If you are a member of the AUBG community or a prospective student from Kosovo, chances are high you have seen the AUBG promo video for Kosovo (see below). Lisar Morina (‘15), an AUBGer from Kosovo, succeeded in applying his skills outside the classroom to create the video and help the university’s Admissions Office in its recruitment efforts.
Ever since high school, Morina has been into photography, an interest that “turned into a passion for video and filmmaking” when he started studying Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) at AUBG.
“On my last semester at AUBG, I thought I’d embark on a slightly more special journey: an independent study,” Morina said.
Brainstorming possible ideas for the project, Morina and his mentor Melody Gilbert, a prominent filmmaker and then the JMC department chair, agreed the video should introduce interested students from Kosovo to AUBG. With the cooperation of admissions counselor Tracy Minard, Morina began his journey of interviewing Kosovar students and AUBG professors to create an interactive tool that highlights AUBG’s campus, student life and diversity.
A stroke of luck helped Morina create an even more powerful piece, Minard said. The mayor of Pristina and AUBG graduate Shpend Ahmeti (‘00) was on campus for the AUBG Mega Reunion in the spring of 2015 and agreed to be interviewed.
“Coming from a high school in Pristina to an American style of education completely changed my life,” Ahmeti said on camera.
Minard said the video has been a valuable recruitment tool: “Lisar got the idea of what we needed and was able to put it together nicely,” she said. “I showed the video in all of my presentations while in Kosovo. I also always include the link when I send email to prospective students, so hundreds of people have gotten to see it.”
Morina said his work at the student organization More-Honors (MH) helped him develop his filmmaking abilities. “I owe virtually all I know about film, scriptwriting, and post-production to More-Honors,” he said. “I also met some of the most amazing people there.”
If he had to pick one highlight of his AUBG experience, Morina said “it would probably be the days of the MH shows, where you would witness a year’s worth of work come to fruition.”
A recent graduate, Morina is back in Pristina where he works as a consultant for Unicef and as a program assistant at the National Democratic Institute. “While it is a more hectic life compared to what I had at AUBG, it’s still interesting and you learn a lot every day,” he said.
Interview by Dimana Doneva
