Help Berklee Full Tuition Scholarship Recipient

Kavyesh Kaviraj is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

I am creating this fundraiser for my friend Rasih and his fiancée Nisa who are high-school sweethearts from Izmir, Turkey. They are both accomplished artists who are suffering from the financial crisis in their home country, Turkey. Now, they are very close to their dream school since Rasih has a full tuition scholarship and Nisa has a scholarship of 50%, they need your help and support, to Berklee College of Music.

Rasih and Nisa were able to make their dream come true by coming to Berklee College of Music’s Five Week Summer Program in Boston, MA in the summer of 2022 with two FULL-RIDE scholarships, which cover tuition, housing and a meal plan. At the end of the program, they applied to become full-time students in the Fall 2023 semester. Without knowing the great opportunity that lies ahead, they transferred to a community college in Minnesota, and family friends invited them to live in their basement for free during their studies. After their move to Minnesota, they learned that Rasih was awarded a full-tuition scholarship and Nisa was awarded a 50% scholarship for Fall 2023! This was their dream since the very beginning and they are so excited to begin this well-deserved next step in their journey.

Rasih and Nisa cannot receive enough financial support from their parents, who can only help with Rasih and Nisa’s transportation to Boston and living expenses until September. They can’t work in the US as international students, they sincerely need our help!

We are seeking help for the first step in their journey: to find immediate financial help. Rasih will pursue his degree until they save enough money for Nisa to study in the future when they have permission to work. Currently, the biggest need of the hour is their health insurance, housing deposit, rent and living expenses in Boston. This first semester they will need to have at least $10,000. They will need $15,000 more for the rest of the year for rent and living expenses.

The next step for them is if they can gather another $27,000 for Nisa, which will cover 1 year's worth of tuition, after her scholarship from Berklee. She can start her studies in the Fall/Spring or Summer of 2024 semester depending on how well they do at raising funds. If otherwise, Nisa is offering to put her studies on hold for a couple of years until they have permission to work in the US and save money.

Their hard work and passion are truly incredible and proof of their great humanity. Rasih and Nisa are both incredibly talented, passionate and well deserving of these accolades, and they will change the world with music. Thank you for your consideration of these beautiful people.

I am including their story in detail and Original copies of their scholarship decisions below in case you wish to learn more about their successful journey:

Here's a short music collab video Rasih and Nisa made together, "Forget Me Nots" Patrice Rushen Cover:

Here's a song "Suzuko" from Rasih's first solo guitar album which was released in 2020.

He composed the songs and played the guitars, keys and bass in the recordings.:

Rasih's Solo Excerpt from Berklee Five-Week's Performance Night:

Rasih Ozturk is a guitarist, composer, conductor, producer and educator. He became a gigging musician at the age of 14 and started teaching guitar & music theory at 16. His students are studying collegiately, teaching and performing music all over the world. He started writing his very first classical compositions at the age of 16 with support from a brotherly mentor from the conservatory in Izmir.

His father was aware of the financial burden of pursuing a music career, and he recognized Rasih's skill in computers and software, but he did not support him in his musical pursuit. Rasih proved to him that he wanted to be a passionate, influential teacher and an exemplary musician. He loves sharing his knowledge with all people thanks to his discipline and work ethic. Rasih could not have any private or formal education in music until he graduated from high school. Then, he was accepted and awarded scholarships by prestigious colleges such as The Collective School of Music NY, and Berklee College of Music among many others. Eventually thanks to the amount of the scholarship, he could start his studies at McNally Smith in 2017.

His studies at McNally Smith (where Rasih and I met) started by testing out twelve classes in his first semester, most of them in his first week. This was very surprising for the faculty at McNally Smith since he never took formal or private education in music as a self-taught musician. He completed his semester with a GPA of 4.00 and was placed on Dean's List the next semester. After studying at McNally Smith for three semesters, Rasih had to go back to Turkey because of the growing financial crisis and since he wasn't legally allowed to work in the US as an international student.

He spent 6 or 7 years back in Turkey, teaching, and performing music with Rasih Ozturk Quartet and wedding bands, trying to save money for his education. His quartet also started performing with Nisa Benna Becer who was the lead singer of Rasih's high school band and his girlfriend at the time. After a year of performing together, they started dating again. They focused on musical projects together. Nisa started taking music lessons from Rasih. Nisa graduated from one of the most prestigious Architectural Colleges in Turkey, achieving 4th rank. Since she was in a musical atmosphere like never before, she started dreaming about having a music education in the US too. Because of the pandemic, they weren't able to perform music and save money anymore, but they kept studying.

When Rasih, Nisa, and their dear friend Uluc Algan, covered Hay Amores by Shakira back in Turkey.

After 1 or 2 years of studying together, they started applying to colleges and scholarships. They received the highest scholarships possible from many colleges but it still wasn't enough for them to be able to move to the states since those colleges weren't offering full tuition scholarships. Then in 2021, Rasih was awarded the Arif Mardin Scholarship which is a full ride to Berklee College of Music's Five Week Summer Program and covers the tuition, housing and living expenses. COVID was still on the scene and since the consulates weren't functioning, he couldn't apply for a visa and his scholarship was deferred to the following year. This was disappointing at first but then Nisa was awarded the same scholarship the following year and that was their chance to attend the program together!

Rasih and Nisa at Fenway Park during the Five Week Program at Berklee last summer (2022).

Berklee's Five Week Program gives one the lucrative opportunity of auditioning to be a full-time student. Berklee offers full-tuition scholarships to almost less than 1% of the applicants, but this was at least a chance for them. Berklee had been Rasih's dream school (for 13 years) since he was a high school prep student.

Rasih and Nisa were placed into advanced theory classes during their studies at the Five Week Program. Here's a photo of them with their instructor Phillip Person.

After Berklee, they decided to transfer to a community college in Minnesota (Anoka Ramsey Community College) since the school's tuition was affordable. They had a family friend who offered them her basement for free during their studies. They moved to MN and registered in ARCC. In October, Berklee's audition results were announced. Rasih was awarded a FULL TUITION scholarship and Nisa was awarded 50%! This was simply a dream came true moment for Rasih. During the 2022-2023 school year, Nisa was also awarded the Dean's Scholarship for her Master's Studies at Boston Architectural College.

Boston is an expensive city, especially to rent. Even though they weren't paying rent thanks to their dear generous family friends, they were hardly able to pay tuition, due to the financial crisis in Turkey. They worked at ARCC since they are international students and aren't allowed to work outside of campus in the US. Their first goal today is to be able to pay rent, their health insurance and living expenses to let Rasih start his studies at Berklee. Even though Nisa was awarded two big amount of scholarships from two prestigious schools, she wants Rasih to chase his dreams and she offered to wait until they can work legally in the US so that they can save the money for her education too.

Rasih's Scholarship Letter: