Toughened by journey, ready for another

Sanja Jagesic of Revere, a Wellesley College senior, spent years living on a refugee ship after her family fled Bosnia. (Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

REVERE - Sanja Jagesic's first impression of America was size - not the size of the country, she says, but the size of the food products.

"The huge tubs of butter, big bottles of soda . . . it was so different to me. The most insignificant things were strange to me. I never thought I would get used to America, but now I see there are so many opportunities here."

Jagesic, 21, a Revere resident who is now a senior at Wellesley College, has just been awarded the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which she will put toward earning her master's degree and doctorate in sociology. The fellowship includes a $20,000 annual grant for living expenses and up to half the cost of tuition.

The war in Jagesic's native Bosnia forced her family to flee first to Croatia, then to Germany, and finally to the United States in 1999. Jagesic, along with her parents and older sister, lived on a refugee ship in Germany for five years before a humanitarian organization told them they would be sent to the United States in two weeks.

She recalls life on the refugee ship as being fraught with hardship, but still routine. "It was cramped, but it could be fun," she says. "We were all very scared of being deported. When I was 10 years old an old woman who lived next door to us on the ship was deported. . . . I helped translate for her, and found out that the German government had been sending her letters threatening deportation, but they were in German, so she couldn't read them. It made me very angry."

Jagesic hadn't planned on staying in the United States when her family first settled in the Lynn area. "My parents were adamant about going back to Bosnia," says Jagesic. "I always thought this was temporary, that we would go back. I was 13 when we came to America, which is an awkward age anyway, and I didn't speak any English."

Despite the communication barrier, Jagesic flourished first at Lynn Classical High School and later, when her family lived in East Boston for a while, at East Boston High School, which has a large population of international students.

"Having a similar background is one of the reasons we became close, but it's more than that," says Oli Kasuli, a friend from East Boston High and an Albanian immigrant. "We were both very driven, and we supported each other. Many kids grow up with normal families and few worries - Sanja had to grow up fast."

Even though Jagesic was a straight A student at East Boston High, she doubted whether college was a possibility. "I wasn't sure if I would even go to college, it's so expensive, " says Jagesic. She won the Wellesley College Book Award while in high school, and decided to apply to Wellesley because the application was free. She ended up being accepted on a full scholarship.

"She's the kind of student professors pray for," said Thomas Cushman, Jagesic's faculty adviser. "She has a real love for learning and she makes that very clear."

Jagesic's area of sociology study concerns factors that contribute to the prevalence of one school of thought over another - specifically Marxism over anarchism. She has read most of Karl Marx's writings in their original language, since she became fluent during her years in Germany.

"I was so used to living in the city, it was strange to suddenly be on a campus like this," she says of Wellesley. "It seemed like none of the other students were from a low-income family. Because of this, I started paying more attention to social classes, and that is what drew me to Karl Marx."

These interests, along with her own experiences, have led her to take an interest in helping other students from underprivileged backgrounds. "My career goal is to find the best ways in which persons from underprivileged backgrounds can survive the pitfalls and inequalities present in the American education system."

She plans on pursuing these goals by continuing her education at the University of Chicago's department of sociology, with the help of the Soros fellowship, which provides opportunities for new Americans to succeed in their chosen fields. The fellowship is exclusive - only 20 of 1,000 prescreened applicants are accepted. "I thought I didn't stand a chance," Jagesic says. "I couldn't believe it. I was definitely surprised."

Jagesic also has another reason to celebrate. "I've been an American citizen for three years now," she says. "I sent my citizenship application in the very first day that I could. Being a citizen was so important to me - I didn't feel like I belonged until then. Now I really feel like a real American."