Meet Melis: a fusion of engineering and dance
Bosch engineer Melis Yazgin tells her inspiring story of self-motivation and drive to build caring and supportive communities through dance.
“Since moving to the UK from a small village in Cyprus to study engineering in 2013, I’ve been pushing myself out of my comfort zone, creating new connections and carving out a path for myself.
At first, I found the move very challenging as I spoke no English, but I was determined to succeed and threw myself into my studies and work. Joining Bosch in my placement year was a turning point as I had to quickly improve my language skills to carry out my customer-facing role in Commercial and Project Management. The team at Bosch really took a chance on me, and their kindness and confidence in my abilities gave me the boost I needed. I’ve been working at Bosch ever since!
Repaying these acts of kindness is important to me. As humans we often take, so I love giving back and seeing what I can do as part of my role at Bosch and in the wider community.
Dance has always been part of my life so it felt like a good place to start. It’s in my blood; my family are all engineers but have creative hobbies on the side and I’ve always understood the huge benefits that movement, particularly dance, can have on people’s mental health and wellbeing. Since coming to the UK, I’ve qualified as a Zumba teacher, running classes at Bosch and also outside work. Seeing people put their worries to one side for 45 minutes brings me a lot of happiness and inspires me to look for other ways to help people.
I was just getting into my stride with my classes when the pandemic started. So, after a couple of weeks working out what to do, I started running online classes - using my friends as guinea pigs at first, before extending the classes out to Bosch associates and their friends and families. It was fantastic to bring us together, doing something positive and finding another way to connect with colleagues. I had such rewarding feedback from everyone that I’ve continued looking for opportunities to run classes now we’re back in the office. And the Bosch UK 125-year anniversary has given me another fantastic opportunity for this.
As one of the 125 years anniversary ambassadors for Bosch, I’m leading on many of our charity initiatives, including setting up a huge, outdoor Zumba class to raise money for our chosen charities with as many people as possible.
Bosch has been instrumental in helping me on my goal of giving back and also in supporting my education and overall drive. The company sponsored my Masters with Coventry University, on a new initiative that opened up courses and modules to associates who want to broaden their knowledge and skill-set. My manager proactively put me forward for it as he knew that I was eager to keep learning, and I ended up winning ‘Student of the Year’.
I don’t want to stand still with my career, education or dance - I’m currently exploring doing my PHD in Leadership and Decision Making, to help further build my career at Bosch. I’m also learning Bollywood and Belly dancing to top up my Zumba skills.
The possibilities are endless in engineering and dance!”