AUK

“On May 26^th, AUK celebrated the graduation of the class of 2010. In this year there were 102 students who received their degree in the B.S. level and 37 students who graduated in the Masters level.
In a world facing an un­certain economic and financial outlook, AUK’s graduates have a remarkable record of finding excellent jobs, a reflection of the value the marketplace places upon an AUK education. Today’s honorees will join them in the challenging work of building a new country and a better world, President of AUK Chris Hall said addressing the class of 2010.”

Søren Jessen-Petersen, this year’s commencement speaker who was the fifth of the six Special Representatives for Kosovo of the United Nations Secretary General (SRSG), made some great remarks about AUK in general and for the class of 2010 in particular. He addressed them by saying that “you are graduating at an exciting time. You are the generation that can and should reap the harvests of the seeds of freedom that generations before you planted, cultivated, kept alive through struggles against all odds and at times almost insurmountable obstacles. Your ancestors did not have the opportunities or choices that you possess. As you look ahead, I think you have a right and almost an obligation to ask yourself: What will be my contribution to history? On this day, I want to make a plea that you see the pursuit of your own goals and interests in the larger context of serving the interests of your country.”

During the graduation ceremony the students were also addressed by the President of Republic of Kosovo, Mr. Fatmir Sejdiu and the Minister of Education, Mr. Enver Hoxhaj who presented the AUK award for Education and Community Service to Ms. Lindita Bicaj, Assistant to the Director of Academic Affairs at AUK.

AUK choir performed a song in Albanian and one in English for the parents, students and other AUK friends who attended the ceremony.

The graduation ceremony was followed by a cocktail reception and a party organized by the AUK student Government.

Click here for the speech.

Soren Jessen Peters, former Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN in Kosovo will be this year’s commencement speaker at the graduation ceremony of the class of 2010.

Mr. Petersen accepted gladly invitation to address the class of 2010 and in the letter he sent us in accepting our invitation he said that “I am delighted to accept the invitation to speak at the commencement. The students graduating from the American University of Kosovo represent the future of their countries and of Europe. As such, their achievements are a confirmation of everything I believe in and worked for during my time in Kosovo. I am honored to have a chance to spend this great day with the graduates, their families and the faculty.”

Soren Jessen-Petersen was the fifth of the six Special Representatives for Kosovo of the United Nations Secretary General (SRSG), during the nine years of UNMIK’s administration of the country. More perhaps than any other SRSG, Soren Jessen-Petersen is widely respected and admired in Kosovo for his two years of service from 2004 to 2006, and is known as a true friend of this country.

Mr. Jessen-Petersen currently divides his time between his native Denmark and Washington, DC. He teaches at Georgetown University and is a Guest Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace. AUK is delighted and honored to welcome him back to Kosovo as our 2010 Commencement Speaker.

Lorik Cana is the best known Albanian professional soccer player in the international arena and he was recently a guest at the AUK’s Friday Forum series.

Lorik accepted our invitation to come and speak to AUK students about his career path and his future plans. He engaged in a very friendly conversation with AUK students and answered many questions that they posed.

“I feel very good among students because I am a student myself. I began to study history at the University in Tirana because history is my passion. When I am done with soccer, I will dedicate my time to studying historical background of Albanians, which has always fascinated me, Cana said during his presentation.

Lorik Cana currently plays for Sunderland of English Premier League as a defensive midfielder and the Albania national football team. He is also the captain at Sunderland and vice-captain for Albania at international level.

Before joining Sunderland, Cana played for Olympic Marseille and Paris St. Germain.

He began his careed with FC Lausanne in Switzerland.

The author of many history books about Balkans, Noel Malcolm offered a lecture at the American University in Kosovo. Dr. Malcolm’s lecture drew a great attention from AUK students but also from intellectual and diplomatic circles of Prishtina.

After the lecture, Dr. Malcolm agreed to answer some questions from the audience and also signed some of his books for a very interested audience at this lecture.

Noel Malcolm is one of the best known historians and writers on Kosovo and the Balkans. His history books on Bosnia and Kosovo have made a difference in the world opinion about the circumstances which led to the wars during the 1990s. Noel Malcolm was educated at Eton College, read History at Peterhouse, Cambridge, wrote his doctorate dissertation at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was for a time Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

He is a former Foreign Editor of The Spectator, and columnist for the Daily Telegraph. In 1995 he became a Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 2002. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy, serves on the advisory board of the conservative magazine Standpoint, as a general editor for the Clarendon edition of the complete works of Thomas Hobbes, and the editor of The Correspondence.

Currently he chairs the Board of Trustees at the Bosnian Institute, an organization on Bosnia-Herzegovina

Among the writings of Noel Malcolm are:

Bosnia: A Short History (1994), Origins of English Nonsense (1997), Kosovo: A Short History (1998), Aspects Of Hobbes (2002) and (with Jacqueline Stedall) John Pell (1611-1685) and His Correspondence with Sir Charles Cavendish: The Mental World of an Early Modern Mathematician (2005). He is the editor of The Correspondence of Thomas Hobbes (1994).

He has also written George Enescu: His Life and Music (1990) (Toccata Press). He also wrote a pamphlet in 1991 titled Sense on Sovereignty, a discussion of the arguments about Britain’s membership of the European Union published by the Centre for Policy Studies.

Peter Feith, head of the International Civilian Office offered a lecture to the AUK students where he discussed current issues in Kosovo. The lecture was titled “Kosovo’s Future Belongs to you” and Mr. Feith elaborated in length how the future generation can contribute in building a prosperous and democratic state.

Mr. Feith also offered some opinions about the current developments in Kosovo as well as some issues that have been in the headlines lately such as the issue of corruption, the Albin Kurti case, etc.

Mr. Feith kindly agreed to answer some question of the students who posed some challenging questions.

Drenusha Xhemaili, a 3rd student at AUK, citing some of the Ahtisari settlement provisions asked Mr. Feith that according to some of these provisions which gave some great executive powers to the ICO, the future of Kosovo belonged more to the head of ICO rather than the citizens of Kosovo. In this question Mr. Feith answered by saying that he had not utilized these powere given to him by the Ahtisari Settlement because as he said “he wanted Kosovars to take more responsibility and ownership of governing the country.”

The event was very well attended not only by AUK students but also representatives from institutions and think tank organizations in Prishtina and was covered by all the major newspapers and 4 national TV stations.

Click here for the speech.

April 2 is the World Autism Awareness Day which is marked all over the world. In such a day organizations from different countries engage themselves in campaigns aiming to raise awareness about Autism.

Autism is a permanent brain disorder which affects social skills, how a person communicates with others, and how a person behaves in social environment. Persons with Autism find it difficult to establish relationships with other people. In general, their social skills are very limited.

In Kosovo there is no statistical data regarding the number of persons with Autism.

Since 2007, in “Ismail Qemajli” school in Prishtina there is a class with children with Autism. Until now there is only one NGO in Kosovo that cares about persons with Autism.

But it’s time to do more!

This April 2 students from AUK Charity Club, together with Parents Association of Lindita Bicaj, have organized a campaign to raise awareness about Autism in Prishtina.

Part of the campaign was the distribution of flyers to citizens. What is Autism?; What are the symptoms of autism?; How can parents know whether their child is with Autism?; are the questions citizens were able to find out in these flyers. Students have also distributed pins with Autism logo in it to citizens in Prishtina. Part of campaign was also the survey done in Mother Teresa Boulevard.

This year, Autism Speaks has organized a campaign with the motto “Light it Up Blue,” where some building and giant companies all over the world are lit up in blue. On the night of April 1, prominent buildings across North America and the world including the Empire State Building in New York City and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada were lit up blue to raise awareness for autism and to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day on Friday, April 2.

American University in Kosovo was also lit up in blue on the night of April 1^st to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day on Friday, April 2. AUK will be lit up in blue for one week.

Autism Speaks is the largest and well-known organization. Autism Speaks was founded in February 2005 by Bob and Suzanne Wright, grandparents of a child with autism. Since then, Autism Speaks has grown into the nation’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.

Autism Speaks has published pictures of the campaigns done in different countries in its official website which are viewed from people all over the world. Some of the pictures of AUK’s campaign and its blue lighting are published as well. This is of great step demonstrating that AUK cares about the community.

Enjoy the pictures at http://www.lightitupblue.org/.

The latest speaker on the series of History Seminars at AUK was Dr. Ivo Banac, a renowned historian of the former Yugoslavia.

The title of his lecture held at the AUK History Seminar was titled “The Evolution of Yugoslav Communist Ideology on Matters of Federal Structure and National Identity” where he elaborated about some of the concepts he has covered in his previous publications and also mirrored them with the current events in the Balkans.

Dr. Banac’s academic work includes writing on nations and nationalism in the former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe, relations between former Yugoslavia and the USSR, national question in the former Yugoslavia, History of Croatia, and History of Bosnia etc. Among numerous authored and co-authored work, some of the most important books of Dr. Ivo Banac include:

1. With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist splits in Yugoslav Communism‎-1988
2. The national question in Yugoslavia’s formative period, 1918-1921‎-1979
3. The national question in Yugoslavia‎-1994
4. Post-Yugoslav realities: state and ethnicity‎-1996
5. The weight of false history‎
6. Multikulturalni identitet Bosne i Hercegovine‎ 8. Raspad Jugoslavije: eseji o nacionalizmu i nacionalnim sukobima‎

He has recently returned to Croatia after serving as Bradford Durfee Professor of History and Director of the Council on European Studies at Yale University. Currently, he teaches at the Department of History of the University of Zagreb.

In order to be considered for admissions at AUK, a student must demonstrate their proficiency in English and math, as well as showing their successful completion of high school at a high standard.

Applicants may choose to come to Prishtina to take AUK’s entrance exam, or to submit internationally-recognized college entrance test scores (iBT, SAT or ACT).

Students from outside Kosovo who have completed high school in the English language do not need to take a further test of English proficiency, but do need to submit their high school transcripts and SAT or ACT results. Foreign students completing high school in a language other than English must also submit a completed TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test score.

There are four steps that every candidate needs to follow during the admissions process.

1. Apply online: http://www.aukonline.org/apply_online.php
2. Either: take a TOEFL and Math exam at AUK, or submit the official results of your TOEFL, SAT or ACT
3. Admission Interview (optional: only if admission office finds it necessary)
4. Submit your high school documents – proof of graduation and either Matura result or transcript (depending on country)

To reserve a place to take our required iBT TOEFL exam and AUK math exam, contact our admissions office by sending an email to info@aukonline.org or felshani@aukonline.org

AUK Admission Criteria 2010-11

• For admission consideration all applicants must take:
  1. TOEFL&AUK Math exam or
  2. SAT or
• ACTiBT TOEFL test dates: AUK Mathematics exam test dates:

IBT exams May 14, 2010 May 22, 2010 June 19, 2010 June 26, 2010 July 10, 2010 July 23, 2010

Math exams February 05, 2010 March 05, 2010 April 02, 2010 April 30, 2010 May 28, 2010 July 02, 2010

7 students from AUK attended this year’s conference Model United Nations which was held in Taiwan. AUK group was assigned to represent Democratic Republic of Congo in the Historical General Assembly, Special Political and Decolonization, Disarmament and International Security Committee, Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committees.

AUK group consisted of Yllka Metaj (Head Delegate) Junior, Lea Shllaku Senior, Anisa Colakovic Sophomore, Rudina Hasimja Senior, Rreze Gjakova Senior, Eroll Ejupi Junior, and Hekuran Gashi Junior. This group successfully participated in resolution making and peace building in all respective committees where delegates from AUK representing DR Congo were present. Upon completion, AUK group was given a group certificate of successful completion, as well as individual certification to each member.

“World MUN 10′ was an unforgettable experience. We had a chance to meet people and share experiences with peers from all around the globe. Therefore, AUK Team at WorldMUN 10′ encourages each student to participate in all similar events, as they not only enrich you academically but they also broaden your knowledge and understanding for different cultures, Lea Shllaku said.”

Model United Nations is a system of Summits that entails and simulates functions, principles, and operations of the United Nations. WorldMUN 2010 is a one-week global youth summit that is held in a new international city each year. WorldMUN is organized by Harvard University Model United Nations Secretariat and a host university team.

Yllka Metaj who was the Head Delegate of the AUK student delegates, said that “this particular experience also included numerous social events that enabled student delegates to socialize and interact in academic and non-academic manners. Needless to say, National Taiwan University and its host team did an outstanding job in preparation and organization of this summit. Their culture and respect left all participants speechless.”

This year’s WorldMUN location was in Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China). Participants of this particular summit were all university-level students from more than 48 countries, numbering to 1800 students from numerous universities. Because MUN conferences simulate the United Nations, student teams were assigned to different committees, councils, and assemblies in accordance with real UN structures and organizations.

Members of the AUK Students Charity Club have been visiting “Down Syndrome Kosova” this month and socializing with children and persons with Down syndrome. During this project, team members have helped children and people with syndrome in DSK to draw pictures and take photos around the city together.

The goal of the project is to make people with Down syndrome feel themselves important. In addition, we aim to demonstrate to the community that AUK Students care about our community and raise awareness about community service.

March 21st is the World Down Syndrome Day, where AUK Charity Club has organized an exhibition and concert for these children. The exhibition will contain pictures and photos that Charity Club members and children with Down syndrome have done together.

Cocktail and concert will make these children enjoy their day and guests enjoy the event.