Each scholarship holder remains a part of the Hastor Foundation family after graduation and we watch their success with pride, knowing that the Foundation itself is at least partly responsible for it. The alumni club of former scholarship holders abounds in successful young people who are getting better and better every day. This month we bring you the story of former scholarship holder Lejla Ramić, who continued her academic career as a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo.
Lejla Ramić was a member of the Hastor Foundation for three years. During that time, she managed to achieve great success and take advantage of all the opportunities that opened up to her on her extremely successful academic path. She graduated from the elementary school Kovačići and the First Gymnasium in Sarajevo, both times as the pride of the generation, with praise from the Teachers’ Council of the First Gymnasium for her contribution to the school during her high school days. She upheld her excellent and enviable grade point average at the Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo and is a proud winner of the double Golden Badge of the University of Sarajevo with an average of 9,89. She is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo with a grade point average of 10,0. Her current role as a teaching assistant allows her to pass her knowledge on to students, just as she once passed on her knowledge and skills to the younger Hastor Foundation scholarship holders, who she says hold a special place in her heart.
She remembers with nostalgia the time she spent at the Hastor Foundation when she saw volunteering as an opportunity to make a modest contribution to the education and development of the students she volunteered with. She emphasizes that the most distinct moments of her student days were, in fact, those she spent with the younger scholarship holders that she mentored, and she points out that that is what she misses the most.
Monthly meetings with the younger scholarship holders are formulated so that mentors can selflessly pass on their knowledge and are always there for their students to advise them or simply give their opinion on any life situation and opportunity. Accordingly, Lejla points out:
When I remember the monthly meetings, I miss the feeling that permeated me at the time – the feeling of doing something good for my community. Years later, I received confirmation that the meetings I held included quality content, which makes me immensely happy. I was recently contacted by a high school graduate who I mentored about the dilemmas she has regarding choosing a university. It was a pleasure to meet and talk to her after these few years. The most special feeling is that she recognized me as an interlocutor for this major life decision. Through the conversation, we remembered the meetings and I realized what it meant not only to her but also to her parents. She mentioned an action that I organized as a mentor with my friends to make it easier for high school students to go to school by buying school supplies or making a financial contribution. It was one of my last meetings as a scholarship holder at the Foundation.
Lejla has always given her best through her education, which is also what her results show, but she says that she learned more about work habits, responsibilities, and improved social intelligence at the Foundation, which is very useful for her today in performing business duties. What is immeasurable for Lejla is the network of people she met as a Hastor Foundation scholarship holder and the opportunities she was given and used in the best possible way. Namely, she worked at Prevent Labs, did an internship at ASA Insurance, and worked at ASA Bank.
As a mentor, Lejla tried to use the time spent with the younger students by developing their positive life habits through visits to museums, the Old Orthodox Church, the Synagogue, the Sacred Heart Cathedral, cinema, theatre, nature trips, and a visit to the Pioneer Valley in Sarajevo. Through such activities, she taught them critical thinking, introducing them to the beauty of broader perspectives in life. Volunteering in a bigger city is necessary for such diverse content, but the essential idea of our Lejla was to constructively spend time with the younger students in order for them to learn something new.
Volunteering is of immeasurable importance – you give a part of yourself to the local community, i.e. your time, and it is given back to you multiplied in form of the values you gain, acquaintances, a good feeling because of the way you’re using your time and contributing to the community, says Lejla who advises all scholarship holders to work on themselves continually, use the opportunities provided by the Hastor Foundation to their full potential, and to conscientiously volunteer with the younger scholarship holders.
Lejla is currently in the process of writing a doctoral dissertation on indirect taxation and the digital economy. Through her continuous work, she is setting a good example, not only to the scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation but also to all young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Thanks to the academic vocation I have achieved through hard and persistent work, I live by the motto – education is the choice of the winner! I will always consider myself part of the Hastor family. I am infinitely grateful for that, concludes this month’s alumnus, Lejla Ramić.
Prepared by: Aleksandra Đukić
Translated by: Nejra Galijašević
