US Ambassador H.E. Eric Nelson praises the work of the foundation at TEDx

US Ambassador to Bosnia & Herzegovina H.E Eric Nelson

It is no secret that the U.S ambassador to Bosnia & Herzegovina, H.E. Eric Nelson is a huge fan of Bosnia & Herzegovina Futures Foundation. In his TEDx presentation titled “Connecting For Your Future”, he spoke about how much the foundation’s work has inspired him.

Below you will find an excerpt from the ambassador’s presentation as well as the youtube link to the complete presentation. We are deeply honored and thank the ambassador for his ongoing advocacy of the work of Bosnia & Herzegovina Futures Foundation as well as his promotion of all youth in our homeland.

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Community is not just defined by your community, where you grow up. It is not just defined by your ethnicity, your religion or some other characteristic you share. In fact in the community you grew up in your unique ideas and interests may set you apart. Your ideas might make you feel isolated where you are. That isolation might make you think about emigrating to find like minds. But with reaching out trough networks and making connections you would find that the idea that makes you unique in your local environment actually is the idea that will connect you to a larger community, a global community and connecting to the larger community can change your life.

I found someone on the internet on Linkedin actually who I found shared my goals and my interests. His name is Eddie Custovic. Eddie left with his family, he fled the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina when he was just seven years old. They settled in Australia, and Eddie has now completed his studies of course and as a successful entrepreneur and professor of engineering but Eddie never forgot his interest and his connection to BH. And he was asking himself how can I connect, how can I give back to the community to the country I left behind. And he also started to think about, Who else shares my interest, who else shares my goal. And he started to look to networks to find out who else in the diaspora would share his interest. 

His particular interest is supporting students of science technology engineering and mathematics, STEM. He found hundreds of people in the BH diaspora with that skill, ready to give back to the community. To reach students here who might feel isolated in their local community but who need support. The support of mentoring, the support of scholarships, the support of gatherings, even the support of maker spaces.

Eddie used networks, made connections, built a community, and I think he is changing the world. This inspires me, this energizes me. And because these networks are there the people are there, but it is still incumbent on you, especially youth to reach out and make those connections and find your community.