Nov 15, 2017
It was 1984 and Bosnia Herzegovina hosted the Winter Olympics. In just two weeks 13-year-old Miki taught himself English and German just by volunteering and meeting others in this global event. Little did he know that six years later, languages were going to save his life, as he had to survive Bosnia’s devastating warfare that made him a refugee in Austria. How does one go from a war refugee to one of the most prominent professionals in the conflict resolution field? Find out here in Episode 4 of the Social Change Career Podcast
In this episode we discuss:
- Miki’s multicultural heritage and growing up in Bosnia-Herzegovina
- The 1983 Olympics and how Bosnia hosted the world
- The war and how he became a refugee in Austria
- How academics and big lectures bored him and how he turned to student activism/humanitarian work
- How he joined Search For Common Ground for Child Soldiers Reintegration
- Survival mode, serendipity, hard work and never being afraid of failureo
- How Miki met Ambassador Swanee Hunt and came to live in the U.S.
- Listening to mentors and why college made a difference for Miki
- Arriving to the U.S. with a backpack and how he met his wife Eva
- How he worked from dish washer, to driver and never stopped networking
- How and why he started his Masters program in 1996
- His work at Inclusive Security (IS): 2 decades and over 30 different jobs in the same organization and never bored
- His biggest accomplishment with IS
- How failure shaped his career
- Miki’s career advice to your social change professionals
Links:
School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
Related topics:
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