Every month, scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation have an exceptionally responsible and special task, perhaps the most special one, which is volunteering with younger scholarship holders who are still growing into good individuals with a developed sense of helping others. This task is by no means easy, and our volunteers prepare meetings every month that will be interesting and beneficial to the younger scholarship holders, helping them prepare for what awaits them in the future. The aim of our column “Stories of Great Volunteers” is to bring inspiring, creative, and motivating stories from our field volunteering, and this month we present the story of a volunteer group mentored by Adisa Bajramović, Lamija Slomić, and Ajla Kahrimanović. This valuable group consists of 13 student scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation who attend Čelić Mixed High School, and they carry out their volunteering activities with their mentors in Čelić.
According to the mentors, the volunteer meetings of this valuable group from Čelić always begin with a smile and a good mood. From the moment they enter the room, Adisa, Lamija, and Ajla strive to create a positive atmosphere in order to transfer their good mood and motivation to the students. The fact that they successfully carry out their volunteering activities is evidenced by the warm and welcoming reception they receive from the students at the monthly meetings. It is worth noting that the students easily complete all the tasks prepared for them. During each meeting, these dedicated mentors make an effort to involve all the students through interaction by preparing workshops related to the topic in advance and providing materials for work. They never start any planned activities without proper theoretical preparation because they believe that they should have a good understanding of the topic first in order to thoroughly explain the concepts they discuss to the students and then proceed with the designated tasks.
The volunteering activities for this month, as well as all the previous ones, were rich in educational and entertaining content that the mentors carefully and thoroughly planned. On Saturday, June 24th of this year, this volunteer group focused on the topic “The Impact of Humans on Environmental Conservation/Climate Change.” In the introductory part, the mentors presented the problem of climate disruption and environmental pollution, and then discussed sustainable development plans. After a long discussion and individual comments on each problem, the task was to choose the problems that have the greatest impact on climate change and write them down on separate papers, which the mentors placed at different corners of the room where they held the meeting. The students were supposed to approach the problem they considered most important and explain their choice. At the end of the meeting, this mentoring group identified ecological problems in their local community and devised a plan for solving them. They proposed institutions that could assist them, materials they would need, and a way to volunteer to contribute to the preservation of our environment.
What always holds true for the scholarship holders in our volunteer group is that they are not afraid of challenges and never say that something is difficult for them. Instead, they strive to give their best in every task. We are proud to lead a group of future leaders, successful entrepreneurs, teachers, scientists, and artists. We are also proud to have served as role models for our students over the years, inspiring them to be more successful and not to limit themselves to small goals, say Adisa, Lamija, and Ajla, who express their creativity every month during the meetings.
In addition to topics related to ecology, Adisa, Lamija, and Ajla addressed the theme “How to Prepare for the Job Market” the following day. Considering that the mentors chose a very broad topic, they decided to adapt it to the age of their group of student mentees and to highlight important aspects of career guidance that they will encounter in further education. The mentors informed the students in advance to bring electronic devices (such as tablets, laptops, or mobile phones) on which they could create a presentation. Adisa, Lamija, and Ajla paired up the students, and each pair was given the task of coming up with a name and a business plan for a company they could establish in the future. They were then required to present all their ideas on several slides. The aim of this workshop was to emphasize effective
oral communication, improve public speaking skills, overcome the fear of speaking in front of a larger audience, create engaging presentations that are not boring or overwhelmed with text, and capture and retain the audience’s attention.
At the end of the meeting, they simulated an event called “Small Fair of Employment and Education by Future Great Employers,” where each student pair went in front of the rest of the group and presented their business ideas, products, and services, while the audience listened, asked questions, and expressed whether they would consider collaborating with that company based on the competencies and ideas presented. At the end of each presentation, the mentors provided feedback and pointed out the strengths of the presentation, as well as areas for improvement so that each individual (or group) could outperform the competition in the job market.
Adisa, Lamija, and Ajla demonstrate to all the scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation, through their dedication and selfless commitment to their mentor tasks, that every topic can be addressed in a quality and interesting way, and that students can benefit in multiple ways from the volunteer meetings.
Volunteering has changed our perspective on life because through volunteering, we have realized that students observe our every step and aspire to be like us in the future. If they see dedication, thoroughness, responsibility, and commitment in our behavior, we are confident that they will also display these qualities and create new winners from future generations of scholarship holders. Volunteering has raised our level of responsibility and seriousness; we have learned to respect deadlines, consider different opinions, give praise and criticism in a way that students perceive as good intentions. We have made new acquaintances, conquered stage fright, and learned to deal with various difficulties by no longer perceiving them as problems but as opportunities to showcase and prove our potential. Thanks to volunteering, we believe that we have set much higher goals and realized our role in the lives of students: we volunteer to be role models and teachers to others, rather than competitors and stumbling blocks, conclude Adisa, Lamija, and Ajla.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Čelić Mixed High School and Čelić City Library for providing the premises for our monthly volunteer activities carried out by our dedicated scholarship holders.
