“Of course," Sherif Elfass responded quickly to whether or not he recognized the name Gulen. “Gulen is the person who the Turkish president is accusing for the coup from a couple years ago. He has been known for funding schools all over the world.”
Fethullah Gulen is the founder of the Gulen movement, also known as Hizmet movement, and he is currently living in exile in the United States and more specifically in the state of Pennsylvania. Gulen has alleged connections to the attempted coup that took place in Turkey in 2016, yet those are not the only alleged connections tied to Gulen.
The name Gulen, along with the movement itself is tied to a surplus of schools and organizations around the world. The Coral Academy of Science, a public charter STEAM school, is located in Northern Nevada and has been rumored to be linked with the Gulen movement.
Elfass, an Egypt native and a UNR engineer professor for twenty-three years, is the father of three children who have been or will be students at the academy and also an avid supporter of the school.
“He [Gulen] likes to build schools, and since the laws are strict here, it is a benefit to the community,” said Elfass. “Here [the United States], schools are not allowed to discuss his name or what he is associated with in the setting of a school, and they can not talk to the students or in the classroom about this topic.”
Even though the teachers and faculty can not specifically talk about Gülen in the school, Elfass mentioned that they did talk about it off of school property.
My information is always second-hand,” Elfass noted. “But the Turkish community was very active here. They had two different organizations, one specifically for women, and they owned a building, which was a Turkish culture center called The Sierra Foundation.”
On the internet, not much can be found in regards to a Sierra Foundation located in Reno, yet Elfass attributes that to the sudden disappearance of the groups about three years ago.
“They used to own a building in downtown Reno where they would meet, and sometimes would offer to take people to Turkey as a gift, yet they no longer meet” Elfass said. “In the building [downtown], they discussed Gulen, and the ideology. It simply promoted dialogue.”
Elfass recognized the name Gulen, but he made note that he had never heard the name from anyone at the school, nor was it mentioned at meetings or club events held by the school. The school has employed a large amount of Turkish teachers, offers Turkish as a language, and used to offer students the opportunity to go to Turkey, yet there is no word of Gulen on school property.
“It was founded by Turkish leaders,” stated Elfass, “The head of Reno Coral Academy was actually a friend of mine working in the mechanical engineering field at the university. But, things have definitely changed at Coral, yet they are still maintaining high standards.”
Big changes at the school include the trip to Turkey, which has been cancelled for the last three years. Elfass’ eldest daughter was able to go on the trip three times, and his middle daughter once before they stopped. Elfass attributes this cancellation to current situations in Turkey as well as the Middle East in general.
Though the trip has been cancelled, the school is still maintaining its high academic status as a STEAM school. As a STEAM school, the focus is put on science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. Gulen has been known to have strong opinions when it comes to education, advocating for educational focus to be shifted on science and math rather than english and history.
“As an engineer, I like them to have more math and science,” said Elfass. “Coral provides an optimized solution, it is effective, it is better than the average and it is acceptable to me.”
In regards to other changes the school has seen in the last three years, Elfass said that the amount of teachers who are Turkish has slowly gone down over the last few years as well. With the absence of their presence, the lack of opportunity to go to Turkey, and the slow disappearance of supporting groups in the community, the Turkish influence seems to have dissipated.
The school still offers Turkish as a language, and in some grade levels it is mandatory. There are still Turkish teachers and faculty members, yet the obvious Turkish influence that was once very prominent, has now been begun to disappear similar to the members who used to stand behind it.
“It has all slowly stopped in the last three years, as the funding has been lost and there have been changes in Turkey,” said Elfass. “The Coral Academy is just a name, and now simply just a school.”