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HOW STUDENTS BREAK DOWN „AN OCEAN“ OF PREJUDICES

27. December 2011.

Secondary School Students from Sabac, Loznica, Valjevo, Presevo and Bujanovac are going to stay in the USA, and students from America, will, thereafter, come to Serbia  

Last year, Djurdja Jevtic, a grammar school student from Valjevo, spent four weeks in America, and Abby Kern, a sixteen year old girl from Kansas, thereupon, arrived in Serbia.   

Djurdja and Abby were part of the first Program for the Young Leaders from Central Europe that is funded by the US State Department’s Bureau for Educational and Cultural Issues, within which over sixty young people from Serbia, Slovenia, Hungary and Slovakia are going to stay in America this year.   

“During our stay in the USA and later on, when American students came to Serbia, numerous prejudices that we had had about one another were broken down, particularly those that we had about Albanian students of our age, since there were also students from Presevo and Bujanovac in our group”, said Djurdja Jevtic from the Valjevo-based grammar school.

Jasmina Lazovic, the program coordinator from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, said that students that met the criteria could apply at apply@yihr.org until January 13, 2012.

“The program is organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, while it is supported by the US Embassy in Serbia and the US “Meridian” International Center. Participants in the program should be students of the second or third year of secondary school, so that upon their return to Serbia, they could implement the project devised in America. Therefore, our aim isn’t to enable best students to go to the States, bust those that have awareness of local community and ideas for solving local problems”, said Jasmina. Entitled to apply for the program are secondary school students from the non-university centers of Sabac, Loznica, Valjevo, Presevo and Bujanovac.   

“The participants in the program are expected to wish to improve the environment in which they live and to inspire others to do the same, to be interested in international politics, to want to get to know the young from other cultures and to exchange skills and experiences with them. They will visit Washington, Chicago, and one city in North Carolina, Missouri and Vermont each. Sixteen young persons from the USA will, thereupon, stay in Serbia and Hungary in August 2012, while the program will be completed with a seminar in Belgrade, in which participants from all the countries will take part”, Ms. Lazovic pointed out.