My name is Una, and I am from Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of my longest-lasting wishes I've ever had was to live and study abroad. When the opportunity presented itself, I decided to take the risk. I transferred from a public university in Serbia to John Cabot University, where I'm currently majoring in International Affairs with a minor in Marketing. Today I can say: the risk was worth it.
Both my major and minor have helped me in establishing a non-profit organization called EHO back in my home country. EHO is a non-governmental organization (NGO) designed as an online broadcasting system that collaborates with various other institutions, such as embassies and other NGOs. Though the online broadcasting system, we provide citizens full access to articles that are objective and provide truthful information. The goal of EHO is to raise awareness about topics that are not always discussed accurately or entirely in the media, such as the environmental issues, human rights, and democracy. EHO is still under development and is currently only available in Serbia.
Apart from the online broadcasting system, my team and I attend conferences as representatives of EHO. One of the recent conferences we attended was the Non-Territorial Autonomy as a Form of Plurinational Democracy: Participation, Recognition, Reconciliation in November 2019. The conference was organized by the European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network. It was a great opportunity to raise awareness about some of the things that are currently happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to speak with various professors and academics to show them that there are people fighting for justice and truth.
In all of this, John Cabot University has helped me get to where I am today by helping me to further develop my skill set. Studying here has also increased my desire to fight for change and given me the courage to stand up and be vocal about issues that matter to me - not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina but around the world. After graduation, I plan to continue my education and enroll in a master’s program that focuses on international affairs. I also intend on further developing EHO (for example, offering articles in more languages) for it to become more accessible to readers outside the Balkan Region.
Una Vaskovic
International Affairs major, Marketing minor
Class of 2020
Hometown: Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
