College education for 10 talented students in BiH

BOSANA FOUNDATION

Scholarship and Personal Development Program

Quarterly Report

July - September 2019

Executive Summary:

This is the most exciting and rewarding quarter for our students and all Bosana staff members. The exam season comes to an end and the time to slow down and relax begins. It is time for summer internships and conferences, as well as Bosana Student gatherings!

As usual, Bosana scholarship application process was held during the summer break and we are happy to announce that we have accepted a new group of students into our programs.

And perhaps the most noteworthy announcement this quarter is that one of our former Bosana students has become a Bosana employee! A last year’s graduate, Lejla was selected for the Bosana Field Liaison position based on her outstanding volunteer experience with nonprofit organizations, which distinguished her from other applicants.

Students and Program Update:

Scholarship Application Process. Throughout the first two weeks of August we received over 80 scholarship applications from students all across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Each year, our Selection Committee has a tough decision to make because we have a lot of deserving, brilliant and driven youth who apply to be a part of our scholarship program. The Bosana Selection Committee reviewed all aplications and selected a group of students from the application pool to proceed through the interview stage. These students were interviewed in the first half of September. After a meticulous review of the applications, interviews of the top candidates, and Committee consultations, nine (9) students were accepted into the Bosana Scholarship Program and additional five (5) into our Professional Development Program.

Summer Break. After the exam season came to an end, some students went back home to study, while others went to spend time with their family and friends. A number of Bosana students decided to continue with their professional development by way of completing internships, attending seminars, or presenting at conferences. Turkey was the most popular destination this summer amongst our students who took part in various conferences, trainings, camps, summer classes, and internships.

Team Building and Award Season. The Annual Bosana Student Team Building was organized at the beginning of August. Our students enjoyed river rafting on river Una in Bosanska Krupa and other team building activities. Our students Denis and Aida who organized this gathering received a special recognition and a financial award for their time and efforts. We also announced the winner of the Bosana’s Student of the Year award - Stipan. Another award went to Senita for her exceptional commitment and volunteering.

Highlights of the quarter:

We are excited to report all these positive news about our students:

• Amina earned her B.A. degree in Financial Management at the University of Economics in Sarajevo. Amina will continue her studies and in the next academic year she will enroll into graduate program at the same university.

• Mediha graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry in Sarajevo at the end of this quarter. While still working on her thesis, Mediha was officially offered a job in her hometown Gracanica as a technical professor at local Dentistry High School.

• Dragana graduated from the University of Law in Banja Luka just this year and is now working at the local municipality.

• While working on finalizing her Master’s Degree, our student Sanela was offered a one year paid internship in Sarajevo as engineer of investment preparations.

• Our former student Milena started her first post-graduate job as a Project Coordinator at the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bijeljina, BIH. She graduated from the University in Banja Luka with a degree in Political Science.

• Ivana completed her internship in Turkey through the program of International Federation of Medical Students’ Association. She was thrilled to be a part of the program where she met students from different parts of the world, traveled through Turkey and observed surgeries in several hospitals.

• Nejra attended an international volunteer camp in Istanbul, Turkey.

• Zenajda and Romana also travelled to Turkey with student associations from their respective universities.

• Sedin was part of the ERASMUS program in Germany during July and August.

“Students for Humanity” project is still active. Bosana students are all still setting aside part of their monthly scholarship funds for their own humanitarian projects. This year, even students that have already graduated have decided to contribute to this project. At this time, students are waiting to collect a larger sum while they are looking for a new project to support.