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Out of 127 students who applied for the Croatian Scholarship Fund scholarship for the upcoming academic year, 15 were awarded this eminent recognition recently in the San Francisco Bay area. The Croatian Scholarship Fund was established in Northern California over 26 years ago with the goal of providing four-year scholarships to Croatian university students, living in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who might not otherwise be able to afford higher education.

Based on their academic excellence, Antonia and Ivona Baresic, Dajana Sucic, Josip and Sivija Tica, Bruno Bakula and Mate Maras from Bosnia and Herzegovina, accompanied by their Croatian colleagues Dora Suto, Filip Derke, Julio Car, Lavoslav Kucko, Tajana Obad, Ema Ormanec, Mislav Karaula and Cynthia Dukic were each granted scholarships for the 2011-12 academic year.

During a fund raising event for the Croatian Scholarship Fund which took place in Sacramento this past March, Marijana Pavić, president of the Sacramento Croatian American Cultural Center explained a similarity that all of the scholarship winners have in common …“A typical scholarship recipient lives in a small town or village. These are bright Croatian students with exemplary grades and most of them participate in school, church, and community activities. Many were greatly affected by the homeland war and their families live on a very small income.’’

The Croatian Scholarship Fund was established in 1991 as a result of the war and devastation in Croatia, when CSF and its Board of Directors became deeply concerned about the severe impact this war would have on future generations as the country began to rebuild. Humanitarian assistance of provided by foreign governments helped Croatia considerably. However, the need to look ahead remained during the post-war period, and so this newly established non-profit organization focused on the sole purpose of providing financial scholarship aid for Croatian students.

The Fund’s first Executive Board determined that CSF’s mission would be to raise funds, through private donations and other activities and events, to help educate Croatia’s future leaders in medicine, agriculture, transportation, technology, economics, law, engineering, political science, education, and other academic fields.

There is no doubt that the fifteen new recipients will follow along the path of their predecessors, and that the CSF will continue to support the growth and development of Croatia’s most important resource - its young minds.

CCN