By Ilene Tsui '10
Contributing Writer
Sanja Jagesic '08 was awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans based on her merit. A senior at Wellesley, Jagesic is a sociology and German double major who recently received news of this $72,000 scholarship towards "achieving leadership in her chosen field."
Only 30 applicants are accepted each year for this fellowship, one of the most prestigious. The competition is fierce not just by numbers alone; many applicants are graduate students pursuing Ph.D.s, law degrees, or medical degrees already.
Applying for one graduate fellowship that she didn’t think she could get was her big personal goal for the year. Jagesic, who applied as a "self-confidence booster," never expected to be in the running for this award. She looked at many of the past recipients’ profiles and was intimidated."They were all from Harvard and I was thinking, oh my god, I don’t fit in at all!"
The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship program was established to recognize New Americans and their contributions to American Life.
Born in Bosnia, Jagesic fled when she was younger and grew up in Germany. Jagesic's family then immigrated to Massachusetts and has resided here for the past eight years, since the beginning of her high school career.
Jagesic intended to maintain her German language skills, but majoring in sociology turned out to be more of an accident. As a first-year student, she wanted to be an astrophysics major but soon made the switch to Pendleton because she loved the classes and the professors.
Jagesic also believes that her Wellesley education has prepared her well for academic challenges that she may face in graduate school next year. She cites the "focus on work" here at Wellesley to be a definite asset. Most current students say that everyone really focuses on work in grad school; for her, the experience of academic rigor in an environment like Wellesley has already put her one step ahead. With confidence and poise she states, "I'm not so worried about grad school at this point because you know, been there done that sort of thing [here at Wellesley]."
An added bonus of her Wellesley degree is the connections. One of the women on the board of interviewers was an alumna. She asked Jagesic only one question and that was, "do you have a boyfriend?" Although puzzled by the question at first, it certainly brought comic relief into the rooom.
Plans for post-graduation this spring are still being decided. Jagesic is currently choosing between several top schools with the University of Chicago's sociology program as her top choice. She plans to study educational inequalities in the American public school system.
When asked about some of her role models in life, she discussed the value of making mistakes: "I really like to read about people who messed up their younger years and didn't do so well. It just makes me feel like you don’t have to get it right. The ones that are truly greater are never right the first time."
On that note, her advice for future students who are considering applying to this fellowship is to simply try and don’t be afraid of failure. Although intimidated by the applicant pool, she handed in the application anyway as a sort of self-proclamation that she could really do it. Although her cursory one-hour job essays made a lasting impact, Jagesic also recommends that students get started early on the application and plan over the summer for the various awards that they are considering. Finding the right scholarships was a long process and many of the deadlines were before graduate school deadlines. Jagesic’s story as a prestigious scholarship recipient is just one of many that Wellesley has experienced in the last several years. Other alumnae include Marina Turlakova '06, winner of the Gates Millennium Scholarship for outstanding minority students and Ku’uipo Curry '04, recipient of the Luce Scholarship, which provides stipends and internships for young Americans to live and work in Asia each year.