Ever since I was five years old, my parents always felt that I should be very close to my heritage and roots. Croatian was my first language, but obviously living in America, they knew that I needed something else other than simply speaking another language to help me to better understand my culture. When I entered Kindergarten I was also signed up to attend Croatian School at the Croatian Cultural Center of Chicago, which is located on Devon Avenue, right by the Loyola University lake shore campus.

While all of the other kids in my regular elementary school were sleeping in on Saturday mornings, I was awake by 7 AM and was already dancing to folk music, singing Croatian songs and taking grammar classes to learn the impossibly difficult language. At first I complained and hated it, but now looking back, I have so many memories and friendships that have come from this experience. Now I am a 20-year-old college student and now participate in the Croatian Vines program, which is a travelling culture group for the older kids in the community.

This cultural organization demonstrates my leadership skills because when I was a junior in High School they asked me if I could not only teach dances to the other peers my age, but if I were to actually be a dance teacher to the younger children between ages 5 and 12 during Croatian School on Saturdays. My instructor constantly told me that I did a very good job of giving a concise and straightforward tutorial when I was explaining dance steps or song lyrics to another dance partner. 

The picture attached was taken a couple of years ago when we went to Canada to perform for an international festival. I am so happy that my parents tortured me and forced me to attend Croatian School because it has become such a huge part of who I am as a person. I am extremely passionate about sharing my culture with both Croatian people and non-Croatian people. My country very small and many people are not familiar with it, so it is a pleasure to enlighten people to the beauty of my country through the songs and music that can be seen in my performances.