This year, Subotica has a reason to be proud, as 21 high school graduates stood on the podium for the best students of the past year, demonstrating their knowledge, achievements, and desire to stay or return one day, showing that the city has a bright future ahead.
For the third consecutive year, the IT Subotica 2030 organization organized the “Students of the Year” event, where 13 class valedictorians from all high schools and 8 exceptional graduates who, although they did not carry the prestigious title, certainly deserved it through their work, effort, and success.
In their honor, as well as for their parents, teachers, and school principals, a cocktail party was held at the "Digital Hive" business complex, where, as a token of appreciation for everything they achieved during their four years of schooling, they were awarded a voucher worth 30,000 dinars and a symbolic gift package from the organization, which will assist them in their further education and career.
As explained by Filip Budanović, project manager of IT Subotica 2030, this event was launched in 2022 with the goal of bringing the IT sector and schools together for the noble cause of awarding the best students and making them visible in the public eye of Subotica. After two years, a sense of tradition has been established, and there was a great excitement in the schools, both among teachers and students, as the event approached.
“This time we awarded 21 graduates, which is one more than last year. The reason for this is that this year there are more class valedictorians, and we also repeated last year’s successful formula. This involves an additional competition for exceptional graduates, where all high schools participated by proposing four anonymous candidates. After the selection of our committee, consisting of Prof. Dr. Vuk Vuković from the Faculty of Economics, Boris Radnić from OTP Bank, and Boris Aleksov from the IT Cluster, we decided to award 8 more students based on the values promoted by the organization. These include good behavior and success in school, participation in extracurricular activities, initiating projects in the local community, involvement in sports, music, interesting hobbies, and more,” explained Filip Budanović.
The class valedictorian of the Polytechnic School was Andrea Horvat, who studied as an Architectural Technician. During her high school years, Andrea won first place in the subject Technology of Construction Works at national competitions for geodetic and construction schools, second place in the subject Construction Structures, and fourth place in the subject Statics. She participated in the “Project Week” event, where her team won first place for the eco-project "Phoenix Table – A Table Made of Ash." She also completed a business training program for beginners through the Serbian Development Agency and RRA Panonreg, took an Esperanto course, and in her free time, she trains in the gym, where she discovered the world of powerlifting.
“It means a lot to me that my effort and work have been noticed and that I’ve been encouraged to continue developing. This award is especially significant for my college applications, it will help me a lot, but also in my future progress,” Andrea said about the award given to her by IT Subotica 2030.
Since architecture is more than just buildings to her, as she says, it’s a combination of art, technology, beauty, and functionality, it wasn’t difficult for her to choose her future profession. She will continue her studies in architecture at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, where she expects to gain new knowledge and skills from the best professionals in the field. However, she doesn’t exclude the possibility of returning to Subotica.
“I would return to Subotica because I see numerous opportunities and directions in which this city can develop. I see various ways to contribute, there’s so much that can be built here that would be good for the community and would lead to even better development of Subotica,” Andrea concluded.
Dušica Lekić, the valedictorian of the Economic School “Bosa Milićević” in the field of Tourism and Hospitality Technician, also received the title. This recognition was awarded to her for numerous achievements, such as winning third place at the national competition in tourism, specifically in the field of Formation and Placement of Tourist Arrangements, participating in three Erasmus+ projects, including student mobility aimed at gaining professional practice in Greece, representing Subotica as a tourist destination through digital channels, and contributing to the development of socially responsible projects in Subotica. She also contributed to the COOK EU project, where she was involved in preparing programs for guests during their mobility and acted as their host and guide, all while professionally playing football for FK Spartak Subotica.
“I’m really glad that, besides the school I attended, other organizations care about youth and education. It means a lot to me because, from what I’ve seen in other cities, student achievements are not as recognized, but here people are engaged, and we received recognition for everything we’ve done and the effort we’ve put in over the years. It really means a lot to me,” Dušica shared her thoughts on the award.
Dušica will continue her studies abroad, in Ljubljana, where she plans to study management. As she points out, she decided to take this step because of the many benefits and positive impressions she heard about studying in Slovenia, and she will be accompanied by her twin sister, with whom she was separated during high school.
“I’m originally from Senta, and I came to Subotica because of football, which I’ve been professionally playing since I was five years old. I came here after elementary school, and at first, it was hard to balance school and sports, especially when you’re in collective accommodation, it’s not easy. However, I gained many new friendships and acquaintances for life. The fact that I separated from my parents at such an early age means that I can more easily go anywhere because I’ve gotten used to that lifestyle, and I will continue to train football there, which is a big plus. I don’t plan to return to Subotica in the near future, but I have a sincere desire to come back one day, and I think I will have a place to return to,” Dušica said.
Dominik Budinčević, a student from the Technical School “Ivan Sarić” in the field of Electrical Engineering Technician for Information Technologies, is another exceptional graduate awarded by the IT Subotica 2030 organization. During his four years of schooling, he stood out in programming competitions, with his biggest achievements being third place at the national programming competition organized by the Serbian Mathematical Society, and fourth place in the individual category and first place in the team category at the national programming competition organized by the Union of Electrical Engineering Schools of Serbia. He participated twice in the “Project Week” event, presenting two projects in the third year and three projects in the fourth year in the field of Informatics. As part of the Digital Serbia project, he won first place at the Startup Weekend at Inspira Hub, volunteered at their “Machine Learning” conference, and is a regular visitor to lectures on marketing, sales, and personal development organized by them. Dominik has also participated in many professional visits, educational workshops, and skill-building sessions, and alongside his studies and business activities, he trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
“I’m glad that, even though I may not be the perfect student when it comes to grades, my extracurricular activities have been recognized and that the work I put into self-improvement, training, and attending lectures is valued. I always try to promote the idea that grades are not everything. Maybe something else works better for some people, and it’s not the most important thing to fit into school; there are other areas in which you can excel,” said Dominik about receiving his award.
When it comes to his future, Dominik says that his desire to leave a mark in the IT industry and contribute to society outweighs everything else. He will enroll in Computer Science studies at the Higher Technical School of Vocational Studies in Subotica, without the need to take the entrance exam, thanks to his previous achievements in competitions.
“Subotica definitely takes precedence for me over other cities like Belgrade and Novi Sad, because it’s much quieter and I feel more comfortable here. Also, the Higher Technical School and other faculties have good cooperation with the IT Subotica 2030 Organization and IT companies, and I think I’ll be able to find a job later and work in this environment,” emphasized Dominik.
If anyone almost missed the title of class valedictorian, it was Maja Milović, an exceptional graduate of the “Svetozar Marković” Gymnasium, who attended the Natural Sciences program. After winning third place at the national mathematics competition, Maja became even more focused on exploring this field of science, which led her to take an interest in programming. This brought her to a computer science seminar that she attended for four years at the Petnica Research Station. Since she mastered music theory and learned to play the piano in elementary music school, she decided to combine her two passions in 2022, when she worked at Petnica writing a program that generates self-composing piano pieces of infinite length. This project was not only successful but also led her to write a scientific paper that was published as part of the IEEESTEC conference held in Niš that same year, earning her significant awards and a diploma for the best high school paper. This same project participated in the Petnica conference "Step into Science," and under the name "AlgoRythm," it won third place at the NTI2023 competition, a national competition for the best technological innovation. Alongside all this, Maja enjoys writing, as she says, for her soul. She wrote her first novel in the later years of elementary school but is more proud of her second novel, which she plans to publish soon.
“This award means a lot to me because it’s a recognition that all the hard work was worth it, even though I was doing it for myself all along, not with the intention of being named student of the year. I know how important the things I’ve worked on are, but of course, it feels good to receive such recognition,” Maja said.
Although she is very versatile, Maja will continue her studies at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, in the field of Computer Science and Automation, where she expects to gain a solid theoretical and practical foundation in software, electrical engineering, mathematics, and automation, areas she would like to pursue in the future. However, she won’t give up on writing and says she will try to balance and combine these two things throughout her life.
“In Novi Sad, I’ll have the opportunity to gain new knowledge and meet the work of other people and companies, and I think I’ll have many opportunities there. However, Subotica is the city where I was born and have lived my whole life. I really love it; I like that it’s not too big, and I think it’s perfect for family life. Although I don’t know where life will take me, I believe that I can bring all the knowledge I gain back to Subotica and use it to improve the environment here. Whether in an engineering or scientific sense, I don’t know, but I can definitely see myself living here again,” Maja concluded.
Along with Andrea, Dušica, Dominik, and Maja, the IT Subotica 2030 Organization also awarded the “Students of the Year” titles to Anja Zec and Vastag Ágnes, class valedictorians from the Chemical-Technology School, Filip Šimon and Rajics Dominik, class valedictorians from the Technical School “Ivan Sarić,” Petra Plešinac and Francia Henrietta, class valedictorians from the “Svetozar Marković” Gymnasium, Szalai Patrícia and David Lukić, class valedictorians from the “Deže Kostolanji” Gymnasium, Papp Izolda, the best student of Hungarian language from the Economic School “Bosa Milićević,” Jelena Kosović, class valedictorian from the Medical School, and Lucija Vukov, class valedictorian from the Music School, while the exceptional graduates were Nataša Curnović from the Polytechnic School, Milan Bogavac from the Technical School “Ivan Sarić,” Dudás Szára from the Medical School, Helena Marčetić from the “Svetozar Marković” Gymnasium, Deák Viktor from the Economic School “Bosa Milićević,” and Antal Alexandra from the Chemical-Technology School.
