Located half an hour drive away from Boston, the intellectual heart of the USA, the Knowledge Academy organized its traditional Fund-Raising dinner last weekend.
Anchored by Nihal Bozkrut and Nuseybah Elsiah, the high school students; the programme started with the Koran chant by Roa Elharby, who is a elementary school student from Saudi Arabia, in company with English translation by Wendy Moran, again one of the elementary school students.
After welcoming speech by Dr. Driss Djorman, Head of the Board of Trustees, Mrs. Oya Bozkurt, founders and Principal of the school, gave a speech. After thanking the participants, she told that they covered a lot of ground even though it only had a history of 4 years; they offered education services a wide range of students from the age group of three to senior year students at high school; they taught Arabic and Spanish as well as English and they would start to teach Turkish very soon; they had 15 classrooms with 8 students per teacher; high school students went to North Shore Community College, which is located at the school’s foot, twice a week and they would get a two-year vocational school diploma at the time of graduation.
Having underlined that the Academy incorporated the only primary school providing the hafiz programme among other Islamic schools located in the State of Massachusetts, Mrs. Bozkurt stated that students benefited from nearby Olympic gym once a week and all students attended taekwondo course once a week.
She also told that they helped the students requiring special education by way of Ms. Nidaa Rahmy, they offered Arabic and Koran courses at weekends; and that it was also enabled to perform Friday prayer at the small mosque located in the school.
Also, the show performed by the students under the leadership of Heba Sheeda, kindergarten teacher, got full marks from the audience.
Mucteba Kerim Bozkurt, one of the elementary school students, gave information about debate club of the school. After Muhammad Abbas, one of the board member, presented financial report, three major speakers took the floor during the rest of the night: Imam Zaid Shakir, one of the founders of Zaytuna College, which is the first Islamic College established in the United States, Shiah Mokhtar Maqhraoui, Algerian Sufi, and Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the most famous Imam in the United States, who is the Imam of New York Masjid'i Taqwa. They made mention of the importance of Islamic schools in the United States and they requested all to support Islamic schools.
Moreover, rap show by Hatim, one of the Saudi Arabian parents, was watched with interest during the night. Burak Karartı, Turkish Consul General in Boston, expressed his satisfaction with the success of Turkish entrepreneurs in the U.S. and reminded that Turkish Airlines would start direct flights from Boston to Istanbul.
Mehmet Aktaş and Mustafa Aktaş, the retired Imams, Imam Abdullah Farooq, one of the veteran Imams of Masjidi Alhamdulillah, the first mosque built in Boston, Alperen Kaçar, Commercial Attaché in Boston, Kemal Bozkurt, Editor-in-Chief of www.habername.com, Bekir Karaman, Boston Representative of Kanal7 and other invitees participated in the night.