This Academic Year

I have to say that this year we really have the best students ever in terms of undergraduates.  We have always had students that were talented and focused, but this year, there are so many!

More and more students are starting the process on time and there seems to be no limit as to where they can apply.  It is a great improvement over starting the process at the beginning of the final year of high school.

Along with great students, we are finding such great schools for them to apply to.  For the first time, students are starting to seriously research for schools that reflect their interests.  In the past, it has only been schools that students have heard of – as if there is a vast knowledge here about the entire education system.   Imagine students who respond to my mention of Amherst, with comments such as, “never heard of it”, or “I want to go to a highly ranked school”.   Now even though the young people may not be familiar with the school, they head out into the library and start researching.

These changes in viewpoint really make me hopeful.  Each generation in Serbia seems to be getting better and better.  I keep hoping that in six to ten years, we will see students come back after completing their education in the USA.  I really have faith that if we can get a critical mass of young people who have had the opportunity to study abroad and combine that group with the young people who have stayed here and completed their educations, we will have an unstoppable force in terms of change, opportunity, and leadership!

Right now we are starting to get the applications sent out, but I am really looking forward to the acceptance letters.  It is going to be a great academic year – I can just feel it in my bones.