Despite the pandemic, Hastor Foundation scholarship holders continue to achieve a variety of successes, organize projects, seminars, and competitions, and participate in them. One example of this is our two scholarship holders Semina Bulić and Amina Basarik, students of the International University of Burch, who were part of the design competition for COVID-19 protective masks organized by the “PixelCrew” club.

“PixelCrew” club was founded in the academic year 2018/2019. year at Burch International University and it is a student club of graphic designers at the Faculty of Education and Humanities, where students can show their knowledge and creative ideas through extracurricular activities.

Our scholarship holder Semina Bulić, a student of graphic design, received an invitation for the position of vice president of the “PixelCrew” club, and she describes how it all started:

At the beginning of the academic year, I came up with the idea to make a competition with the members of our club on the topic of designing our masks. The first step was to write a brief for the “Our cool masks” project, followed by writing an action plan and sending it on budget approval.

Semina expresses special joy when she talks about the Hastor Foundation family, as well as the Burch International University:

I am very happy to be part of both the Hastor Foundation and Burch University, because it is important to me to be surrounded by leaders who believe in and support the ideas of young people. As much as the IBU and the Hastor Foundation represent me, so do I represent them.

The goal of the project was for members to gain experience in designing protective masks that are visually embellished with their ideas. Participants used illustration, photography, collage, typography and various other techniques in their work. The project was divided into several phases: designing, planning and writing the project, an open call for ideas and the selection and announcement of winners, printing masks, making and awarding diplomas and gifts, and displaying masks and documentation.

As one of the organizers of the mentioned competition, Semina points out that the whole process was educational and entertaining:

It was extremely fun, instructive and, of course, in some situations also stressful to present this project considering that this was my first solo project of its kind. I look forward to those yet to come and can’t wait to embark on the realization of new ones in the next academic year. When you “throw” yourself into something unknown to you, in the end you will be both proud and satisfied that you took that first step.

Amina Basarik, a Hastor Foundation scholarship holder who studies graphic design at Burch International University, took second place in this competition. As there was no specific topic at the competition, everything was left to the imagination and creativity:

I’ve been thinking a lot about what design to make and this was an attempt to make something that was unnatural, still acceptable to us by decorating with something that comes from nature. With the different colours of the petals on the flowers, I wanted to present the diversity among people and the way it builds harmony between us.

About the importance of the Hastor Foundation on the path to achieving goals and dreams, Amina says:

Enrolling to learn what you love is a great boon because in that case every job that needs to be done is no longer an obligation but a pleasure, whose goal is to be as good as possible and learn as much as possible. The Hastor Foundation is a great support and help for me, and I want to say that my experience during my studies, thanks to the Foundation, is much richer and of better quality.

My message to all readers is: don’t be afraid of failure. Don’t let failure hold you back, because in any case, whether you get results or not, you always get a lot, just like someone said, “Behind every success there are failed attempts.”

Prepared by: Nejla Komar

Translated by: Semra Islamović