Alisa Rujović is a special character of whom I have the opportunity to write. The 24-year-old girl is a student at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, the Graphic Section. She proudly tells me that she is a scholar of the Ministry of National Education in Romania and that she is enrolled in the master program of the educational institution from us.
Art is not her only passion. Alisa is in love with football. Moreover, she practices this sport professionally, in Romania, in a girls team.
A vast international experience
Alisa comes from Montenegro and for a year and a half she studies in Romania. The young girl was born in the city of Berane, where she also graduated from high school. After graduating Gimnazija “Panto Mališić” Berane, she was admitted to the Academy of Art in Cetinje.
During the degree studies she took advantage of all the opportunities offered to her and so she was admitted to the Erasmus + program, which allowed her to study for six months, in Lisbon, within the National Academy of Fine Arts “Belaz-Artes”.
The international experience opened her appetite for new places, so she decided to do his masters studies outside her native country.
She tells me that she came to Romania from a happy event. While a student at the Academy of Art in Cetinje, she began to look for opportunities to follow the master’s program at a school in another country. One day, she discovered on the website of the Ministry of Education in Montenegro information about the scholarships offered by Romania. After collecting data on the National University of Arts in Bucharest and on the country to which she would come, she decided to apply for a scholarship.
“Fortunately I was admitted. In this endeavor, only my parents supported me. My friends were very intrigued that I chose a country like Romania. This has happened because there are many preconceptions about Romanians and Romania. From my experience, I can say that nothing is true”, stresses the young student.
She admits that she had some doubts about her arrival in the Romanian capital, but what urged her most in her decision was the reputation of the National University of Arts in Bucharest and the fact that the educational institution also includes a graphic section.
She trains with the FC Fair Play team in Bucharest
I already said that Alisa is a special character. The young girl is not only studying in our country. Since October 2018, she has been training with the FC Fair Play women’s football team in Bucharest. “Dusko Globarevic, my coach from Montenegro has found this team, and I want to thank him,” says Alisa.
Sport is a great passion of her, so the fact that Romania has given her the opportunity to fulfill her dream makes her grateful.
“From a very young age I loved the sport. I have been playing with the ball since I was seven years old, but I started playing football at the age of 12. Initially, I played with the boys, and from the age of 16 I passed into girls’ teams. Football is not the only sport I have played. I also did karate, I have a black belt, and I have a lot of high profile competitions won all over Europe. I also performed folk dances and thanks to them I managed to go to many countries in Europe and Asia. I discovered art in high school. Eventually I had to choose, so I decided to focus on art and football,” tells Alisa.
Romanian friends helped her to adapt
For the young girl from Montenegro, adapting to life in the Romanian capital was not easy. For a year she had to attend the courses of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest, to learn the Romanian language. Only then did the actual study begin at the National University of Arts in Bucharest.
The fact that she was warmly welcomed by both the college colleagues and the girls on the football team helped her a lot in adapting. “The girls from the football team, through the activities in which they included me, helped me to adapt much faster to the life here. And my university colleagues were with me. They all showed me how important it is to have Romanian friends and how easy it is to be with them. Bucharest is a very friendly city with foreigners and it is full of foreigners. So far, I have not noticed any discrimination to which those who are not locals are subjected,” explains the young student.
Referring to the first experience she had when she came to Bucharest, Alisa remembers that she checked in and then left to walk alone in the city. “I also remember now that I stopped at the Parliament Palace first. This building was the one that told me a lot about Romania. Then I told myself that if I manage to get here, my life in Romania will be one of the most beautiful and rich,” the student shows.
And so far Alisa has done very well. Moreover, she has adapted so much to our lives that she is not limited to discovering only Bucharest. The young girl from Montenegro takes advantage of every free moment she has to make different trips through Romania.
However, her favorite place from our country is related to the faculty she is studying. Alisa spends most of her time in the educational institution’s graphics workshop, where she tries to fulfill her dream and translate it into her art.
Neither the “green field”, as she calls the football field, is neglected. “I always go to play football, my first love. I think football is “guilty” for everything that is good in my life,” says Alisa.
She has many favorite places in the city of adoption, but she loves to go, whenever the opportunity arises, to visit the National Museum of Art of Romania. She also likes to relax in one of the parks in Bucharest, her favorite being Herastrau Park, where she finds peace through meditation.
“Given that I have been to many big cities in Europe, I can say that the biggest plus of Bucharest is that it has many parks, many green spaces. There are places that give an extraordinary addition to the Romanian Capital”, underlines the young girl.
She studies at the school developed by Aman and Tattarescu
The National University of Arts in Bucharest, an institution where Alisa Rujović is a master’s student, has a centuries-old tradition. Those who set up this school are Theodor Aman and Gheorghe Tattarescu.
Starting from the School of Fine Arts, established by the two painters in 1864, she came to the actual university where she studies artists from all over the world. Important masters of national and universal art were formed here. It is enough to remind Constantin Brancusi, Victor Brauner, Paul Neagu, Ioan Andreescu, Stefan Luchian, Gheorghe Petrașcu, Sabin Popp, Aurel Jiquidi and Lucian Grigorescu.
Alisa is very happy that she has the opportunity to follow in their footsteps. The young girl from Montenegro claims that higher education in Romania is different from that in Montenegro. “At the college where I study, for example, it is attempting to preserve the traditional part of the art as much as possible, but at the same time, students are obliged to know the digital part, which is very important in the life of an artist today. It is clearly an advantage that the students of the National University of Arts in Bucharest have in front of their colleagues from other similar institutions in other countries. In addition, in Romania I have a very friendly relationship with the teachers, who are available all the time for their students. The teachers helped me a lot in my adaptation, and during these six months since I was a student at UNARTE I learned a lot. And I will learn even more. And I hope that I also taught few things to those with whom I came in contact here,” points out the young woman.
Alisa’s story is atypical. The superb way she manages to combine her passion for art with her love for football makes us discover a special person, a person from whom we have much to learn. The student from Montenegro chose Bucharest to live her passions, and after a year and a half she says about the city of adoption that she offered her a lot. She came to Romania with many question marks caused by the preconceptions of her friends, but from her first visit to the city she discovered its generosity and realized that she did not make a mistake when she decided to choose the Romanian capital to continue the university studies.
Author: Ștefania Enache
Photo: Corina Gheorghe
