Üsküdar American Academy (Turkish: Üsküdar Amerikan Lisesi, pronounced [ys.cyd.aɾ a.me.ɾi.kan li.se.si]), often abbreviated as UAA or commonly referred to as Üsküdar Amerikan in Turkish, is a highly selective, coeducational, private high school located in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul, Turkey.
Founded in 1873 during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and officially recognized by the Ottoman government in 1876, it is among the oldest continuously operating educational institutions in Turkey. It is also among the oldest American-founded educational institutions outside the United States still in existence today. Originally established in Bahçecik, the Academy has operated on its current campus in Bağlarbaşı, Üsküdar since 1921.
UAA is considered one of the most prestigious private schools in Turkey. From the late Ottoman era through the Republican period, UAA has produced generations of alumni who have played prominent roles in the arts, sciences, academia, politics, civil society, and business. Admission is highly competitive—typically limited to students from the top ~1% of the national entrance exam. The school operates fully under the regulations of the Turkish Ministry of National Education. It is also accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) and offers both the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme and selected Advanced Placement (AP) courses. UAA graduates regularly continue their studies at Ivy League and other top-ranked universities abroad—including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT—as well as leading Turkish universities such as Boğaziçi University, Koç University, Sabancı University, and Istanbul Technical University.
Background and origins of American schools in Turkey Ottoman period
UAA is one of several Western institutions, including schools, hospitals, and printing houses—founded in the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat era, a period of reform that sought to modernize the state along Western lines in administration, law, the military, and education.
Among roughly two dozen surviving educational institutions established during this era, about half were originally founded by Western missionsBased on a compilation of extant Tanzimat-era schools in Turkey using data from official school websites and the Turkish Ministry of National Education, as well as Selçuk Akşin Somel, The Modernization of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire, 1839–1908 (Leiden: Brill, 2001); and Benjamin C. Fortna, Imperial Classroom: Islam, the State, and Education in the Late Ottoman Empire (Oxford University Press, 2002).—primarily American, French, German, Austrian, and Italian, while Ottoman imperial institutions such as Galatasaray Sultanî, and Darülfünun (later reorganized as Istanbul University) were re-developed under substantial Western influence.
The schools of the era played a transformative role in expanding access to education. Western institutions, initially aimed at non-Muslim students, developed within the more liberal environment established by the Islahat Edict of 1856, which sought to secure equal civil and legal rights as well as educational opportunities for non-Muslim subjects, and were later attended by Muslim students as well.
Republican period
With the founding of the modern Republic of Turkey, all foreign institutions—including the six American schools that survived—underwent secularization, transforming into key institutions that linked the Republic to the wider Western world with nationalized curricula in accordance with the republican principles and reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The 32nd President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the founding president of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, maintained a cordial relationship that reflected the growing diplomatic and economic ties between their countries. The warmth of diplomatic relations during this period and English, rapidly becoming an international lingua franca led to an interest in enrollment at American schools in Turkey.
Since 1971, including Üsküdar American Academy, four American schools remain active, alongside Boğaziçi University, which was originally founded as an American institution and later reorganized as a public university. American Collegiate Institute (ACI) and Tarsus American College (TAC) are sister institutions to UAA under the Health and Education Foundation (SEV), the non-profit trust that eventually succeeded the American Board in 2010.
History
Origins and Bahçecik period (1873–1885) The Academy was established by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), as the American Girls' Boarding School and began instruction in September 1873 in the coastal town of Bahçecik, located three miles from the Gulf of Izmit (historically known as Nicomedia), a neighboring city to Istanbul.Brian Johnson, Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy (Istanbul, 2007), pp. 5–6. The district was ethnically diverse, home to Muslim Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Circassians of various religious denominations. Housed in a converted silkworm cocoonery; the school offered instruction in languages, mathematics, history, geography, music, religion, physical education and domestic skills such as sewing.
The institution received its official recognition from Ottoman authorities in 1876.Fay Linder, American Board Schools in Turkey (Istanbul, 1977), p. 4.
The original school building was demolished around 1902, and no physical trace of it is known to exists today.Brian Johnson, Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy (İstanbul: Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı, 2011), pp. 9–10.
Adapazarı period (1885–1921)
As the school became well known in the region, it received an invitation from a local board of trustees in Adapazarı, a city with a larger community and resources, about 50 miles from Bahçecik and 90 miles from Istanbul, to relocate its operations.Brian R. Johnson, Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy (İstanbul: SEV, 2021), p. 4. In 1885 the school was transferred to Adapazarı, where it began instruction on September 9, 1885 as the American School, Adabazar, in a new three-story building provided by the trustees.Fay Linder, History of Üsküdar American Academy 1876–1996 (Istanbul: SEV, 1996), p. 11. The government granted the school an official operating permit in 1886, making it the first American Board institution in the country to be managed primarily by local administrators, with the Board providing American teachers and scholarships while finances and governance largely in the hands of the Adapazarı trustees. English held a central place, with students required to use it in daily communication. Fay Linder, History of Üsküdar American Academy 1876–1996 (Istanbul: SEV, 1996), p. 7. Government officials attended commencement ceremonies, including representatives of the governor and the armed forces, with Turkish dignitaries delivering complimentary speeches as part of the event.Fay Linder, History of Üsküdar American Academy 1876–1996 (Istanbul: SEV, 1996), p. 14.
The school continued to establish its academic reputation, a notable example being Zaruhi Kavaljian (Class of 1898), who went on to study medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and became the first female physician of the Ottoman Empire.Fay Linder, History of Üsküdar American Academy 1876–1996 (Istanbul: SEV, 1996), p. 15; Two Pioneers of Women Medical Doctors in Turkey, Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Journal (2019).
In 1915, the school buildings were requisitioned by the Ottoman Army and converted into a military hospital. School reopened in 1918.Johnson, Enduring Transitions, p. 14. In the spring of 1921 it moved briefly to İzmit, and later that summer to Üsküdar, Istanbul.Johnson, Enduring Transitions, p. 15.
Origins of the Üsküdar campus
The Üsküdar campus had originally been built for the American College for Girls (ACG), also known as the Home School or Constantinople Home, later the girls’ section of Robert College. Founded in 1871 on Istanbul's historic peninsula, ACG moved to its permanent Üsküdar campus in 1876, when Bowker Hall was completed, followed by Barton Hall in 1883 and the Round House around 1890, in addition to a stable, which is now known as Kinney Cottage.Johnson, Brian. Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy. Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı, p. 19.
For nearly four decades (1876–1913), the Üsküdar campus served as ACG's home until the college transferred to a new site in Arnavutköy in 1913 (today the campus of Robert College).Johnson, Enduring Transitions, p. 22.
Major Events
1873 – The American Girls’ Boarding School was established by the American Board in the village of Bahçecik, Başiskele.Linder, Fay. The History of Üsküdar American Academy, 1876–1996. Üsküdar American Academy Alumnae Association, 2000, p. 4. 1876 – The school received its official charter from the Ottoman authorities.Linder, Fay. The History of Üsküdar American Academy, 1876–1996. Üsküdar American Academy Alumnae Association, 2000, p. 4. 1876 – The Üsküdar campus opened with the completion of Bowker Hall for the American College for Girls, which later became the girl’s section of Robert College.Johnson, Brian. Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy, p. 18. 1883 – Barton Hall was completed on the Üsküdar campus, expanding the facilities of the American College for Girls.Boğaziçi University Archives. “Robert College Online Exhibition.” Boğaziçi University Archives, Boğaziçi University. 1885 – The American Girls’ Boarding School in Bahçecik accepted an invitation from a local board of trustees and relocated to Pazarcık, Adapazarı, where it expanded its operations on a new campus and became known as the American School Adabazar.Linder, Fay. The History of Üsküdar American Academy, 1876–1996. Üsküdar American Academy Alumnae Association, 2000, p. 7. 1914 – The American College for Girls relocated from the Üsküdar campus to a newly built campus in Arnavutköy, on the European side of Istanbul.Boğaziçi University Archives. “Robert College Online Exhibition.” Boğaziçi University Archives, Boğaziçi University. 1915 – During World War I, the Adapazarı campus was requisitioned by the Ottoman Army for use as a military hospital, and the school remained closed until 1918.Johnson, Brian. Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy. Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı, p. 14.
1921 – The American Board relocated the American School Adabazar to the former American College for Girls campus in Üsküdar, where it reopened on 15 September 1921 as the American School for Girls.Johnson, Brian. Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy. Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı, p. 25. 1922 – May Day was celebrated for the first time on the Üsküdar campus.“An Everlasting ÜAA Legend: May Day.” Alma Mater, Üsküdar American Academy, June 2014. 1926 – The Turkish Ministry of Education officially recognized the school as the American Academy for Girls (AAG), and granted it lycée (high-school) status.Johnson, Brian. Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy. Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı, pp. 31–32. 1935 – The Student Association was established under the name Turkish Society.“UAA’de İlkler.” UAA Mezunlar Derneği, https://www.ualyetder.org/tr/hakkimizda/uaade-ilkler. 1936 – Jessie E. Martin (1892–1980) (Oberlin College B.A., 1915) began her twenty-year tenure as principal of the academy.Johnson, Brian. Enduring Transitions: A Brief History of Üsküdar American Academy, p. 38.