Scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation continue to actively contribute primarily to their local community, but also to the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina in general, even after the end of their volunteering days in the Hastor Foundation. Their social activism and progress, even when they are not obliged to do so by status of a scholarship holder, is an indicator of how the love for volunteering and helping others instilled by the Foundation in them remains forever. The Foundation closely monitors all the successes of current and former scholarship holders and is proud to have influenced the progress and personal development of each of them individually during their growth. It is the same with the former scholarship holder Irma Marić, assistant professor at the Department of Bosnian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities, University Džemal Bijedić in Mostar. You can read about her story below.

Irma Marić successfully completed her entire education in her hometown Mostar. After completing the pedagogical course at the Second Gymnasium, she continued her education at the Department of Bosnian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities, Džemal Bijedić University in Mostar. She successfully completed her studies in 2009, and in 2010 she became an assistant at the Faculty of Teaching, University Džemal Bijedić in Mostar for the narrow scientific field of Bosnian language and literature II. She continues her outstanding biography by enrolling in the Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Study at the College of Literature of the Faculty of Humanities, University Džemal Bijedić in Mostar. After passing the exams, she successfully defended her master’s thesis in 2013 and received the title of Master of Arts in the field of literature.

In the same year, she acquired the title of senior assistant for the narrow scientific field of Literature at the Department of Bosnian Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, University Džemal Bijedić in Mostar. In 2017, she defended her doctoral dissertation at the same faculty and became an assistant professor at the Department of Bosnian Language and Literature. From 2019 to 2021, she also performed the duty of vice dean for teaching at the faculty.

She had been an active member of the Hastor Foundation for many years, participating in several projects with other scholarship holders and activists, so we are happy to now present her as a successful alumna.

One of the most important projects in which I participated was “Stiching Kinderhulp Bosnie” through which assistance to the children of Srebrenica was realized, and after that I helped and worked on connecting the Foundation with Herzegovina, and since then children from these areas have been continuously awarded scholarships.

Irma adds that the Hastor Foundation was, and remains, an important part of her upbringing and education. From the day she became a scholarship holder until the end of her education, she worked hard, trying to show in the right way how grateful she is to the Foundation for the support it provides, but also wanting to show society and the environment by her example how much the Hastor Foundation influenced her upbringing and understanding of the world .

Our former scholarship holders show on a daily basis how much desire for positive change and innovation in society they bring in any professional environment. Thus, Irma is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the Bosniak Cultural Community “Revival” – City Society of Mostar, where she conducts additional activities important for the affirmation of the Bosnian language, Bosniak and Bosnian literature and beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2021, her author’s book Poetic Models in Irfan Horozović’s novels (Where Is Baluk Abad, and Where Is Banja Luka?) was published by Džemal Bijedić University in Mostar, the City Society “Revival” Mostar and the publishing house “Good Book”.

She has participated in several scientific conferences in the country and abroad, and she has published papers in the field of Bosniak, Bosnian and South Slavic literature in recognized journals and collections of papers. She has also been the editor, reviewer, and proof-reader of several books in the field of Bosniak and Bosnian literature, history and culture. During her many years of academic education and advancement, she was involved in numerous events, forums, lectures, and the promotion of new publications throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The subject of my scientific work and interests is contemporary Bosniak and Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature, South Slavic literature of the 20th century, and I am especially interested in oral (folk) literature as well as communication skills and rhetoric.

Throughout all the years she spent as a scholarship holder, Irma actively volunteered and contributed to the Foundation in various ways. She considers volunteer activism a key aspect of her work. She believes that it helps her build faith in herself and her ability to offer her own answers to the problems around us, that is, the faith that she can change her own and someone else’s world. However, in addition to working for the benefit of others, as a volunteer she says that the most beautiful thing is that she works on herself, her personal and professional development. She does this through the extremely wide range of opportunities that volunteering opens up. She volunteered in Mostar, but she also openly accepted invitations to volunteer in other areas. She understood the process of volunteering very naturally and as a kind of practice for the future classroom, considering that she studied with the goal of becoming a professor of Bosnian language and literature.

Volunteerism should be an integral part of the life of every healthy person. There are different ways to help the community, to strengthen it and to continually develop humanistic ideas that rest in the beauty and meaning of human existence. Pupils and students should dedicate some of their free time volunteering in the segments where they can provide the most and the best. These are the most productive years, regardless of all the challenges, uncertainties, and difficult circumstances. It is never too late for good and dedicated work, and it is always the right time. Thank you to the noble people of the Hastor Foundation for teaching me the values ​​of volunteering and helping people around me. I wish other scholarship holders good luck in the field of their education and on the paths of life’s challenges.

In the end, we can say that the Foundation has nurtured and encouraged the growth of what is now a capable and self-confident, ready to happily transfer all her knowledge to others and to help anyone who may need it. Based on Irma’s example, but also on the example of numerous other successful former and current scholarship holders, we can see time after time that the mission of the Hastor Foundation is possible and that it is being realized more and more successfully every year.

Prepared by: Alek Isaković
Translated by: Semra Islamović