Mentorship Program

2025/26 Summer Semester

The first Mentoring System at the Faculty of Economics was launched at the start of the 2025/26 summer semester. A total of 29 students applied for this experimental program: 10 mentors and 19 mentees.

After the first Mentoring System came to an end, we conducted interviews with some of the participants: in person, by phone, and by email.

Interviewed Mentors

Student: Danilo Galić, study program Business Informatics, third year, in-person interview.

Asked what it was like for him to be a mentor, he says: “The experience of the mentoring system was very pleasant, as if you were having coffee with a colleague. We are all of a similar age and going through the same process, so mutual understanding is great.”

“Each mentor is given a certain freedom in organizing their own way of working, while respecting certain guidelines. During the summer semester we held four in-person meetings; each conversation lasted no more than about 20 minutes, and each was scheduled to coincide with the moment when a meeting would be most needed.”

His opinion of the program: “The system will certainly reduce student attrition and the number of withdrawals, increase the value of study programs, and improve student satisfaction. I think the greatest value of the mentoring system is achieved in the first years of study – in this particular case, for first- and second-year students – so the greatest focus should be placed on that group.”

Student: Tatjana Todorović, study program Business Informatics, second year, in-person interview.

Experience with her mentor: “It was excellent! Danilo (Galić) was very available. I was really glad that he addressed me as an equal colleague and that he wrote me a long email with information at the beginning. He was a great mentor! At the first meeting, in one of the faculty’s halls, he opened the faculty website, showed me photos of all the professors and the courses, and told me how to prepare for exams and in what order. Danilo even brought me his own book and materials for one of the exams. That was important to me! That mattered to me! I would like to have the same mentor next year.”

Tatjana was also a mentor to younger colleagues, and about that experience she says: “I had two official and three ‘unofficial’ students.” About her approach to mentoring, Tatjana says: “I put together an entire document for the first and second year, organized by course – what matters, how to prepare, based on my experience – and sent it to my mentees.”

How much time mentoring took: “It didn’t take up much of my time. It was easier for me to come in person.”

Why did you apply to be a mentor? “I wanted to help younger colleagues. Because if I had had the option of ‘being helped,’ I would have chosen it. About half of first-year students ‘drop out’ of their studies, so if I can keep at least two or three students, let that be my contribution.”

Student: Vanja Vuković, study program EPU, third year, in-person interview.

She chose to apply to be a mentor because she likes passing knowledge on to others and “others say I’m good at it.” She officially had two female students whom she mentored. Vanja organized herself so that the first meeting was in person and all later communication was online. For the first meeting she stayed a full two hours talking with her colleagues, and then let them contact her whenever they needed. They reached out to her before midterms and before exams. “It wasn’t tiring for me to answer them, and it didn’t take up much of my time.”

Asked which impressions stayed with her most from mentoring, she noticed “additional stress among colleagues from other cities and those who care so much.” She noticed that some go through “fear and anxiety about whether they will manage to do everything, and they were stressed.” She concluded that third- and fourth-year students’ time management is far better than that of first-year students. “They can’t manage anything, anything, anything – and in reality, they can.” She remembered one case in which a student did not go home to his parents even for a religious holiday (slava, the family patron saint’s day) because he was stressed about whether he would manage to pass everything. She wants to apply to be a mentor again. “The fact that I had someone to ask (an older sister at the Faculty of Economics) means a lot.”

Student: Nina Marić, fourth year, telephone interview.

She applied for mentoring because, as she says herself: “I had the time and I believe I have enough knowledge to be able to help. I have also been on exchange programs, so I can especially provide information to students who are interested in exchanges.” Nina will graduate on 30 September 2026. She was not assigned any students to mentor.

Student: Anđela Korov, fourth year, telephone interview.

Why did you apply as a mentor? “Honestly, for the sake of communicating with other students and giving them advice and guidance on what to do, and something that would mean something to them.” She had no mentees.

Student: Aleksa Matić, third year, telephone interview.

What Aleksa noticed was that his colleagues had “a fear of going to exams, even though they had really prepared,” and he observed that first- and second-year students need guidance on organizing their time. He applied to be a mentor because, in his own words, “I feel the need to pass on some of my experiences to other, younger colleagues, and it didn’t take up much of my time.” Aleksa wants to apply to be a mentor again. He says that, in his experience, mentors are needed most by first-year students.

Experiences of Mentored Students

Student: Maja Sladojević, second year, email interview.

What drew you to apply for the mentoring program and look for a mentor? The transition from secondary school to university brings considerably more material, so I needed support in preparing for midterms and in finding my way in a new environment. My decision was decisively influenced by the need for guidance from someone who had already successfully been through everything that still lies ahead of me, so that I would gain greater confidence.

Would you apply again to ask for a mentor? Yes, without any doubt.

Would you want the same or a different mentor? My mentor was Tijana Trivunović… She proved to be a pillar of support and a person I can still turn to for advice today. For that reason, Tijana would absolutely be my first choice again.

How do you feel about being someone’s mentor? I believe I would manage well in that role, because I successfully passed all of my first-year exams on time.

What was most useful to you? The most useful thing was the support Tijana gave me. When the amount of material in the first year seemed frightening and simply impossible to master, she encouraged me and gave me a boost.

Student: Maja Mutavčić, second year, email interview.

What drew you to apply for the mentoring program and look for a mentor? My decision to look for a mentor was influenced primarily by wanting to hear the opinion of a colleague who had gone through everything I was going through at that moment. Most of the stories I had heard were very frightening, so I looked for someone who would tell me from a realistic perspective. As someone whose home is almost 200 kilometers away, I found it very helpful to have a person to talk to without feeling guilty or afraid that she would think badly of me, because she herself had also been a first-year student.

Would you apply again to ask for a mentor? I absolutely support the decision to have mentoring, and if I were to choose again, I would do everything exactly the same.

Would you want the same or a different mentor? My experience with my current mentor has been truly wonderful. I wouldn’t change my mentor.

What was most useful to you? I think mentoring is very useful and humane, because many people who come to the faculty and experience new things need someone to guide them onto the right path at the faculty. That is why I believe that people who are more reserved and withdrawn have a chance to talk with someone who can help them with their work, without thinking about leaving. The only thing I would like to add is that I am very grateful to the faculty management for making this mentoring system possible for us. I am very grateful to you and proud of our faculty.

Student: Teodora Veselinović

She applied to the program so that a mentor would make her first year easier. She believes her mentor saved her a lot of time that she would otherwise have spent obtaining the necessary information on her own. Most useful to her were guidelines on what to study and where to study it from, what the professor asks, and how to prepare for a course. She, too, wants to help others by becoming a mentor.

Student: Milijana Despot

She liked that she had her first meeting in person with her mentor (Ernad Lepir). All other communication was online. She says that mentoring helped her and that she received concrete answers to her questions about exams. “Other colleagues did not want to apply, because they felt an aversion to it, along the lines of ‘oh come on, what do you need that for,’” but Milijana rated mentoring as very useful.

Student: Jovana Šilj, first year

Jovana “cleared” her first year (she passed all her exams). She had a mentor unofficially, getting her information through a friend who had an officially assigned mentor. The information was extremely useful to her, especially because she is not from Banja Luka and does not know older students. She wants to be a mentor and help younger colleagues.

Student: Sofija Grgić, first year

Sofija had a formally assigned mentor, Vanja. Vanja did not have the same professors as Sofija, because they had changed in the meantime, so more of that information was missing. Comment: “It was really useful to me!” She is not from Banja Luka and wants to be a mentor.

Student: Nađa Regojević, second year

She applied to get a mentor to make her second year easier, because she “heard that it is the hardest year” and that students repeat the second year more than any other. She was assigned a female mentor with whom she was often in contact, for questions about written and oral exams. She says the mentoring program is “a good start. The faculty should continue with this. I, too, get questions from younger generations.” She emphasizes that her mentor was always there for her. She says it is easier for her to consult with other students than directly with professors, in order to reduce study-related stress.