{"id":121929,"date":"2021-08-02T09:34:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T13:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=121929"},"modified":"2022-04-27T11:52:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T15:52:06","slug":"raising-her-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/raising-her-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising Her Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seher \u201cSissi\u201d Tas learned to find her voice at UCF. As a future filmmaker, she has decided to dedicate the next chapter of her life to lifting the voices of others.<\/p>\n

Tas grew up in Turkey\u2019s capital city, Ankara, as the daughter of a Chinese mother and Turkish father. She says her Chinese name, X\u012bx\u012b (pronounced \u201cshe-she\u201d), means to wish or to hope, and for the final year she lived in Turkey before moving to Florida, she hoped for the ability to enact change.<\/p>\n

\u201cBombs would go off and that was kind of an everyday part of life. My parents and teachers would warn me about avoiding crowds and suicide bombers and it was just normalized,\u201d she says. \u201cI would cry myself to sleep, thinking why do I not have any power? Why can\u2019t I do anything to make things better? At the time I was 16 and I was like how do I get to where I say something and people listen? How can I help anyone?<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I try to help people as best as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charting New Territory <\/strong><\/div>\n

She moved to the United States in 2016 as a senior in high school after her father accepted a position as a research professor at UCF. At the time, her family expected the move to be temporary. But when a coup attempted happened in Turkey, they decided to make their stay more permanent.<\/p>\n

While she was grateful for the opportunities America offered, Tas says immigrating to a new country during your senior year of high school is less-than-ideal timing. She desperately needed to improve her English, struggled to find friends and lost all her confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became really anxious because I didn\u2019t want to make any mistakes,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to fit in but there were already friend groups established and I wasn\u2019t in any of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the encouragement of her parents, college was always a goal and proved to be another fresh start that she needed.<\/p>\n

She earned her associate\u2019s degree in one year from Seminole State College and enrolled at UCF as a Burnett Honors Scholar. She overcame her insecurities by getting involved in different student organizations, including Tau Sigma National Honor Society and Delta Phi Lambda, Inc. sorority, eventually assuming leadership positions within the groups.<\/p>\n

She felt particularly passionate about improving the transition experience for transfer students to UCF and advocated for reinstating the Transfer Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeher, along with the rest of her board members, did everything within their power to better the experiences of not just their members but of all transfer students at UCF,\u201d says Lashay Vazquez, career counselor at UCF Career Services who got to know Tas while serving as an advisor for Tau Sigma. \u201cIt’s apparent in everything that Seher does that she cares about those around her.\u00a0She also is very determined. If she wants something, she will tirelessly work until she achieves it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Power of Film<\/strong><\/div>\n

Tas also became actively involved within her major \u2014 film<\/a>, which she was drawn to from the time she was a young girl, enlisting her younger sister to play all the roles in her homemade movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just really loved how you can empower someone through film,\u201d she says. \u201cI was inspired by how they made me feel \u2014 I would see someone Asian and I would be really excited about it because I didn\u2019t have anyone like that around me growing up. It hit me in high school when I was like, I really enjoy this. Why can\u2019t it be my career?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that she\u2019s earning her diploma, she is one step closer to realizing her goal. She knows that breaking into the film industry isn\u2019t easy, but she is committed to making it happen and one day starting her own production company that highlights the stories of underrepresented populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to contribute to breaking the glass ceiling and empower younger girls to show them you have the power to do this if you\u2019re passionate about it,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t know if I could make that change in the world that I wanted. Now I have a lot more confidence because I have more skills in film and I have this network of people at UCF who supported me. So I believe that in the future I will be able to make some positive change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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