Başak showed exceptional leadership and dedication in her role as Chair of IDSA's San Francisco Chapter. It can be a challenge to dedicate the time and energy to such a position, but she performed with poise and ease. Over the course of her volunteer term, she successfully lead and collaborated with Chapter team members (and outside organizations) to produce events and programming that built community and created a platform for open knowledge exchange. All this helps IDSA maintain its foothold in the Bay Area design community and advances our mission to deliver meaningful content and provide a rich membership experience..
-Chris Livaudais, Executive Director, IDSA
Başak is a knowledgeable, insightful, caring, and effective instructor. She taught adjacent sections of the same course I did and did a fantastic job of both engaging students with the material as well as evolving her courses based on her students' needs and interests. She's a strategy thinking and planner, a great designer, and an efficient implementor—all while never losing sight of people's needs.
-Nathan Shedroff, Executive Director at Foodicons.org
Başak as a rich understanding of the nuances of design research and strategy. I had the opportunity to co-teach with Basak and saw her effectively share out methods for students to grow their own understanding of the core principles of design thinking. She is a very active and engaged teacher who flexed with the needs of the students to create the most effective environment for learning. Basak also is a pleasure to work with, she is courteous, fun, and adept at the give and take needed in a co-leadership role.
-John Paul Leimone, Creative Development Director +Innovation Strategy +Industrial Design +Educator
I taught several semesters of Senior Thesis Research with Basak. One of the first things I noticed was that teaching at CCA was not just a job but an expression of the love of the field and the deep desire to pass on her knowledge and experiences to the next generation of designers. Through the semesters that we taught together, I was able to see her expertise and passion for the field, her energy for engaging and true compassion for the growth and ultimate success of her students. What she taught in the class went beyond just teaching methods, tools, and techniques in the field of design and design research. She really helped the students develop into young professionals with solid design thinkers. She was always professional and courteous and was a real pleasure to teach together. I look forward to the opportunity to work with her in the future.
-Alex Nah, Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts
This is our second year at Berkeley Turkish School and I am really impressed how fast the school came to its current stage in less than 2 years since its inception. Basak is not only a visionary who designed a much-needed creative and modern environment to introduce our kids to Turkish language and culture, but also a great manager that executes with super quality paying attention to all details. Basak is a true leader in my opinion, as she did not hesitate to fill a big gap we had for the Turkish community by taking charge and starting BTS with the help of a couple of close friends. She is very resourceful in finding great tools and programs that improve the experience for the kids and the parents. Last year, I was very impressed how her students in Industrial Design got involved with the BTS and brought great educational activities into the classrooms in a short time. You can see that everything she does, she does with great passion, stemming from her deep love for the Turkish community in the Bay Area and her cultural heritage. While she understands that the parents are all busy, she is eager to grow the community and what the school can offer by welcoming everyone to get involved as much as they can. I am truly impressed with how much she was able to accomplish with very little resources and support in a such short time. I believe her creative mind, strong interpersonal skills, resourcefulness, and perseverance have been a gift to the Turkish community in the Bay Area.”
-Irem Radzik- Parent at BTS & Head of Product Marketing at Striim
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Basak for the last 3 years in founding, developing and running The Berkeley Turkish School. Basak is a true visionary and is highly skilled in and passionate about thinking outside the box, maintaining integrity both personally and for the school while taking steps to develop the school further and push things to its limits to see what can be achieved and how. She’s very hard-working, and goes above beyond all expectations to stretch the boundaries of what is possible, while also holding her team responsible and accountable for their expected contributions. So, things are never idle and the energy always remains strong. Basak has great critical thinking capacity – she constantly evaluates the state of things, cause and effect of decisions made, how improvements can be made, who we can bring in for expertise, how we can better address the needs of our community and continue developing our programs. And finally, I think Basak is an excellent leader and has the crucial traits necessary to run a developing and strong organization: the ability to hold her ground for what she’s passionate about, being a good listener, being a strong researcher and synthesizer, encouraging collaboration and contribution, energizing others, appreciating and acknowledging deserving efforts, and always thinking big.”
-Basak Cakici- Co Founder of BTS, Architect & Realtor
“I have been fortunate enough to attend multiple classes taught by Başak. She teaches her students many invaluable and engaging lessons on how to approach design research and real world problem solving. Her approach to teaching gets her students out of their comfort zone and pushes them to think critically about the problem at hand. Although her schedule is jam packed, she always finds a way to make time to meet with students outside of class for additional guidance and help. Başak was by far one of the most influential professors I had at California College of the Arts.”