People are our Greatest Asset

Jelica Rastoka The winner of the EUSR competition for the best students’ public campaign, the most successful graduate at the Banja Luka Faculty of Economics Twenty-two-year-old Jelica Rastoka f...

Jelica Rastoka

The winner of the EUSR competition for the best students’ public campaign, the most successful graduate at the Banja Luka Faculty of Economics

Twenty-two-year-old Jelica Rastoka from Banja Luka is one of the three most successful students in the history of the Faculty of Economics at the Banja Luka University. She graduated four months early as a straight-A student.

Jelica was also successful as a member of the winning team of the “EU for You – #E4U” project, launched by the Office of the EU Special Representative in BiH (EUSR) providing young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina with an opportunity to design and launch public campaigns featuring their views on socio-economic reforms and challenges they face.

Jelica and her peers with the Yellow Team (students of Banja Luka and Bihać faculties of economics) had the best public campaign with the slogan Start Yourself UP!  – designed to encourage, motivate and educate young people to start own businesses. Jelica defended her final thesis on ‘Entrepreneurship in Public Administration as a Factor in Sustainable Development’, also with flying colours.

We spoke to Jelica about her achievements so far and future plans.

1. You are a member of the winning team of the “E4U” Project. What motivated you? Is the EU membership of BiH a motivation for young people, and if so, why?

The greatest motivation came from the fact that we are generally interested in the concept of starting an own business. Since the four of us, our mentor and co-mentor included, already had some ideas for business startup, coupled with our interest in marketing, entrepreneurship, we had no problem to make up our mind. Two of our colleagues who took part in the EUSR competition, are already undergoing their internship in a company that originally started as a small start up. As for the EU membership, we had very useful and interesting lectures at Jahorina and the introductory training for the “#E4U” Project. Some may be Eurosceptic, but the fact is that all countries improve their macroeconomics indicators after accession to the European Union, or even at the stage of only preparing to meet the conditions. The membership itself brings a major change; however, if the country delivers on all the necessary conditions, this alone is already a major step forward – in my opinion that is more than 50 % on the path of becoming a relatively developed country. Of course, the EU membership means the ownership of the EU passport as well, which is a major advantage in itself, especially for young people who would like to get educated and improve their skills.

2. What should make BiH citizens proud and what can we offer to the EU?

I believe that above all it is the so-called intangible asset. Despite lacking significant financial resources or highly developed and sophisticated technology, people are our greatest asset. There is some scepticism present, people tend to believe that everything is bad, and that grass is greener somewhere else. And yes, the fact is that there are more opportunities abroad. But I do believe, and I often say that disaster equals opportunity. I believe that people should stay here because here they have better chances for success. Just looking at it, we sometimes have the illusion that everything is easy and simple in the EU, and it is definitely not. More opportunities mean tougher competition. Security and visible support that exist in the EU, and that we lack, are the biggest advantage. However, I believe that we have sufficient will for changes in order to overcome this situation. We have sufficient will and enthusiasm.

3. A series of articles about your achievements at the Faculty has been published recently. You are currently attending courses in Vienna, and today we are interviewing you in Banja Luka, where you graduated as one of the three best students in the history of the Banja Luka Faculty of Economics. Where do you see your future?

Absolutely and definitely, I see myself here! When I read the articles in media about myself and the comments, I was taken by surprise by so many negative comments and it is overwhelming because it shows how difficult it is to do anything here. Nevertheless, I see myself here, but I cannot imagine being isolated and that the things I do are done only inside the BiH borders. My greatest ambition is to have contact abroad and without it, there can be no development here. We cannot develop quality in isolation.

4. Do you believe that young people should stay and lead the changes in their countries?

They must. As the saying goes: “If a young person would know all he can do, and if an old person could do all he knows”. We cannot expect older people to be in the lead of changes, but if we are to join forces, the youth and the older ones who would share their experience, then we could change something. I might be too naïve, but I think if we all stayed here and developed this country instead of other countries, it would get developed. People are selfish because they are not ready to share their success and wealth and devote it to the development of their country. We need more empathy.

Summary

Under the motto “EU for You- #E4U”, the Project of the Office of the EU Special Representative in BiH was implemented from September 2016 till end February 2017 and the competition for the best students’ campaign about socio-economic reforms took place.

Thus, the European Union has sent the clear message to the students from 14 public universities in BiH who participated in the Project, and to young people throughout BiH, that they are important part of the process of EU integration, reforms and future of their country. Working on campaigns, students had an opportunity to highlight their views and thoughts about the socio-economic issues and to share them with media and on social networks. In their campaigns, young people touched upon the very core of the reforms and sent the message that they wished for better education, better quality of life, more jobs, more investments and better prospects for young people and all citizens of our country. In short: economic prospects for all.