Draft:Selin Ozgursoy

Selin Ozgursoy

Selin Ozgursoy Born October 2, 2006Nationality Turkiye Occupation Entrepreneur, advocate

Selin Ozgursoy (born October 2, 2006) is a Turkish-American social entrepreneur and AI ethicist. She is UNICEF Turkey's Inaugural Youth Ambassador and United Nations’ Youngest Advisor on Business in Europe and Central Asia. Ozgursoy is the Founder & Executive Director of Equity Estrel the biggest international youth-led initiative based in Europe democratizing access to technology. She is an advocate for human-centered artificial intelligence and digital sustainability. She is an incoming freshman at Stanford University, where she will major in CS. She is a former national synchronized ice-skater for Turkey.

Advocacy

Ozgursoy became interested in human-centered AI and its relation with societal ethics while in middle school, when she was working with Rotary. At 14, she was appointed as International Rotary's youngest Interact District Representative for D2430 (the second largest district in the world), and was assigned to visit Turkish village schools across the nation for an international Rotary education project in which she was the global youth focal point. Ozgursoy tells in an interview she gave to NYTimes best-selling author MeiMei Fox for Forbes, that she was inspired to create Equity Estrel after a brief conversation with a visually impaired 7-year-old girl in one of the Turkish villages she orchestrated the project in. The conversation left an indelible mark on Ozgursoy as the young girl reflected on her daily exposure to child marriage, femicide, and child labor. Ozgursoy decided then and there to champion equity in education and technology. As she researched more on the problem, she realized the lack of access to technological advancements by marginalized groups, the gap in opportunity among people of the same society, and a misconnected awareness on Artificial Intelligence.

Later, she started working with UN Women as a National Gender Youth Activist. She worked on projects regarding women’s position in the science and technology sector and the gender pay gap. Through her advocacy work, she was selected as 1 of the 14 UN & Generation Unlimited Young Leaders Council members, where she led the private sector committee. Her interest in business and technology sparked within the council. She started having seats in the country’s most powerful meetings with companies like QNB Finances, Microsoft, IBM, DELL, SAP, and Vodafone. She indecently conducted artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) research with nation’s top institutions including with the Vice President of Research and Innovation of Koc University and the Dean of the Engineering School of Middle East Technical University as the youngest-ever student researcher. Later, she worked with the University of Chicago and Columbia University on engineering. Ozgursoy recognized her passion for the intersection of technology and society. As AI revolutionized the world, she recognized ethical concerns excelled both in her society and the global society. She decided to advocate for pro-AI and “Digital for Good.” She joined IBM’s AI Youth Advisory Council in Turkey and gave speeches on many platforms. Ozgursoy chaired many Model United Nations conferences, including THIMUN in The Hague and SAIMUN in Dublin, and several digital summits.

Later, she became UNICEF Turkey’s Inaugural Youth Ambassador for her social justice and positive change-making. She worked actively on many projects and often attended UNICEF meetings and events. She was later named UN’s youngest business advisor in Europe and Central Asia in 2022. Her work in the Business Advisory Board, alongside world leaders, stood out and received local media attention. Her partnership with UN Youth Affairs, formerly UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ Envoy on Youth, created resonance among her followers.

In September 2023, she was named UNICEF Innocenti’s youngest Youth Foresight Fellow. She started working closely with famous futurists and successful activists for the fellowship. She recently joined Fast Company’s GenZ Advisory Board and The Earth Foundation as a Youth Board Member. She has also become an Etre Girls Board member. She aims to build a career in AI entrepreneurship and social mobility in the future, starting her university education in the US next year.

Recognition

Ozgursoy receives the Rotary Emerald Award

In December 2023, Ozgursoy was named Forbes’ 2023 “Teen Trailblazer” for her AI ethics and social justice work. In October 2023, she was named as one of the “Women of Power” of InStyle Magazine. In November 2023, she was headlined on Fast Company Turkey as the “Future Face of AI”. Ozgursoy was recently interviewed by Business Insider, CNN, GQ and was headlined on French news. In March 2022, she received Honorable Mention at the Vogue Green Carpet Awards by Chopard. She was one of the 10 youth featured in UN Youth Envoy’s “Celebrating Youth” campaign. Ozgursoy was also a Global Youth Awards Nominee for 2023. She holds the FIRST Robotics Competition Dean's List Finalist Award and was chosen as Pearson's Global IT Student of the Year.

Her work received extensive media attention on many platforms including CNN, national tv streams, podcasts, and YouTube videos.

Public Speaking

Ozgursoy has spoken at many conferences across the globe including IBM Digital Summit, TEDx (2 times), MUN conferences (9 times), Intel Education Summit, World Economic Forum Global Shapers, European Union & UNICEF CSO Launch Conference, university tech summits, etc. She has given many speeches and interviews on her work in the past to Harper’s Bazaar, French News, Business Insider and more.

For 2024, she is projected to attend UNGA79, UN ECOSOC Youth Forum, COP29, Dubai Future Forum, and the UN Summit of the Future as a participant and speaker.

Equity Estrel

Equity Estrel (EE) is a global youth-led tech empowerment nonprofit organization. Ozgursoy founded the organization in 2022. The organization works to democratize access to technology and mobilize human-centered artificial intelligence(AI). EE operates with the core mission of diffusing cutting-edge technological progress to even the farthest corners of society, engaging with those who often find themselves isolated and excluded. Their slogan is 'Disable the Disabilities', underscoring their dedication to forge a future where every individual, regardless of their circumstances, can thrive and contribute.

They have an outreach of 70,000 individuals over 15 countries in 4 continents. They work with their global chapters from Chicago to Tanzania. They have over 20 chapters across the globe. They previously partnered with Dyson and the European Union for their STEM projects and mobile app named "Estrella."

Personal & Academic Life

Ozgursoy lives with her mother, father, younger brother, and pet dog in Ankara, Turkiye. She studied at Alice B. Landrum Middle School (Jacksonville, FL, USA) where she was the captain of the Science Olympiad team and her basketball team won the statewide championships, and at TED Ankara College Foundation High School, where she was a FIRST Robotics Competition Dean’s List Award finalist and Amgen National Biotechnology Champion.  

She is currently a high school senior and International Baccalaureate Diploma Program student at TED Ankara College Foundation High School (among the nation’s top institutions) taking advanced STEM classes. She has participated in Pearson’s BTEC Enterprise and Entrepreneurship and BTEC Computing and Information Technologies diploma programs and completed both of them with distinction. She also was named Pearson’s Global Student of the Year in IT. She serves on the High Discipline Board of her school and is the President of the Student Council. She has lead many clubs and student organizations during her high school education. Her interest in arts and sports has stood out in her education, and she is a Royal Academy (ABRSM) pianist and professional rower. Her accolades were showcased several times on TED’s website.