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 by improving it with their knowledge and skills. It is precisely such values and commitment to volunteering engagement within the Hastor Foundation that earn our scholarship holders the title of Scholarship holder of the Month. Read below about Ajla Kožljak, the scholarship holder who took home the title this month.
That selfless and noble actions are the most airy pages in the biography of human souls is shown every day by the scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation who actively work as volunteers and whose primary task is to help and make others happy. Another in a series of great examples that adorn the Hastor Foundation is our scholarship holder of the month, Ajla Kožljak.
Ajla Kožljak is 21 years old and comes from Vogošća, where she successfully completed her primary and secondary education with outstanding results. Proof of this is the numerous mathematics and physics competitions in which Ajla participated. Ajla followed her love for economic science from the time she enrolled in high school, choosing the Economic Technician major at the Vogošća High School. She confirmed her love for economics by enrolling in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Sarajevo. She is currently in her second year of study at the Department of Management. Ajla points out that the desire to enroll in this Faculty arose in her second year of high school while attending an Accounting course. Ajla significantly deepens her interest in economics through informal education in the form of attending numerous educations and volunteering in fields that are closely related to economics. However, Ajla is also a big fan of reading books in the field of psychology, and she applies the knowledge gained in that way in her volunteer work within the Hastor Foundation.
Since she has been a scholarship recipient of the Foundation since 2015, when she was still attending elementary school, Ajla particularly emphasizes the volunteering activities that were very useful to her during elementary school. Volunteering groups in which students have their own mentors are important and useful because of the mentor’s wholehearted help with studying and material both in elementary and high school.
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, Ajla could not realize her volunteering, where she was in the role of a mentor, in the way she had imagined. She wanted to provide the children she mentored with the same interesting volunteer meetings as her mentors, which the online environment did not allow. In spite of all that, she tried to make meetings and experiences worthy of lasting memory and preservation from oblivion even in online settings.
Together with mentors Adelisa Sirćo and Kanita Hopovac, our Ajla tried to find useful topics and interesting ways that could be fun for children in the online environment. Our Ajla also gained volunteering experience in the administration of the Hastor Foundation. She states that on that occasion she had the opportunity to get to know the work of the Foundation itself better and realized what a privilege it is to be a part of the Hastor Foundation. She also states that volunteering in the administration contributed to her being more confident in working with people, and significantly improved her organizational and group work skills.
Our scholarship holder certainly volunteers outside the framework of the Hastor Foundation, which certainly further demonstrates her perseverance in her philanthropic mission. She was a volunteer during the fifteenth „Race for the Cure“ event in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through this volunteering work, she had the opportunity to meet women who are fighting the most serious diseases and learn about the importance of prevention. These volunteering meetings made Ajla aware that the life given to us is truly short by its nature, and that the memory of a beautiful and fulfilling life is eternal. In addition, she volunteered at the Economic Forum that took place in 2022 and was organized by the Faculty of Economics of the University of Sarajevo.
As it was pointed out at the beginning of this text, Ajla often attends informal educations that help her in various fields of her activity. In this regard, she particularly emphasizes participation in the panel entitled „Femicide in the media: Steps towards ethical reporting“ and participation in the lecture „Freedom of speech does not equal hate speech“. During these two educational meetings, she acquired numerous knowledge and skills that she then used in her work with her mentor group within the Hastor Foundation, which, she points out, were of great use to her.
Finally, Ajla says that through volunteering and education, she saw that young people can initiate changes in society as long as they are active. Her message to all scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation, as well as young people throughout our homeland, is: Instead of walking on the surface of the screen, choose swimming in the depth of the book. The Hastor Foundation wishes, from the bottom of its heart, that Ajla and all young and hardworking people continue to strengthen the fundamental ideas of the philanthropic mission and that the Foundation, as a tree of life, continues to branch out thanks to successful and active scholarship holders.
Prepared by: Amina Abaspahić
Translated by: Nejra Galijašević
