College education for 10 talented students in BiH

BOSANA FOUNDATION

Scholarship and Personal Development Program

Quarterly Report

April - June 2017

Executive Summary:

Bosana 8^th Annual Benefit featuring Bosnian Born Exhibit was an evening filled with art, live music and diverse audience who came to support BIH art and education and empowerment of BIH youth. We were particularly honored that our former student, Selma Selman, who is also an artist herself was part of this exhibit and she addressed the attendees during our annual event. Aside from the support of our attendees, we are above all grateful to our amazing 30+ volunteers who helped make this event possible.

Bosana received close to $50,000 through ticket sales, art sales, and donations, which will help us continue running our scholarship program for the upcoming year. The “Bosnian Born” Exhibit has visited 4 cities around the US and has been seen by more than 100,000 individuals, and it also helped raise close to $20,000 for our programs over the years.

Students and Program Update:

Exam season is in full swing; most students have already completed their first round of exams and are now preparing for the new round that will start in July. In the past couple of months our students have completed their midterms and have started with the final exams. We will know the final results next month; however, results our students received so far are very promising.

This year we have quite a few graduates and couple of our students will finish their masters.  

Students expected to graduate are: Anela Z., Denis S., Imane B., Jasmina P., Jasmina F., Josip J., Sanela M., Svjetlana P., Katica G. (master) and Mirzet O. (master).

Highlights of the quarter:

• Mirzet O. once again was one of the best students in his graduating class. He passed all his exams in a record time and is now ready to complete his Masters Degree. He has already started sending his job applications, responses have been scarce and he understands that today’s job market is difficult, but he is determined to find employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has sent over 400 applications to various institutions looking for employment.

• Adnan H., who graduated recently, already received a job offer. He is waiting to receive his visa papers since his job will take him to Germany. We are sad to see him leave Bosnia but we are very happy that he has a very bright future ahead of him.

• Benjamin A. attended VIII International Scientific-Professional Conference “Improving the Quality of Life of Children and Youth” which was held from 23^rd-25^th of June in Arandelovac (Serbia). The conference addressed life of young people, quality of their life and how to improve and support them. Benjamin submitted his paper called “Drama workshops as a model of raising cultural awareness” and was invited to actively participate and present his findings. This was a great honor for Benjamin as well as opportunity for his future research.

• Amar T., one of the students accepted last year, will be part of the Erasmus student exchange program in the following academic year. He will be spending his next semester in Maribor, Slovenia taking classes at the University of Maribor. Spending a semester abroad is always beneficial for every student, it changes their perspective on culture, language skills and it teaches them new life experiences and they come back home ready to take on new challenges. We are happy to continue supporting Amar in his new academic endeavor.

Additional updates:

Aside from our annual event and beginning of exam season, this quarter has been fairly ordinary. Our students have focused all their energy on getting the best results possible.

We are also very excited about our annual gathering and team building.   This year the plan is to visit Banjaluka in the first half of August. It should be a nice break from the exams, students will get to visit a new part of the country that some of them have never visited and spend time with their Bosana family. Yearly team-building exercises are always beneficial to us and our students.

Executive Summary:

First quarter of the year is very busy for Bosana students, classes end and shortly after exam season starts. Our students have been very successful during spring exam season and many have passed all their exams with flying colors. Annual event preparations are in full swing and the first day of the next quarter Bosana will host Bosnian Born Exhibit once again, this time in Los Angeles, California. We are really excited to have our former student, who graduated from the Art Academy in Banjaluka also attend our annul benefit. As an artist herself, she will also exhibit some of her art for sale.

Students and Program Update:

Shortly after the exam season is over and our students got a few days to rest, they have to start with the new semester. We are very happy to report that majority of our students had great results after the exam season and they are excited to start with new classes and new semester.

There were a few students that had trouble with a class or two, but they already have a plan how to resolve the issues that occurred. Tutoring classes are usually best option. Students that can benefit from tutoring classes have started taking them so they are ready for April, when most will get the opportunity to take the failed exams again. We are confident that our students will be pass these exams.

Highlights of the quarter:

• Our student Selma accepted her diploma at the Graduate Commencement ceremony in March. She was also selected as a recipient of not one, but two rewards. She received Dean’s Award for the student with the highest cumulative GPA and commendation for outstanding extracurricular activities.

• Our student Adnan H., engineering student studying in Bihac, successfully defended his diploma paper at the end of February. He had a very challenging project that took months of research, building a prototype and then writing a paper to support his research. He received the highest grade possible for his project.

• Bosana students are obligated to volunteer while they are receiving scholarships, to gain experience and also to give back to their community. Some students volunteer the required minimum while others go above and beyond. Our student Mirzet spent a lot of his time volunteering, and because of his dedication, he got an opportunity to visit Barcelona, Spain to attend a conference as a representative of the organization. He took these pictures to show how much support from Bosana means to him.

New Donor updates:

One of our loyal supporters from New York State, Vedrana K. once again organized and performed at a concert to raise money for Bosana Foundation. Donations that she collected during her concert and additional donations received through GoFund me campaign amounted to two thousand dollars. Vedrana wanted to direct these donations for Bosana’s Afterschool program in Zenica. Vedrana’s fundraiser secured enough funds to keep this program running for six months.