What is it like to study secondary education in Africa, China, India, Germany, Canada, Norway, and be a student from Macedonia? A call is open, until November 15, 2024, for the registration of high school students from the country who want to continue their education through the World United Colleges movement. The Macedonian National Committee announces the call every year, our interlocutors are alumni and members of the committee, Jana Kraleva who lives and studies in Minnesota and Bobo Stankovic who works as a sustainable energy consultant in Washington.

– It is a movement of 18 colleges spread around the world. A group of volunteers from different countries make the selection of the future generation of students who will go to study in one of these colleges. The idea is for students from different countries to study at these colleges and meet hundreds of other students from sixty countries there. It is interesting how each country performs the selection - says Stankovic.

He reveals that currently a high school student from Macedonia is studying in Eswatini (Africa), we also have a high school student in Costa Rica, a student in Thailand, China, Hongkong... A total of 23 high school students from Macedonia are part of these colleges around the world.

For all those interested, the conditions for registration are to be in the second or third year of secondary education, to have lived in Macedonia for the last five years and to be Macedonian citizens.

It is not easy for parents to accept the fact that their 17-year-old child lives in a foreign country, but Kraleva says that the conditions on the campuses are excellent and every student easily gets used to life on the campuses.

- I left when I was 17 years old and I am alone with my mother, I believe that at that time it was not easy for my mother that I decided to go abroad. It's normal to feel insecure because you're going to an unknown environment, but when I got there I saw that I wasn't alone, but 100 other children, just like me, were far from home, and that encouraged me. In addition, there is a lot of support from the entire system, there are employees who are in charge of the overall mental and physical health of the children, and here I will also mention the professors who are of immense help - she explains.

Studying at the college lasts two years, and almost all students choose to continue their studies abroad.