Engineering graduate runs photocopy center

ISTANBUL

Feti Şahin, who graduated from Istanbul Technical University’s (İTÜ) Physics Engineering Department, has been running a photocopy center at the same university for the last 37 years, choosing a different path to make a living.

As Şahin had to go off-campus to make photocopies of his course notes during his student years at İTÜ, he thought of opening a photocopy center on campus at that time.

Though his family wanted him to pursue engineering, Şahin realized his idea of opening a photocopy shop at the same university after graduating from the Physical Engineering Department in 1987.

“All students know me as ‘feticopy.’ Instead of saying, ‘we are going to the photocopy shop,’ they say, ‘we are going to feticopy.’ I am quite glad about the expression,” Şahin stated.

“During our student years, our teachers used to reproduce the exam questions they wrote on waxed papers on duplicator machines. Toward the end of my student life, when I was in my third year, photocopiers started to enter our lives. However, they were in places far from İTÜ’s campus,” he said.

“It was troublesome to go there. One person used to collect all the papers and carried them to take out photocopies. There were no photocopiers on any campus. I realized this need, and with the permission of the university, I opened the shop at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences by buying a photocopy machine in installments,” Şahin explained.

“At that time, copiers cost as much as a car, and being an entrepreneur in photocopying was like today’s artificial intelligence enterprises,” he added.

Şahin stated that he witnessed the duties of nine rectors during his 40 years at İTÜ, adding that he has prepared small gifts for successful students since he opened the shop.

“In 1989, a student I didn’t know came for the exam. He said he forgot his eraser, so I gave him mine. After 12 years, he came to me as the manager of a big company and said, ’I graduated thanks to that eraser. I’ve come to thank you now.’ I was very touched,” Şahin expressed.

“After studying and finishing a quite difficult department, doing a job that anyone can do seemed strange to my relatives. But the important thing is to do the job that makes you happy,” he stated.