirring to take BVG to the next level? We’ll explore that, closing our series with a powerful call to action – inviting even more people to join this global chorus that is ensuring no girl’s voice goes unheard.
