22 minute read
Legacy of Bosnian SJU Students Turns Into ‘Something More’
Nešto Više
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H Bosnian Students Make Global Impact
By Dave DeLand
In the early 2000s, an influx of exceptional students from war-torn Bosnia & Herzegovina arrived at Saint John’s and Saint Benedict to take advantage of a generous and unprecedented educational opportunity.
Two decades later, they are living lives of purpose and principled achievement in their homeland and in various countries around the world. Two extraordinary examples are Dusan Kosic ’07 and Damir Tokic ’06, who are making an indelible mark.
Damir Tokic ’06
They began arriving …
at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict at the turn of this century, transported from a war-torn Eastern European country to pastoral Central Minnesota thanks to an SJU alumnus and his wife who provided an opportunity that seemed too good to be true. “The story sounds utterly unreal to most people, and I am a living example of how life writes the most unexpected stories for us,” said Dusan Kosic ’07, whose unlikely path to international business success came through Collegeville from his roots in Bosnia & Herzegovina. “All the students that came to CSB and SJU felt like they won the lottery,” added Dan Whalen ’70, the entrepreneur whose involvement and contributions helped make the trajectory to personal and professional prosperity possible for dozens of students in the program. “This was their one chance. This was their golden ticket, and they were going to make the best use of it.”
A total of 44 students from Bosnia & Herzegovina arrived at Saint John’s and Saint Ben’s from 1999-2010, and 42 of them graduated. They left as rewarded and rewarding, inspired and inspiring, ready to reach out to their roots and make positive contributions throughout the world.
Years later, after a Saint John’s and Saint Benedict experience they’ll never forget, they’re inspired to pay that experience forward.
“Saint John’s has been a transformative factor in my life and career,” Kosic said. “I’ve evolved from an international student who barely spoke any English into an individual who felt very comfortable exploring all the options CSB and SJU had to offer. Dan is a man who changed not only me but also the lives of many people around me more than once.”
“It was life-changing for so many of us,” said Whalen, SJU’s interim president in 2008-09 and a current member of the Saint John’s and Saint Benedict Boards of Trustees. “This is the best investment I ever made. It’s been very, very satisfying.” Kosic and dozens of other students from Bosnia & Herzegovina were beneficiaries of a program that was an amazing success. But they also enriched classmates and instructors at CSB and SJU and launched so many other successes in the ensuing decades. “I feel damn lucky to have fallen into this set of experiences with these folks,” Whalen said. “And I’m so very proud of each of them – the distance that they traveled and their development is astounding.” The last of the Bosnia & Herzegovina program students graduated from CSB and SJU in 2011. Since then, their personal and professional success stories have abounded in a variety of fields, around the world.
Dusan Kosic ’07
Global Entrepreneur
Dusan Kosic ’07 Leads International Digital Product Development and Software Engineering Company H
One of the most remarkable alumni success stories is that of Dusan Kosic, an international business phenomenon. A year after graduating from Saint John’s, Kosic co-founded the HTEC Group – a software engineering and digital product development company founded in Belgrade, Serbia and now headquartered in San Francisco, California.
HTEC creates deeply immersive digital experiences that enable powerful interactions between businesses and people, delivering tech excellence every step of the way and providing core technology development for a number of Fortune 50 companies. HTEC employs over 2,000 people and is one of the fastest-growing softward engineering companies in Europe. In January 2022, HTEC secured $140 million from the investment firm Brighton Park Capital in an equity deal to accelerate its global expansion. HTEC is set to champion the market in providing the best digital product solutions for its partners, with plans to double its operations in the next 12 months.
“Exceptionally hard work during the last decade and razor-sharp focus during the last three years have proven that we are one step closer toward our vision of evolving HTEC Group into a truly leading platform for development of our people,” said Kosic, the company’s co-founder and president. HTEC is one of the fastest-growing digital services companies in Europe, posting 100 percent annual growth. “What they’re doing is absolutely amazing. It’s pretty spectacular,” said Whalen, also an investor and advisor
with Kosic and HTEC. “Dusan is an extraordinary leader. He’s practical, sensible, strategic, wise beyond his years.” He’s also appreciative. “These things just don’t happen: Getting a scholarship sponsor, business investor, lifelong mentor and mostly importantly a friend (Whalen) who is there to provide support whenever needed without expecting anything in return,” said Kosic, who recently moved from Belgrade to San Francisco with his wife Maja and their children Mila (8), Stefan (5) and Marko (2). Other graduates from the program include teachers, web designers, consultants, engineers, journalists, bankers – really, almost everything imaginable from a group that could only dream of such opportunities when they arrived in Minnesota and at CSB and SJU. “It was about changing their lives. And they did that for me,” said Chris Fesler, the program administrator of the Whalen Family Trust for more than 30 years. She oversaw the participants and countless details for the program and is referred to as the “unsung hero in all of this” by Whalen.
Among the connections that Dusan Kosic (left) built during his years at Saint John’s University was with friend and spiritual advisor Fr. Don Talafous ’48, who helped dozens of students in the Bosnia & Herzegovina program.
Escaping the Chaos
Bosnia & Herzegovina included three major ethnic groups, each almost exclusively associated with a relevant religion: Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Roman Catholics. While after World War II the Tito regime actively discouraged religion and promoted unification under Yugoslav ethnicity, strong religious and ethnic foundations still remain. In April 1992, the government of the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia & Herzegovina declared its independence from crumbling Yugoslavia. Over the next several years, religious and ethnic war between three major ethnic groups broke out, devastating the country and leaving it with as many as 100,000 casualties and many more refugees. “Their parents’ generation had grown up in Yugoslavia, under Tito’s
rule,” said Sarah Pruett, a CSB/SJU English language instructor who was instrumental in facilitating the Bosnia & Herzegovina program. “The lid was on all those sectarian divisions. And then all these simmering, right-wing, very sectarian people burst onto the scene in the early ’90s and war broke out.”
After the war, the Whalen Family Foundation got involved in charitable programs in Eastern Europe through an international non-governmental organization in 1999. That involvement included Nešto Više, a Bosnian youth organization that means “Something More,” and then Peace Trails, a leadership adventure program in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Subsequently, that turned into the CSB and SJU scholarship program for top students living in difficult situations in Bosnia & Herzegovina. “To get them out of that was really a great feeling,” said Fesler, who became the program coordinator. ‘We tend to choose depth over breadth,” Whalen said. “Rather than partial financial support for each of many students, we arrange for 100 percent scholarship support for fewer students. “Each student gets to study abroad for a semester. Each gets two free trips home per year. Each student gets a small monthly stipend to supplement workstudy earnings. Each student graduates debt-free.”
Candidates for the CSB and SJU scholarships all grew up in Bosnia &
Herzegovina, but beyond that there was diversity. There was a 50/50 split between men and women, and at least 30 percent were from each of the three major religious groups. Some came from metropolitan areas, others from smaller towns.
“That was really the point – to get people from different backgrounds together, and for them to discover their similarities and to live with people that were once thought to be enemies,” said Whalen, putting himself in the shoes of the incoming students. “What I discovered was we were so much the same: ‘I didn’t start the conflict, and he didn’t start the conflict. Political people started the conflict, and we all suffered from it.’ One of the young men said, ‘Last night, I did something I thought I’d never do – I slept in the same room with my enemy.’ ” At Saint John’s and Saint Benedict, they no longer were enemies. Students in the program thrived, regardless of their background. “We were kind of winging it,” Fesler said. “We didn’t know how it was going to work, and it was so successful. I don’t think Dan ever paused. He was all-in because it was so highly successful. “He never questioned it. It was always worth it.”
Spreading the Impact
In 2003-04 there were 13 CSB and SJU students from Bosnia & Herzegovina, which was the biggest contingent so far. One of them was Kosic, who grew up in Mrkonjic Grad, Bosnia. “When I first met Dusan, he didn’t speak a lick of English. All he did was smile and nod,” Fesler recalled. “And now, where he’s at and what he’s accomplished, it is nothing short of amazing.” The commonality for all the students became Saint John’s and Saint Ben’s –and their exceptional results. “Just about every year, at least one of the students graduated with the secondhighest academic honors. Nobody graduated with the highest honors only because they didn’t speak English very well when they first came,” Whalen said.
“They just worked really, really hard. They took full advantage and continue
Kosic has been instrumental in transforming the HTEC Group – founded in Belgrade, Serbia and now headquartered in San Francisco – into one of the fastest-growing digital service companies in Europe.
to take full advantage of what Saint John’s and Saint Ben’s did for them.” And in turn, they were grateful – then and now.
“They still are,” Whalen said. “Dusan has served on the board of Saint John’s and Saint Benedict. They’ve both been generous in their capacity as donors, and they’ve been great representatives of themselves and their countries.”
Said Kosic: “As a boy growing up in a small city who was very close to his family and had quite deep scars from a recent war tragedy, I could have easily fallen into the trap of anxiety and fear of the unknown if it weren’t for Dan’s ability to demonstrate his full presence in this process and provide me and others with the feeling of security and peace that things will be OK. “As a result, ever since I graduated in 2007, I have proudly been wearing a Johnnie hat and will be for the rest of my life.” The impact of the students from Bosnia & Herzegovina on CSB and SJU faculty, advisors, staff and other students was just as immediate and refreshing. “One of the amazing and wonderful things about the Bosnian students is they were really ready to move on with their lives,” Pruett said. “They had a lot of ideas, and they were very interactive and very verbal in the classroom – just a jolt of energy. “It maybe doesn’t sound right when teaching a bunch of war refugees, but they were so much fun to interact with,” Pruett said. “They were so involved. It was a great decade.” The feeling was mutual. “Our English professor, Sarah Pruett, was so much more than a lecturer,” Kosic said. “To all international students, she was almost like a parent – advising us, helping us with our papers and our English, and introducing us to relevant professors and staff, all while being a fantastic teacher and making sure that we rapidly sharpen our language skills to excel in our fields of interest.
“The same goes for Addy Spitzer and Lisa Scott, leading international student programs and the international student advisory office, respectively. Having them on campus often made us feel accepted and equal to our American college friends. “The level of compassion, understanding and willingness to go the extra mile to ensure we are set for success was exceptional.”
Kosic celebrated last New Year in Belgrade with his wife Maja and their children (from left) Stefan (5), Mila (8) and Marko (2).
A Life Lottery
Even now, 15 years after graduation, Kosic has undiminished praise and appreciation for his Collegeville experience. “I cannot help but admire the level of compassion and understanding from the entire CSB and SJU community toward the international students,” Kosic said. “They all went the extra mile to comfort and support me and all others in the absence of our dear ones, and I just feel that this is the main thing I will treasure for the rest of my life in regard to our alma mater. “It’s just a kind of life lottery that we all need to work on and be responsible for replicating and expanding toward many in need of such support.” The next step in that rich heritage is powerful but simple: Pay it forward. “Our criteria moved from who will benefit the most to going to Collegeville and Saint Joseph, to who will give the most back while they were there,” Whalen said. “They got a lot, and they gave back a lot, and they continue to give back.” Said Kosic: “People like them are the main reason why I would gladly support my kids to become Johnnies and Bennies when the time comes.
“What struck me the most was that when I asked Dan how I was going to repay the scholarship, he just said, ‘Well, you could promise me that you will do what is in your power to support someone else in your life when the time comes …
“ ‘And if that happens to be related to SJU, even better.’ ”
Global Diplomat
Damir Tokic ’06 Carries His Saint John’s Experience and Inspiration While Saving Lives Through Service Around the World
By Frank Rajkowski H
Damir Tokic has witnessed far too much of war, which is a big part of why the 2006 Saint John’s University graduate is such a passionate believer in the power of diplomacy. He credits his time at SJU with helping him realize how best to fulfill the call he heard to public service. “I can remember lying in a bunk bed very close to the ceiling in Tommy 101 and thanking God he had brought me to where I was,” said Tokic, who is now a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department but grew up amid the chaos and destruction that
accompanied the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the Bosnian War that followed from 1992-95.
“Everyone at Saint John’s was so nice and so interested in your story. I met so many people there who pushed me further and urged me to pursue all the avenues I was interested in.”
Tokic said the lessons he learned at SJU have stuck with him in the years since, even as he’s found himself in some of the most harrowing locations on the globe – including Kabul, Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 helping evacuate more than 122,000 Americans and Afghan nationals as quickly as possible as the U.S. ended its two-decade military presence in the country and the Taliban regained power. For their efforts under dangerous conditions at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, he and several of his colleagues received the State Department’s Award for Heroism. Tokic and others also received the State Department’s Meritorious Honor
Award for their work at the Consular Section of the Embassy itself in the weeks preceding the evacuation. “One of the most important things that comes to mind from SJU that I attempted to apply at the airport gates in Kabul was a phrase from the Rule of Saint Benedict: ‘Let everyone that comes be received as Christ,’ ” Tokic said. “I am not Catholic, or very religious for that matter, but that phrase stuck with me, and I did my best to apply it in those chaotic days.”
Memories of War
Tokic was able to bring an empathy to his task in Kabul, driven in part by the memories of his own experience as a child living through the factionalism and armed conflict that surrounded the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. “My dad was a Bosnian Muslim who went to Belgrade to attend military academy,” Tokic said. “That is where he met my mom, who grew up in Serbia but was of mixed Croatian, Serbian and Jewish heritage. My dad’s first post was in Croatia, which is where I was born and where I lived until I was 10.
“When the war started, we went to stay with relatives in Serbia while my father joined the Bosnian army. He was trapped on the other side and we didn’t see him until the war was over.
“I became a refugee when I was 10,” he continued. “We went from living in Croatia – taking ski trips in the winter and spending summers on the Croatian coast – to living in Belgrade in my grandparents’ two-bedroom apartment with four other people already living there.
“My mom was a fighter, and she did a great job shielding us from everything and preserving family unity with us living in Serbia and our dad fighting for Bosnia. But it was a tough time.”
Damir Tokic received the State Department Award for Heroism and other honors for his efforts under dangerous conditions while evacuating 122,000 Americans and Afghan nationals through Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan during the summer of 2021.
A Time to Heal
Yet even in the worst of mankind’s brutality, Tokic saw glimpses of humanity’s better angels. “We absolutely depended on humanitarian aid to get us through,” he recalled. “The United Nations embargo on Serbia meant fuel shortages and bread lines. We’d spend hours a day trying to get bread with our ration cards. The aid we received made a huge difference, and I wanted to pay that forward – to be in places where I could help other people experiencing rough patches in their lives.” That desire led the teenager to connect with Peace Trails, a reconciliation program sponsored by the nongovernmental organization Nešto Više which translated into English means “Something More.” The program brought together young people from different factions of former Yugoslavia in an effort to promote healing. “This was still pretty soon after the war,” Tokic said. “We were split into groups of people of different ethnicities and sent out into the wilderness to fend for ourselves. We’d all known someone who’d been killed or wounded, and the wounds of war were fresh in all our minds. But here we were in the wilderness of Minnesota and Canada, and we had to depend on one another.” Tokic made an immediate impact. “I was very impressed with Damir right away,” said Dan Whalen ’70, whose financial support was instrumental in Peace Trails and CSB and SJU’s Bosnia & Herzegovina scholarship program. “He was extraordinarily bright, and he was very passionate about the things he did. Anything he did, he seemed to do it with great skill and competence. He was very much a leader – empathetic and compassionate.”
Finding His Foundation
Those traits were enhanced during Tokic’s time at SJU. “Without my time at Saint John’s, my critical thinking skills wouldn’t be nearly as strong,” he said. “I could do my own research. In Bosnia, classes were mainly lectures and there was rarely any discussion. You had to memorize books, and if you didn’t do that correctly, you were penalized. So coming here and realizing I could actually disagree with a faculty member about something and debate it was really new to me and refreshing.” Honing such skills increased his desire to pursue a career in public service, which is why following his graduation from SJU he continued his education at the Harvard Kennedy School, the public policy school of Harvard University. There, he earned his master’s degree before returning to the Balkans in 2008 to spend several years working for a number of international organizations – including the United Nations – focusing on human rights. He eventually returned to the U.S. to marry his wife Ashely, whom he met in graduate school. He then went to work on democracy building in Asia for the International Republican Institute and as a contractor analyzing security issues in the Balkans for the Department of Defense. After becoming a U.S. citizen, he decided to take the Foreign Service Officer Test and passed.
“My first diplomatic assignment was in the Philippines where I worked for two years as consular officer adjudicating U.S. visa applications and assisting American citizens in need,” he said.
Called to Kabul
Other assignments followed over the years, but none as harrowing as the time he spent in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. He arrived in Kabul in July for what was originally scheduled to be a year-long tour adjudicating Special Immigrant Visas for local nationals who had supported U.S. government efforts in Afghanistan over the past two decades.
The assignment quickly was truncated by events on the ground as the decision to end the U.S. military presence –which dated back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks –was followed quickly by the Taliban consolidating control. “When I arrived in Kabul, the greatest focus was given to processing Special Immigrant Visas for the Afghans who have assisted our efforts there,” he said. “As we saw the situation deteriorating, the vast majority of the mission worked seven days a week, each of us working 80 hours a week, to enable qualified Afghans to emigrate to the United States.
“As we evacuated to (Hamid Karzai International Airport) my role shifted. Alongside other consular colleagues and the core embassy team, we worked hand-in-hand with our military colleagues to evacuate American citizens, eligible Afghan nationals and other foreigners. “In any situation of upheaval or emergency anywhere, consular officers are usually the last ones to leave, as priority No. 1 for the U.S. Department of State is to protect and assist U.S. citizens overseas.”
Over 122,000 people would be evacuated under extremely dangerous
Tokic poses in front of the Pakistan Monument in Islamabad, Pakistan, where he is currently stationed. Tokic says his time at SJU helped him hone the skills he now puts to use in his work with the U.S. State Department.
conditions. Never was that danger more apparent than in the early evening of Aug. 26, 2021 when a bombing at the airport gate killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans. The extremist group Islamic StateKhorasan claimed responsibilty for the attack. An account in the Washington Post stated it was carried out by a lone operative wearing a suicide vest containing an estimated 20-25 pounds of explosives. “U.S. officials said the bomber slipped into the crowd near where the Americans were conducting hand searches,” the newspaper reported. Tokic said when he was inside the U.S. Embassy bubble, he felt safe. “We were all, however, greatly concerned about the well-being of our amazing local colleagues who would go home at the end of the workday.” When he was shifted to the airport, the situation became far more tenuous.
“When we were at the gates of the airport processing people, we were exposed and vulnerable,” he said. “At some points, you would find yourself standing a few feet away from the armed Taliban. However, there was work to be done. The human tragedy unfolding in front of your eyes, and the intensity of the situation, makes you focus on your work and pushes all fear aside.
“Being surrounded by our amazing military counterparts and Diplomatic Security personnel also helped us manage the situation. In retrospect, I guess I felt safer than I should have. A few days before the explosion that killed 13 service members, I was in front of Abbey gate with the Marines. “I will always owe a huge debt for their sacrifices,” Tokic said. “They died so that I could come home to my family. They will be honored and remembered as long as I am alive.” Perhaps the most trying moment for Tokic personally came on his daughter Naomi’s third birthday. While his family celebrated back home in the U.S., he was at the airport gates helping identify and process individuals who qualified for evacuation. “That morning, I got up before the crack of dawn,” he said. “As I was strapping on my body armor and my helmet before heading to the north gate, I prayed to not die on that very day. “I did not want to ruin her birthday forever. I tried filming myself singing happy birthday to her but could not really keep it together, so I gave up.”
Tokic’s wife Ashely – also an American diplomat – and their daughter Naomi (4) are stationed in Wellington, New Zealand, where Tokic will join them later this year.
Ties to SJU Remain Strong
Tokic eventually made it home safely and is already well into his next assignment – a year-long posting to Islamabad, Pakistan. Ashely, who is also an American diplomat, and his daughter are now in Wellington, New Zealand on her next assignment. Tokic is scheduled to join them there later this year. But when he is back in the U.S., he tries to make time to return to Saint John’s. “I’ve been invited to speak to students at alumni gatherings in Washington, D.C. and that’s great, but I always love being back on campus,” he said. “Saint John’s always feels like home even if you haven’t been there in years. I remember walking into the book store on one trip back and the lady told me I looked familiar. It turned out she was working there when I was a student and she remembered me.
“It’s just such a tight-knit community and I’m grateful to be part of it.”
