Ayşe Şule Bilgiç, mother of Cartoon Character Pepee and CEO of Düşyeri, was invited to Samsun by OMU SME and Entrepreneurship Club, and she shared her experiences and the story of Pepee with the students.
The conversation organized in Atatürk Congress and Culture Center at OMU was held with the participation of Rector Prof. Sait Bilgiç, Mayor of Çarşamba Hüseyin Dündar, Vice Rector Prof. Mehmet Kuran, General Secretary Assoc. Prof. Menderes Kabadayı, Assistant to Rector Prof. Hüsnü Demirsoy, academicians, and students.
Adem Çopur, Head of the SME and Entrepreneurship Club made the inaugural speech and mentioned the activities that they have carried out. He stated that they wanted to be pioneers of entrepreneurship at OMU, and that they aimed to create awareness in this issue.
Rector Prof. Sait Bilgiç remarked that the expectations from the universities changed at a significant level, and he said: “the main task of the universities is not to educate the young in a specific field and to give them diplomas. Moreover, the universities are not the places where the academicians make research on specific subjects in order to receive an academic title. Today, the universities are expected to aim at the benefits and profits for the society and the humanity in terms of the human resources and information that they have produced. In other words, there is no such mentality saying: “I have produced something, and it is none of my business whether it is useful or not”. We do not want our students to say “I have graduated and what should I do now?”. For this reason, we should work effectively so as to demonstrate their full potentials”. Rector Prof. Sait Bilgiç also gave emphasis to the role and the significance of students’ clubs in this issue.
Ayşe Şule Bilgiç, creator of the national cartoon character named Pepee, gave a speech after Rector Bilgiç, and she shared her life story and mentioned her entrepreneurial spirit during her college years. She candidly talked about her new and stimulating projects, the difficulties that she has encountered in terms of entrepreneurship, her successes and failures, and the lessons that she has taken from her mistakes.
Ayşe Şule Bilgiç emphasized that her daughter Iraz played a significant role as her source of inspiration for the creation of Pepee, and she remarked that cartoon sector was in need of new educated human resources, and she underlined the importance of sustainability in this issue. She also said: “there is always a response for an idea or project touching upon people. At that point, miracles become true. There are miracles in life; so don’t hesitate to believe in them. If you keep your faith alive, if you work effectively and sincerely, then everything starts to serve you”.
Ayşe Şule Bilgiç summarized their successes as follows: “Pepee is broadcasted not only in Turkey but also in Russia. He is the second most preferred cartoon character in Russia, and he speaks Russian cutely. We will broadcast it in Saudi Arabia soon. Now we have an internationally-known child. As “Düşyeri” team, we strive to take beneficial initiatives on behalf of Turkey without abandoning our ethical values”.
In the question-answer session, Ayşe Şule Bilgiç answered a question about the origin of the name ‘Pepee’, and she stated that Pepe derived from an Anatolian name referring to the people having difficulties in speaking. In our concept, we aimed to create a child profile using our beautiful language effectively, and we wrote an additional ‘e’ at the end of the name in order to take a patent for it”.
At the end of the conversation, Rector Prof. Sait Bilgiç presented a plaque to Ayşe Şule Bilgiç for the memory of the day. Assoc. Prof. Özgür Bostancı, academician in the Faculty of Sports Science, gave a ceramic plate to Ayşe Şule Bilgiç as a gift.
Pepee character came to the theaters in a movie format on January 20, 2017.
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