Varvara Seslija '20 Recruiting Profile

Academically, I have had an interesting journey.  After attending schools in the US and Bosnia-Herzegovina, I attended Think Global School, which is a traveling high school. We spent several months in four different countries every academic year, and after three years of high school I have lived and studied in twelve different countries.  In addition to working hard on our core classes, we also managed our own projects from start to finish based on our passions or issues specifically related to that country. I chose to engage in a two year project focusing on soccer. Maintaining my skills and techniques as a soccer player while traveling the world presented many difficulties, so to attack these challenges I created a project which included a personal trainer, gym programs, and research around biomechanics and anatomy. These experiences sparked my interest in biology, the human body, and sports management.  I completed another project while we were studying in my home city of Sarajevo.  I wanted to make something meaningful while being in my city of origin, so I made contact with a nearby orphanage that I often passed on my way to primary school when I was young.  I reached out to them and developed a project to support their organization. I created and managed different workshops for the children and loved getting my high school peers involved as well. By living and learning in a new country every few months, I was able to connect what I was learning with everyday life in a way that I could not have done in a traditional high school.

I have been training for soccer since I was 10 years old and have played for all the national team categories for my age (under 15, 16, 17,18, 19).  I am currently playing for the under 19 team. When I was 14 I had the amazing opportunity to serve as captain of my national team. I was initially worried about choosing to go to a traveling high school and maintain my current skill level in soccer. However, I intentionally engaged in personal training wherever we were in the world, at random parks, gyms, and – if I was lucky – a soccer pitch. Through those three years of traveling, I managed to stay at the level to play on my national team when I was finished, proving my drive and work ethic to stay accountable to athletics. I also play for a club called SFK Sarajevo 2000, where I am on the B team. The A team plays the premier league while the B team plays federal, so I often find myself enjoying the challenge of playing with older and more experienced players.