The Hastor Foundation can boast of hard-working, ambitious and successful scholarship holders who achieve notable results in the field of education and science. The Foundation’s team consists of young volunteers who contribute to its work, improving it with their knowledge and skills. It is precisely such values and commitment to volunteer engagement within the Hastor Foundation that earn the scholars the title of Scholar of the Month. Read below about Sara-Medina Šehović, the scholarship winner that won this title in November.
In the history of humankind, numerous traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation have been preserved, and today they serve as motivation for successful people to continue confidently walking towards their goals. An extremely motivating tradition was also preserved by the famous thinker and philosopher Confucius, and its fundamental idea is that the will to win, the desire to succeed, and the desire to realize one’s full potential are actually the keys that will unlock the door to one’s personal excellence. Through almost all of our published texts, we saw that numerous scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation found their golden keys that allowed them to enter the world of excellence. Such is the case with our long-term scholarship holder Sara-Medina Šehović, who comes from Goražde, the heart of eastern Bosnia.
In her hometown, she graduated from the “Avdo Smailović” Primary Music School, playing the flute. In addition to successfully balancing attendance at two elementary schools, our Sara-Medina showed significant excellence in both, and that is why she was awarded as the best student of her generation. After finishing elementary school, she enrolled in the “Richmond Park College” Secondary School, which she also successfully completed in 2020.
In the academic year 2020/2021, she entered the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sarajevo, and is currently in her third year of the first cycle of studies at the Department of Mechanical Production Engineering.
In the conversation with our scholarship holder, we noticed that she emphasized her love for learning, saying that it has existed since she knew herself and that this love never stopped, but changed forms over time, as she tried to create something useful that will benefit the community. Even in primary school, she started participating in general knowledge competitions, as well as in writing literary works and drawing competitions. In addition, she participated in many competitions within the primary music school. She especially singled out her first prize at the International Woodwind Competition held in Požarevac.
She points out that she has had a special love for physics since her elementary school days, and that love significantly determined her life path, since in a certain way she enrolled in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering because of it. Throughout high school, she participated in numerous physics camps organized by the Society of Physicists in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are really a great springboard for young people eager for science. Since she excelled in physics, she continued to participate in various competitions and won first place in the Federal Competition in Physics – Group B, Electromagnetism, Oscillations and Waves, as well as third place in the Selection Competition for the European Physics Olympiad. Sara-Medina believes that her biggest success is precisely the participation in the European Physics Olympiad in 2020, because the best young physicists from all over Europe gather at this competition. The successes of our scholarship holder did not stop with competitions in primary and secondary school. In support of her success is the claim that her average is 9.70 and that thanks to her knowledge and skills she was engaged as a demonstrator in the subjects Physics I and Physics II, while she is currently a demonstrator in the subject Kinematics.
Sara-Medina was awarded the title of Scholarship Holder of the Month by her activity and diligent and up-to-date performance of volunteer tasks in the administrative team of the Hastor Foundation. Given that she has been a scholarship recipient of the Hastor Foundation since she was in the third grade of high school, it can be said that the Foundation was an important part of her education, but, as she herself points out, also an inspiration for success and the pursuit of her dreams.
The Hastor Foundation recognized my results, which I am very proud of. Being a member of the Foundation is a success in itself because it is known that it is a community that gathers the best pupils and university students from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
About the place and role of the Hastor Foundation in her education, Sara-Medina emphasizes the following:
For me, the Foundation is not just financial help. What is most valuable to me are the knowledge, experiences and acquaintances I have gained while volunteering. Volunteering at the Foundation makes us active members of the community and, even if we were initially lazy and careless about our environment, volunteering made us see a bigger picture of our society. I have made many friends and met many people at the Foundation and I know that in the future I will always have someone to rely on. The foundation teaches us to be confident in ourselves and the people around us and that we should constantly work to improve ourselves and our environment. We are not even aware of how much we ourselves, as “ordinary” students and pupils, can change things around us. Imagine how much happiness we bring to the elderly we help while volunteering, how many children’s smiles we make… The Foundation is actually a great treasure and has the ability to change our society for the better, it taught me many virtues and constantly encourages me to improve in all fields.
We wish Sara-Medina to remain as hard working and successful as she has been so far, and we hope that such, truly frequent, examples that we have the honour and opportunity to observe within the Hastor Foundation will become a motivating factor for other members of the community to start actively acting and doing what that they love and continue to help each other because that is the core of our existence.
Prepared by: Amina Abaspahić
Translated by: Fadil Merdić
