Between the casual American lifestyle and the happy hours at the bars, Nita Gojani couldn’t get enough of the United States — the place that showed her a new culture, far different than hers.
She had been to Hawaii as a high school exchange student. The tropical islands and the diverse culture was a one-of-a-kind, first taste of America. Then she made her way to the Johns Hopkins University campus in Washington, D.C. to study international development.
So far from home, in a small apartment, Gojani found it easy to get used to the American education style, and to comforts like the kitchen she had all to herself.
“If I stayed longer in the U.S., I would have built more of a life there, and then it would have been very difficult to go home,” Gojani said.
But Gojani was not meant to stay in that apartment for long. She knew that. She never intended to have an American career, settle down in the States and make those happy hours a regular thing.
Instead, her mission was much larger. It was to take the knowledge and experience she gained from her U.S. education back to her home that she cared so much about and use it in a way that benefits the nation.
And that is exactly what she did. Five years after leaving D.C., Gojani is the project coordinator at UN Women, a human rights organization that focuses on improving the role of women in society.
“I’m part of the generation that lived through the troubles and hardships of the ‘90s,” Gojani said. “Therefore, my connection to my home, through hardship, is strong… I wanted to give back.”
Gojani was able to travel to The United States because she is an alumna of the Kosovo American Education Fund (KAEF), one of the many student exchange programs in Kosovo. KAEF is financed by USAID and sends academically advanced Kosovars to the U.S. to study at top universities, at no cost to the students.
Since it began in 2004, KAEF has sent an average of seven masters students per year to the U.S. Its goal is to provide for them an advanced college experience that they can bring back to Kosovo and use to land important jobs.
KAEF alumni do not just work with human rights. Scholarship winners are given the flexibility to pursue education paths of their preference. These routes result in KAEF alumni creating businesses, assisting rising entrepreneurs, and in President Atifete Jahjaga’s office.
Eranda Aliu is director of the Kosovo Office of the American Councils that created the KAEF program.
“It’s all about giving back to Kosovo,” Aliu said. “The hope is for them to get key leadership positions so they can make positive changes in Kosovo.”
Aliu said she proud of the accomplishments of the students.
Programs that educate people allow for a more self-sustainable movement toward progress, Aliu said.
“People think giving to charity will help everything, and what they do is very important, but KAEF works to provide Kosovo with people who can allow it to function on its own,” Aliu explained.
Though Aliu is passionate about improving Kosovo economic development through foreign exchange programs, she does not believe one strategy is more important than another. Her hope is that sectors of society will work in unison, with the aim of helping make Kosovo more self-sustainable.
She is also trying to address, through KAEF, the lack of communication and collaboration between the young adults of Kosovo. According to Aliu, the next generation does not have a strong sense of group work, and she hopes KAEF scholars will return from the U.S. to work together.
KAEF is not alone in its efforts, especially when it comes to youth collaboration. Since the war, organizations across the state have popped up to help give people experiences they need for leadership.
Ardi Jusufi is co-founder of the Young European Leaders for Change (YELC), an organization that hosts training courses for young adults to develop as leaders of Europe with an emphasis on Kosovo. YELC functions with the goal of paving the road to tomorrow with the creativity and motivation of the youth.
Jusufi founded YELC in 2013 after attending high school in the United States, and he has been working hard to plan week-long leadership conferences, the first of which was in July. For these conferences, dozens of high school and college students from 11 countries come together to hear presentations from speakers in top positions, like ambassadors, and to collaborate in leadership workshops.
“We want to give the future generations insight and skills to allow them to become promising members of society,” Jusufi said. “It sounds ambitious, but maybe one day, one of them will be a prime minister.”
Jusufi said many young people believe they have no voice and that they are not aware of their potential. His goal is to bring these young people together and give them the confidence they need to obtain leadership positions, either in Kosovo or another European country.
Though most of the YELC participants are just in the second decade of their lives, their goals and ambitions are those of people twice their age, Jusufi added.
The YELC training course was something new for Kosovar Etnik Maloku. “It has truly motivated me in an unparalleled way. Everything went beyond my expectations and it was simply an incredible experience.”
Maloku said he decided to attend the course with hopes of learning how to materialize projects he has in mind to help Kosovo’s development progress. For example, with the help of other young and ambitious Kosovars, Maloku wants to create a project that promotes ethnic integration in Kosovo.
“We have agreed on working on a project which will bring together Kosovar youth of all ethnic backgrounds, not only to blur the lines between the differences they have through many activities of all sorts, but also to aid them in choosing career paths,” Maloku said. “Minorities here are generally and largely underprivileged in terms of being able to secure a higher life standard for themselves, and we believe that we, the youth of Kosovo, are the ones who will be able to make equal opportunities happen.”
Maloku said he is grateful to have the opportunity to attend training and education courses such as the ones YELC provides. He said he is eager to take the knowledge he gained from the course and implement it to make a change in Kosovo.
Ingrid Idland is a high school student from Norway who attended the first YELC training course after reading about it on the Internet.
“I’m participating in YELC because I want to start a confidence conference for young people back home who are afraid to express their voice in society,” Idland said. “This training course is showing me the necessary steps for doing things like starting a project and getting grants.”
Jusufi said the response from YELC has been positive, so far. Participants love the training course. Donors, such as the U.S. Embassy, have been jumping at the opportunity to aid the organization.
“We believe that the European youth is the voice of tomorrow, and this is the most important step Kosovo needs to take to improve,” Jusufi said.
Some organizations, though, educate and support Kosovars with more specific goals.
The Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development’s (CEED) Kosovo Branch works to support growing businesses by providing sophisticated, yet practical training. Alongside educating these rising business owners, CEED takes the next steps at connecting their participants to mentors and other entrepreneurs who can help educate them on how to thrive, using real-life examples.
“Entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept for Kosovo,” said CEED Director Kreshnik Lleshi. “But building an entrepreneur ecosystem can play a huge roll here. It can help build jobs and the economy.”
Lleshi said CEED has been successful in achieving its goals since it was founded in 2009, but he is unsure of its effect on the economy.
Eighty percent of businesses involved with CEED report that they have grown as a result of the training and influence of the program, according to CEED research. Lleshi said the strides made by CEED are due, in part, to realistic goals.
Lleshi said Kosovo has a small financial market. As a result, he expects entrepreneur influence on the economy will be slow.
Lleshi said working with young adults is important, but it needs be done carefully.
“The youth in Kosovo is a plus, but they are very weak in group-working,” he added. “We have begun working to equip the youth with the rights skills that the private sector needs, then match these skilled employees with good companies.”
Many see the youthful population of Kosovo as a selling point.
A national advertising campaign called Kosovo: The Young Europeans works to change the perception of Kosovo by emphasizing that it is the youngest European country, and aligns it with Western Europe. The campaign hosts festivals and events in hopes of improving Kosovo’s tourism, economy, and more.
One of the biggest problems in Kosovo that needs addressing is education, said Ekrem Tahiri, a partner in PR Solutions, the company that runs Kosovo: The Young Europeans.
“The idea is that everything new or innovative starts here in Kosovo,” Tahiri explained. “And also that it’s the place that young people of Europe start their careers by doing well in different activities and events that we plan to organize such as: biennale of young artists, festival of young musicians, conference of young businessmen, etc.”
“I am optimistic because we have great young generations that will make this country great,” Tahiri said with a smile.
Whether Kosovars are flying to the U.S. to study at top institutions or attending a leadership conference in their hometown, their vision for an improved economy is similar.
“Regardless of how you do it,” said Jusufi of YELC, “we need to step up and educate the future generations that will one day be leading this country.”
(Connor Moriarty was a reporting intern at KosovaLive this summer in collaboration with Miami University in the United States)
