College education for 10 talented students in BiH

BOSANA FOUNDATION

Scholarship and Personal Development Program

Quarterly Report

July- September 2015

Executive Summary:

Third quarter was both exciting and vital for our students and their studies because the end of this quarter, for many of our students may define the whole upcoming academic year depending on how they complete their exams. It was the time to study and relax but also a time that Bosana organized a project supported by the US Embassy in BIH and our student gathering/teambuilding. We have also successfully completed our first summer camp “Back to Nature” in Vlasic Mountain. All in all, our students and Bosana staff had a fruitful and busy few months.

Students and Program Update:

Scholarship and Personal Development Program

Third quarter for all of our forty-two (42) students starts with summer vacation but it ends with exams and official end of the academic year. Therefore, second part of the quarter is busy and stressful. Students are taking final exams and by the end of September they generally know if they will qualify to transition to the next academic year or if they will have to repeat the year. Bosana staff is extremely proud to have more and more graduates; few students graduated last quarter, and this quarter we had two that graduated in September and two more that will graduate in the first week of October. This year significant number of students passed all exams and not only qualified to transition to next year but passed all exams with flying colors. It has been a prosperous academic year!

Unfortunately, we also have three of our students who will have to repeat the year for the second time, which means that they are losing their scholarship. We also have two students that are waiting on results, and they should be known in the first two weeks of October. However, these two students are positive that they will pass their exams and continue their studies without interruption.

This summers bi-annual Bosana student gathering was organized by our students Adnan, Denis and Nadja from Bihac and Bosanska Krupa who proposed the best idea for our gathering and team building. Students visited National Park "Una" and famous waterfall "Strbacki buk" and they learned about the history and natural beauty of Bihac and Bosanska Krupa. Aside from sightseeing, the students took part in various team-building activities.  The whole idea was to spend this weekend outdoors so the students had to cook together, sleep in tents and they played team-building games on the banks of Una River. Brave few even decided to swim in the cold and very wild river. 

As we do each time, students voted on their favorites during the gathering and four students were rewarded with 50KM cash for: “Bosana’s newest discovery”, “the life of the party”, Bosana’s Ambasador and “Best Buddy”.

In the end, students were sad that this gathering lasted only over the weekend, especially since campfire was on the list of planned activities, but the one night they spent in camp it was raining and they never managed to do it. T hey had so much fun that few students even decided to come to the camp next year to volunteer.

Furthermore, each year, Bosana rewards a best student based on his/her academic achievement, volunteerism and their timely response with Foundation. This year, our best student award was given to our student Stipan who also received 500KM for his great academic achievement. A first year medical student, Stipan passed all his exams with straight As all year long.

Summer Camp Project:

Summer camp “Back to Nature” organized in Travnik and Vlasic Mountain was completed very successfully. This is a pilot project that was available only to a small group of attendees of 30 children ages 10-14 and it success showed us that it has a potential to grow in the years to come. Four of our Bosana students worked as counselors and they were so positively overwhelmed by the camp and its positive effects not only on them but also on the beneficiaries. Children were able to reconnect with nature and spend time away from all the electronic distractions of the world we live in today. Project received support from municipality of Travnik, Ministry of Refugee and Migration and local media and it seems that next year will bring more participants and support from different organizations, as well as BIH Diaspora.

“Social Entrepreneurship among BiH youth” Project

This project sponsored by the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a goal to provide professional trainings through workshops, lectures and hand-on experience on topic of youth activism and social entrepreneurship to at least 60 beneficiaries ages 18-25 across both entities in BIH to empower them to become change makers in their own local communities.

Project had four (4) stages: lectures and workshops for 30 Bosana students about social entrepreneurship and activism, workshops and lecture on how to execute your own socially entrepreneurial project and how to get others to help you, realization of four (4) mini projects that encourage social entrepreneurship among the youth and creation of brochures and website to share ideas and best practices developed during the project.

Last workshop was held on September 12^th and out of nine (9) teams that participated in project, four (4) were winners. Team from Bihac was the winner of the first place. Their project focuses on informing tourists of danger that Una river can bring. They will place warning signs for tourists and local residents, marking the areas where Una is not safe for swimming. The other three teams are from Tuzla, Kakanj and Mostar, all Bosana students who will see that they also realize their projects that will be beneficial for their communities.

Highlights of the quarter:

• In September, our student from Tuzla studying Physical Education has defended his diploma paper and became one more Bosana graduate. He was accepted to Bosana Foundation in 2010, the first group of students, and we are very excited to see him graduate.

• Our student Ajna who studied law at the University of Sarajevo has officially graduated last day in September. Ajna was accepted to Bosana family in 2012 and she is hoping to continue her studies and complete her master’s degree.

• Our students Haris and Sajdin will also be graduating in the first week of October.

• Bosana helped our student, Anela with her traveling expenses to attend a conference in Italy because she was honored for her volunteer work with Inter-religious Youth Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Anela spent two weeks in Italy volunteering and working with children.

• Two Bosana mentors to our students Ivana and Selma in September invited them to come to Los Angeles to visit and complete a two-week residence at the Cedar Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. Ivana and Selma were able to meet medical staff, see first-hand how certain procedures are done, familiarize themselves with new equipment used in this respectable institution. This was a dream come true for these two medical students. More importantly, they were able to learn novelties in their field of study and visit all tourist attractions in Southern California during these two weeks.

• Our student Imane used her Bosana professional development fund to attend summer school in Brno, Czech Republic. It was a weeklong summer school organized through European Law Students Association. She attended lectures and interactive workshops thought by Masaryk University esteemed professors. Lecture topics focused on IT law, issues that emerged from technology use, and how to follow world trends on this particular issue. This kind of class is not offered at her university. Imane received certificate for this school and 5 ECTS points that she will be able to use for next school year.

Bosana students for Humanity project:

Bosana students continue to help their local communities every month. It is turning into a long-term project and now they have created even their own logo to represent their project. Every month they give portion of their scholarship and Bosana matches the amount so they can help families in need. Each month students choose families in different cities.

July was reserved for Sarajevo. Our students Lejla, Amila and Ajna visited a local organization providing help to at-risk children and chose five (5) families that needed basic necessities like food and hygiene products, and prepared packets for each family.

In August, students split the money between Jajce and Kakanj. Our student Amir represented our students in Jajce and helped one family with basic supplies. In Kakanj, Amila and Armel bought food and school supplies for two families.

September was reserved for Maglaj were our students Edis and Sanela visited two families in Maglaj and bought all necessary food items that families needed.

Challenges:

Third quarter is usually very stressful for our students. If they did not pass all their exams in June and July they will get another chance to take them in August or September, at the same time this is their last chance to qualify for transition to the next year. If they don’t qualify they will have to wait a whole year and prepare only for few exams they have left, but it also means that they are losing scholarships. We are proud to say that we had a lot of students that passed all their exams in June and July some completed the last few exams in September; however, we did have some students waiting until the last day of September not knowing if they are going to qualify or not. In the end majority of our students will be transitioning to next academic year.

BOSANA FOUNDATION

Scholarship and Personal Development Program

Quarterly Report

April-June 2015

Executive Summary:

The Bosana students and staff have had a very eventful second quarter; there are many exiting news to share with our supporters. The Bosana Annual Benefit was held last weekend of May and it was, as usual, attention-grabbing and successful. The Bosana event fundraised close to $54,000 and this will allow us to keep our scholarship program on track and focus on our current students. Two of our donors covered an all-inclusive trip for two of our students to travel to Los Angles to attend Bosana event and meet all the people that are helping young adults such as themselves.

Students and Program Update:

The board and staff have decided to implement new strategic course for the organization, which is why we are not going to accept new students this academic year. We will dedicate this time to focus on internal development of the Foundation as well as our current scholarship recipients to make sure that the students we currently have further develop and assure success after college.

This part of the year is busy for some students, depending on the university they attend, they might have few exams that they are able to retake from previous quarter; however, most of them worked on their second semester midterms. Majority of our students had good midterm results. Classes are still in progress but some universities have started with the exam season so we are collecting documentation from our students and a more detailed report about their academic success will follow in the next quarterly report. We are hoping to have some graduates this year but we will have to wait for the final results after the exams.

This summer we are collaborating with Azra Smailkadic-Brkic, a journalist and human rights activist on a new project. During the month of August there will be a summer camp called “Back to Nature” where children will be able to reconnect with nature and spend time away from all the electronic distractions of the world we live in today. Summer camp will be at the Vlasic Mountain and it is for children ages 10-14. In order to realize the camp, our goal was to fundraise at least $3,500 to cover costs for the 30 participants, which we managed to achieve. The camp participants will be underprivileged children, as well as children from orphanages. Another important aspect of this program is that our students will be able to be part of this camp. They will work on this project as counselors, which will give them working experience, but it will also be a paid summer internship for at least three of our students. We hope that this will be our first of many summer camps where we will strive to also include more children next year, from different cities and also children of Bosnian origin living abroad. Our goal is to build lasting friendships and connections among children in BIH and abroad.

Highlights of the quarter:

• In April, our student Nermina, who studied English Language and Literature, has defended her B.A. diploma and became one more Bosana graduate. She was accepted to Bosana Foundation in 2010 and we are very excited to see her graduate.

• Our student Edin from Tuzla also completed his B.A. degree and will graduate in the next quarter with the diploma from DIF (physical education) University in Tuzla.

• Our student Anela, has been honored for her volunteer work with Inter-religious Youth Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Reception was organized, at the Embassy of the United States of America in BiH, to recognize successful work of volunteers on reconciliation project.

• Our student Amila helped publicize a story of a family from her hometown that was homeless due to horrific acts of violence and domestic abuse at home. The mother with her two children was sleeping on the streets and she decided that she needed to do something about it. Publicizing the story on Facebook, she attracted attention from Bosana staff and donors and within weeks we were able to find a rent-free home for the family and raise close to $1500 dollars for the family to have in the first few months. This is an excellent example how our students can work together with Bosana Foundation to engage our donors to do even more good for our local communities in BIH.

• We are also extremely proud of our student Anes. He has been an exemplary student since he was first accepted to Bosana Foundation in 2011. Anes received his bachelors on time and started master’s program last year. He has been one of the top students in his class. In the meantime, he applied for different jobs and programs to be able to acquire some working experience. This year Anes, along with only two other students from BIH (first ever) has been accepted to Royal Air Force Academy in Cranwell, Great Britain. He will have full scholarship during the ten (10) month training and after his training is complete he will have a guaranteed job with the BIH Army.

• Nadja, another amazing Bosana student, worked with her colleagues and organized free tutoring sessions for students of Economic faculty in Bihac. This is just another way our students are trying to give back to their own community.

• Since march, our students have started their own humanitarian project where they allocate 2KM each month and Bosana double matches the total. This adds up to approximately $200/month. Our students pick different city each month as well as a family or an individual that they believe needs help the most. In April, Milena, our student in Banjaluka, visited a family to help a single mother and her twin girls. Milena studies in Banja Luka so she investigated and decided to help this family with food and other supplies.

• In may- our students Nadja and Adnan from Bihac used the monthly charity student fund to help several families in Bihac area. These families are in an extremely difficult situation and are grateful to get any kind of help. Our students brought clothes, food and some toys for the youngest members of the family. Then they visited grandma Lucija who could not afford to buy medication and little girl Majda, diagnosed with cerebral paralyses.

• In month of June, our students helped families in the cit of Mostar. Our students in Mostar: Emina, Selma, Josip and Katica divided the money from the student humanitarian fund in two batches and helped two families with food, medications and little tokens of their appreciation. They visited families living in small cities around Mostar: Salakovac and Posusje.

• Next quarter, two of our medical students will travel to the United States to attend a weeklong residency at the Ceders Sinai hospital and will also spend additional week sightseeing in Los Angeles thanks to two of their mentors who invited them to be their guests.

• Our former student Selma, who studied art at the university in Banjaluka successfully completed her Masters in Romania and was also accepted to University of Syracuse on full scholarship, as well as receiving a teacher assistant position.

• The Bosana “Do-Gooders Award” that we first gave last year to our most generous donor was also given this year to our most loyal partners from Sweden who helped two of our students build new homes in Maglaj after the floods. It’s also a big honor that the same award that was designed by our friend and a famous artist from Tuzla was also given to Pope Francis that visited Sarajevo in June.

Challenges:

There were no special challenges during this quarter. All our students are busy transitioning from classes to exams, they are getting ready and some of them are taking tutoring lessons. This year seems to be most promising of all end of the year semesters as our students are working hard and are in good spirits that most of them will be able to pass all of their classes. Besides Nermina and Edin, we are hoping to have few more graduates. Since the exam season is in full swing, and there will be few more options for our students to take exams, we will wait for the next quarter to give you more detailed report about their academic success.

Donor driven update worth mentioning:

Once again, one of our most committed donors from Richmond Virginia decided to help Bosana Foundation with a private fundraiser. This time she used her baby shower as an opportunity to raise funds for our students. Selma was able to raise $800 with her friends and family. She asked her guests to, instead of buying gifts for her baby, they donate that same amount to Bosana. Options are unlimited for those who want to help others and Selma is a great example of such individual.

Links:

• http://www.bosanafoundation.org