Spirit of Sarajevo: A story of Resilience

Sanja Kulenovic is a Russian-born Bosnian, now an American citizen, who has called Southern California home since the early 1990s, when she was stranded due to the Bosnian War. She studied economics and English language and literature at the University of Sarajevo, where several of her essays and short stories appeared in the university’s publications. In 1993, she presented a speech at a United Nations-sponsored event for Bosnian women and children, along with actress Sophia Loren. Since then, Sanja has earned a master’s degree in economics and has been working as a financial analyst for an engineering corporation that helped rebuild Bosnia’s infrastructure after the war. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.

When the Bosnian War broke out. Sanja had spent a year (1983-84) as an AFS high school exchange student in Pasadena, and in the 1990s, she and her husband became refugees while on their honeymoon in the U.S. In Sanja's presentation she spoke of how her parents and family lived somewhat isolated from the world in Sarajevo. Over 1,425 days the couple established a new life in the U.S. while trying to re-connect with family and friends. Sanja's experiences went into her book The Siege of Sarajevo: One Family's Story of Separation, Struggle and Strength.