When you step into the magical world of volunteering, you will notice that something keeps drawing you back to it time and time again. Some desire will lead you to forge new friendships, create new memories, and engage in many new activities. However, when we combine volunteering with what we truly love, it becomes our own little special world. Lejla Fejzić, a student and one of our scholarship recipients, had the opportunity to base her volunteer hours on what truly fulfills her, attracting our attention and undoubtedly earning her place in this column.
Lejla Fejzić is 22 years old and comes from Ilijaš, where she completed elementary and high school. She is currently a third-year student of graphic design and multimedia at the International Burch University. Although Lejla has been with us for only a year, when asked what being a Foundation Hastor scholar means to her, she didn’t know where to start, stating that she has a lot to say.
Being a Foundation scholar is much more than financial support; it is an opportunity for growth and learning and a great privilege that allows me to focus on my education and contribute to the community with my work and give back the support I received.
Lejla’s love for design and art dates back to her high school days, and as the Foundation Hastor strives to encourage its scholars to develop interests through volunteering activities, Lejla’s entire volunteering is based on topics related to graphic design, about which she has much to say and teach others. The new volunteering model at the Foundation Hastor, implemented at the beginning of the current school year, provides the opportunity for scholarship students, among other things, to learn various skills by acquiring knowledge from various fields conveyed by our student scholars, thus expanding their horizons and ranges of knowledge. The workshops Lejla leads are envisioned as courses in Adobe Photoshop for our high school scholarship recipients, and our volunteer described to us what one of these workshops actually looks like.
At the very beginning, the students were tasked with installing the program necessary for the course, after which Lejla introduced them to all the options the program offers. One of the first challenges was to merge two photos into one and add some creative detail to the photo. Lejla emphasizes that in this way, she teaches younger scholarship recipients to be creative and to use the resources they have in the right way, and many of them already recognize the field of graphic design as their future profession.
The workshops are structured through ten stages, providing students with a fundamental understanding of Adobe Photoshop. After going through these stages, students will be able to independently use tools and apply acquired knowledge in various aspects of their education. Each workshop is designed in two segments. The first segment includes a detailed explanation of the tools in Adobe Photoshop and their application. In the second segment of the workshop, students, with my assistance, implement the acquired knowledge through practical work and tasks, Lejla states, thus explaining the steps of the workshop in more detail.
We can see how much support and positive feedback mean to us, even from Lejla’s example. After just the first workshop held, one of the students thanked Lejla for her selfless dedication and all the useful things she taught them. The message was full of praise, and Lejla also shared with us the impressions of student Arnela Mujić, which she took away from her workshops:
A workshop with Lejla is a beautiful experience. Through an inspiring presentation, she allowed me and all attendees to learn so much, and her way of presenting was outstanding. With her approach and immense love for what she does, she encouraged me to delve deeper into the area she presented and continue my journey with new inspiration she inspired me with, says Amela.
Lejla summed up her rich volunteer story to end our interview with a single message:
I would encourage all current and future Foundation Hastor scholars to appreciate all the opportunities the Foundation provides them. I encourage you to seize every opportunity offered, participate in every activity with the aim of learning and developing your own skills because it will undoubtedly be invaluable to us in the future.
Article prepared by: Aida Suljić
Translated by: Zerina Kosovac and Fadil Merdi
