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Nađa Stojanović ‘25 first learned about Lehigh University while volunteering for American Corners, a community space in her native country of Montenegro, where students practice English and learn about college admissions in the United States.

A Lehigh graduate from Stojanović’s hometown of Podgorica shared her experiences studying business and economics in the U.S. Stojanović was struck by the enthusiasm with which she discussed Lehigh, as well as initiatives she participated in, like the Global Citizenship Program and the Lehigh University/United Nations (LU/UN) Partnership.

“That really stuck with me, so when I started applying for colleges, I did more research about Lehigh,” Stojanović said. “The more I read, the more the university and all the programs it offered really appealed to me, so I thought, ‘Let me apply. Let’s see what happens.’”

 Now in her senior year, Stojanović is preparing to graduate with a degree in computer science. She was accepted to both Cambridge and Oxford universities, and will be attending Cambridge with plans to study cognitive science as part of her long-term goal of facilitating therapies and technology-based interventions for those with neurological issues.

Stojanović was assisted in her applications by Jennifer Marangos, fellowship advisor with the Office of Fellowship Advising (OFA) in Lehigh’s Office of International Affairs. Stojanović has also received several prestigious awards and fellowships during her time at Lehigh, which has allowed her to study in such places as Germany, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

“I am in awe of Nada and everything she has accomplished at Lehigh and can’t wait to see where life takes her,” said Jennifer Marangos, STEM Fellowship Advisor. “She is as humble as she is accomplished, which actually makes her challenging to work with on application essays, because she doesn’t understand how truly amazing she is!”

OFA works with university students, faculty, staff, and alumni to prepare nationally competitive scholarship and fellowship applications. A total of $2.3 million in awards have been given through OFA’s efforts since 2016, and 106 Lehigh students, faculty, and alumni have won nationally competitive scholarships since spring 2017

Stojanović began her academic career focused on Alzheimer's research, inspired by her work in a Lehigh research lab using computational neuroscience. Her current academic focus has shifted toward language disorders and the neuroscience of autistic non-speakers.

“One of the professors I’m interested in working with has done work in language comprehension of autistic non-speakers, and analyzing neuroimaging to see whether participants do have language comprehension, even if they're unable to produce speech,” she said. “So currently I'm kind of oriented towards that space, but we'll see what happens.”

Stojanović took advantage of several international education opportunities available at Lehigh. As part of her Global Social Impact Fellowship experience, supported by the Office of Creative Inquiry, she participated in fieldwork in the Philippines.

Her team, Track TB – Using Low-Tech Phones for Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence, developed a daily patient survey to monitor medication adherence and side effects, along with a web-based dashboard for doctors to track patient data, identify adverse reactions, and prioritize outreach. She collaborated with the University of the Philippines Diliman and tested the prototype with former tuberculosis patients and doctors for feedback and improvement.

Stojanović also worked on a Global Social Impact Fellowship project in Kazakhstan—also through the Office of Creative Inquiry—called Save Tuba, a gamified mobile app designed to teach primary school children about sustainability. The title character is an endangered antelope and acts as a guide within the app.

“The idea was for the app to be integrated into the national primary school curriculum in Kazakhstan,” she said. “So that’s what we worked toward, and I was immediately fascinated by this idea of having a really big goal to work towards, about something that really matters.”

Additionally, Stojanović received a Ruhr Fellowship to study in Germany, and also participated in a research trip to Taiwan through the Martindale Student Associates Honors Program. The latter led her down an unexpected path: writing a research paper about the themes and symbolism in Taiwanese horror films.

“During sort of the research process, I found a lot of interesting papers and data that I really dug into, and it led me back to how these films can be connected to some contemporary social issues in Taiwan,” she said. “It wasn’t something I expected to write a research paper about, but I just became fascinated with it.”