Harvard to publish Turkish student's article
ISTANBUL
A high school student has become the first from Türkiye to win the prestigious Harvard International Economics Essay Competition, an accomplishment that will result in his essay being published by the esteemed university.
Cemil Türk, an 11th-grade student from Kabataş High School in Istanbul, examined the economic and social implications of replacing income tax with consumption tax in middle-income countries in his winning essay.
Held annually since 2018, the competition is considered one of the most significant academic platforms for high school students worldwide. Each year, the jury selects only three winners from hundreds of submissions.
Speaking to daily Hürriyet, Türk noted that he discovered the competition through social media last year.
"We had to select one of four subjects and produce a 1500-word piece for the competition. These included inequality, environment, finance and the effects of artificial intelligence on the labor. I decided to write on ‘inequality.’”
Employing a literary tone, Türk compared case studies from New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Brazil in his article, priming it in only two weeks. He emphasized that his goal was not just to analyze numbers in his work, but to highlight how economic policy shapes human beings and society.
Özgen Yıldırımtaş, his English teacher, praised Türk’s creativity, critical thinking and ability to present various subjects from multiple perspectives. “For a kid of his age, this type of study can be quite challenging, yet Cemil was able to excel. We’re proud of him.”
After graduation, Türk hopes to pursue higher education at Harvard or Yale, with interests spanning international politics, economics and philosophy.
