Now Accepting Applications for 2018!

The inaugural group underneath the Stari Most bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina during our trip in 2017.

High school students and parents - are you interested in international travel? Would you like to complete your DRSS internship experience in a beautiful country in Southeast Europe that has amazing food and culture? Are you interested in international business, politics, and/or learning high-tech, 21st-century skills?

If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, come to the Info Session for students & parents on Thursday, September 7th at 6:30PM (right after the Junior Information Night) in Mr. Grieve’s room to learn more about our international internship partnership with INTERA Technology Park in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH). (Keep scrolling too to see just a few of the pictures from last summer's exchange and find out more about this experience!)

Unique opportunities (like learning to fly a drone) await!

Learn how to use CNC machines and do programming in Arduino, SolidWorks, and more!

Participate in a shortened embedded internship in a company in Mostar! (Read about Victoria's experience at Reunion Magazine here)

Experience the beautiful scenery of Bosnia and Herzegovina!

And the best part... the food!

You can also grab an application from Mr. Grieve at any time. First-round applications are due Friday, September 29 by 3:30PM!

This will be DRSS's second year of taking students to BiH to participate in this experience after what proved to be an amazing inaugural exchange this past summer.

Learn more about the entire experience and see lots of pictures on this blog, and we look forward to seeing you on September 7!

Please Mr. Grieve at arch.grieve@wright.edu for more information.

All Good Things Must Come to an End... For Now!

Our last night together in Mostar at Mateo's house for a pool party.

Saying goodbye is always hard to do. Knowing you have some amazing new friends halfway around the world makes it a little easier though!

Before the party I had a chance to finally meet Nikola's parents and uncle at the cafe they own/operate. It was great meeting them and hope to hang out with them more the next time I'm back!

Our last night in Mostar was spent at Mateo's house, where we had a pool party with the friends we've made through this exchange from INTERA Technology Park, the University of Mostar, and the University of Džemal Bijedić.

The students got Ana a painting from local artist Alića to say thank you for everything she did to put this trip together.

Ana got me a picture of the bridge after the end of the exchange in Dayton, so I got her a picture of Dayton to remember us by!

Pool party fun...

We had ćevapi and other cookout food from the fire... all of it was great. Thanks to Mateo and his family for hosting!

The next day was our last one. We spent the morning getting packed, then went out for a few more excursions before heading to Dubrovnik. The night before at the party Ana asked if there was anything left we wanted to see, and Bri mentioned that she'd like to see the city from the perspective of the giant cross on the hill overlooking the city, so we started there.

It's a lot bigger in person when you get to the top. The Stations of the Cross line the road leading up to the top.

The view from the top...

...with us in it.

One more selfie at the top!

I wanted to take the kids next to Blagaj, a small village where you can find a huge spring that is the beginning of the Buna River, which feeds into the Neretva. There's a house there that sits right next to the cave where the spring comes out from under a mountain, and it's one of the most peaceful spots I've ever visited. We went into the tekke, or Dervish monastery house, and walked around a bit.

The Dervish tekke used to be the seat of power for the region when the Ottomans were in power here. It's still active, and the first night we were here we arrived too late, but were there in time to hear the call to break the fast for Ramadan that day. It's still a practicing monastery.

We had to cover up and take off our shoes before heading into the house.

It's easy to see why people would choose this spot for introspection and prayer.

Our last stop for the day was at the school where everyone in the group attended high school. We didn't actually visit the high schools (Croat, Bosniak, and United World College) schools housed here, but instead stopped at the American Corner, an extension of the State Department that is open to everyone in the community.

The Mostar Gymnasium is the building that houses the three schools I mentioned above. There's an interesting article from Balkan Insights about education in Mostar if you're interested in learning more about what makes this school unique within Mostar (and BiH).

Heading into the American Corner... it's pretty evident that they have a lot of great student work!

Some cool quotes and projects, including a photoshop project where students put themselves in spots all over the US. Still waiting for some of them to visit Dayton some day for a real photo!

The students checking out the STEAM tools and books at the American Corner.

The director, Inga Kotlo, gave us an overview of the programming at the center, which is open for students and people of all ages. They have a book club and are going to have a discussion about Americanah soon, which my book club here in Dayton just recently read.  There are a lot of opportunities to collaborate too, so I'll have to talk to Jenn and Pablo about some of them over the summer!

Unfortunately after the visit to the American Corner it was time to leave to get the van loaded and head to Dubrovnik. Saying goodbye was really hard and there were lots of tears, but I'm sure we'll all see each other again!

It was hard holding back the tears!

After saying our goodbyes, we got to stay with Ana and Mateo a little longer as they took us to Dubrovnik, where we were staying for one more night before beginning our journey home. We spent one last night on the town for food and shopping after making sure our luggage wasn't too heavy (we got just a few souvenirs while we were there!) The next morning we had a pretty uneventful and smooth journey home, where all of our families greeted us at the airport around midnight.

Stopping for pizza in Dubrovnik.

We all sat in one row on the way to Finland, unbelievable!

We had a little more adventure in Finland during our three-hour layover, which included some reindeer pizza and pasta and some raw haddock. All of it was really good! Definitely a change from the food in BiH though...

Today when I got back Amanda and I took a ride over to the Holbrook Plaza. I'd definitely recommend checking it out, although I have to admit it has a new significance for me knowing all of the friends we have now in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hopefully you'll visit as well and see what makes it such a special place!

Go take some time and check out the history at the Holbrook Plaza, where you can see a piece of the original Stari Most bridge!

Making this entire experience possible wasn't easy, but there were so many great partners, supporters, and sponsors who helped in both countries that worked together to make it possible. I'll do my best to thank them (and I hope I don't leave anyone out)!

On the Dayton side, we had help in a variety of ways from the following organizations:

Ascend 
Carillon Historical Park
City of Dayton
Cubester
Corner Kitchen Takeaway
Dayton Downtown Partnership
Dayton Council on World Affairs
Fronana
Liftoff Entertainment
Material Resources LLC
Mile 2
Nucleus Coshare
Obi
Pedal Wagon
Proto Build Bar
Raj Soin College of Business at Wright State University
Real Art
POCCO
Second Street Market 
Southpark Pizza Tavern
South Slavic Club of Dayton
The Deli
The Entrepreneurs Center
The Rotary Club of Kettering
The Dayton Art Institute
The Dayton Society of Natural History
The Wright Cup
Wright Brothers Institute

On the Mostar side, the following organizations helped out:

AirRec
Alfa Therm
Bljesak
Center for Technical Education
Ćićak
City of Mostar
Faculty of Economics, University of Džemal Bijedić
Facutly of Economics, University of Mostar
FAEL
Four Game Studio
EZ Training
Guma M
INTERA Technology Park
Minores
Paintball Mostar
Reunion Magazine
Telemach

In addition to the organizations listed above, there were also many families and individuals who helped out in many ways, including by taking us on tours, purchasing food, taking our students to various locations (in both countries), supporting us financially, and even housing our students in Dayton and in Mostar, including the following people:

Ana Bogdanović and family
Arch and Tammie Grieve
Carolyn and Mike Rice
Ernest and Omalee Agnor
Gorana Coric
Liam and Jackie Anderson
Lori and Bob Parks 
Mateo Ćubela
Matt and Irena Joseph
Mayor Nan Whaley
Merle Wilberding
Mladen Kostic
Monica Schultz
Rich Hopkins
Rod and Martha Darrah
Sara and Michael Collins
The Campos Family
The Kelly Family
The Saliwanchik Family
Vedran and Jelena Šimunović 
Vesna Lovrić

To everyone who was involved on an individual and/or personal basis, we would like to say a huge THANK YOU for making this experience possible!

*Update at 6:46PM, check out this story from the Dayton Daily News about our internship exchange!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this trip possible, both in Dayton and in Mostar!

If you are interested in helping to support this experience next year, please contact me at arch.grieve@wright.edu to learn more about how to get involved, including through making a tax-deductible donation, hosting students, or by providing in-kind support!

Embedded Internship Experiences in Mostar

Bethany and Gloria hard at work learning to use CAD.

Beginning on Monday, students began the embedded part of their internship as they were paired with local companies at INTERA and in Mostar that align with their career interests. Ana went to great length to find out what they wanted to do after they graduate from DRSS and find local companies that aligned with those career interests.

Bethany and Gloria are at Alfa Therm, which is headquartered at INTERA. There, they're working with Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings to learn how to read building plans and turn them into 3D drawings. Given their shared interest in engineering, it's a perfect fit!

Their task consists of taking drawings and turning them into 3D visual representations.

Victoria is interning at Reunion magazine, a local print and digital magazine company that does news stories. She wrote an awesome guest article for their online magazine on her first day, which was published on Tuesday. Check out Changing my Perspective here!

Victoria and her mentor at Reunion.

Austin is at Four Game Studio, where he's working on designing a video game! He couldn't be happier, and video game design is what he hopes to go into one day, so it's a great experience.

Austin hard at work on his video game at Four Game Studio, one of the companies located at INTERA.

His game has something to do with cats and dogs that have human heads... beyond that I'm kind of in the dark.

And finally, Bri is at Bljesak, a local news company with a lot of digital presence and online stories. During her visit, she's had the opportunity to write two stories already and sit in on a press conference that included representatives of the government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities that make up the country (the second being Republika Srpska).

Bri has her own press credentials!

One of her articles (which have been translated into Croatian) is about her rafting trip, while a second is about her time in Mostar and how her perspective has changed since being here. It's worth including the translation below:

Mostar - a city known most for a war that ended nearly twenty years ago. Before leaving for Bosnia and Herzegovina, I knew very little that had been taught in world history. We had a lesson over wars and genocides, but I specifially had the Cambodian genocide. Sadly, knowing that a war happened in Mostar was the only thing I really knew. When people think of Mostar, they usually think of this devastating time. Howevevr, when I think of Mostar, I think of kind people, amazing scenery, and outstanding food. 

Since arriving in Mostar, I have made new friends all around the city, from my homestay family to others I met in a small cafe near Old Town. Everyone is welcoming, even to someone from a small city in Ohio who can only say "hvala" [thank you]. Even when we can't always understand each other, the smiles never stop.

 A lot of learning has also taken place since being here. From learning how to use an Arduino board and fly a drone to learning simple words in Croatian. Thanks to INTERA Technology Park and the friends I have met here, all of this learning will follow me back to Ohio.

Waking up to the mountains every morning has also been a new experience for me. The highest elevation we have in Ohio is a hill about one meter high, so getting to see beautiful mountains whenever I look outside has been one of the best things. Of course, Stari Most and Sarajevo were also gorgeous. And every place we go, getting to hear the backstories and the history of some of the historical spots gives more depth and meaning to even the smallest of statues. In America, finding a nice place to eat can be very hard. In Mostar, nearly every place to eat has had the best food. I've also tried new foods that I thought I would never try, such as eel, squid, and river lobster. However after all this amazing food, the best meal I've had since being in Mostar was food that my homestay family made. Even though I'm not exactly sure what it was, it was the best food I've ever tasted. 

Now when I think of Mostar, I don't think of war - I think of a beautiful city with beautiful people, and I hope to return in the near future.

Also on Monday, June 12, it was Austin's birthday! We celebrated with cake during our visit to Kravice, the beautiful waterfalls near Mostar. It was cold, but some of the kids went swimming anyways! Afterwards they took us to a very nice restaurant called Prirodni vodeni park "Koćuša", where everything was delicious and the neaby waterfalls provided excellent scenery.

Happy birthday, Austin!

At Kravice waterfalls! Thanks again to Telemach for sponsoring our trip, and for the shirts!

The water was chilly, but that didn't stop Gloria, Bri, and Bethany from jumping in!

I forgot to get a group picture here, but I think the food is more impressive anyways. It was really, really good.

The next day internships continued, and I should mention that I got to take the students around in an electric car that we were given to use by Guma M, a local car dealership that sells Renault and Nissan. They allowed us to use this new Renault Z.E., an all-electric car with zero emissions, during our final days here in the city. It's been a lot of fun to drive. I can't even tell when it's on, it's so quiet!

Riding to work in style!

Thanks to Guma M for letting us use the Renault Z.E. during our visit!

During the second internship day, Ana and I were interviewed by local TV for a story about our internship, along with Bethany and Gloria. Looking forward to sharing the story when it's posted!

Ana talking to Naša TV about the internship experience.

I hate being interviewed... I never say the right things. Hopefully all of my mistakes are lost in translation!

Bethany and Gloria talk about what they're doing and why they love Mostar!

After internships the next day we traveled to Herzeg ethnic park, which has an amazing restaurant attached to it. It's actually the one at which Amanda and I ended our trip last year, as we had to leave before everyone else, so it was great to be able to stay longer and see the park.

The students enjoyed the playground after dinner... you could be forgiven for forgetting I'm chaperoning high schoolers :) Glad they had fun though!

Chickens! And other birds too... but chickens!

Taking a stroll through the ethno village.

Up next we visisted Medjugorje, a Catholic church that is a pilgrimmage site for many (which is high up in the hills). 

There's also this statue of Jesus.

Mass was going on during our visit, and it seemed like a large one as there was a Cardinal visiting.

As I finish this post, the students are going into the last few hours of their internship experiences at local companies. Later today we'll go to a pool party at Mateo's house with our friends from INTERA Technology Park for one last night together before we leave for Dubrovnik tomorrow evening (after some activities during the day). It seems like just yesterday that we began this experience, and while everyone is tired, we're all energized by everything we've done and seen and experienced through this exchange. I'll have at least one more post about the trip, but now it's time to start getting packed and getting ready to go home!