From Theory to Solar Power: Students in Doboj Show How to Build a Sustainable Future
Five students prepared the project application and calculated the solar panel capacity their school needed, while their classmates built the mounting structures and a new information desk during practical training in the school workshop. Their initiative has already inspired another school to follow their example.
Do you remember the first real responsibility someone entrusted you with?
Not an assignment you completed for a grade, but a real task where something important depended on your work. You remember a day like that for the rest of your life, because it is the moment you first discover what you are truly capable of.
For five students at Doboj Technical School, that moment came in the autumn of 2025. They were entrusted with managing a project to install a solar panel on the roof of their school's workshop.
An Idea That Had Been Waiting for Years
The school had wanted to install a solar panel for several years. But without the necessary funding, the idea remained on hold. The information desk in the school lobby, where students and parents were welcomed, was little more than a small table.
Then Jadranka Blagojević, a Serbian language and literature teacher at Doboj Technical School, came across an open call for Mozaik Orange Grants. These grants support projects designed and led by young people in their own communities. Although she does not teach any practical or technical subjects, she was the one who brought together a team of five students to apply.
One of them, Tea Kršić, was travelling abroad at the time. As soon as she returned, she quickly changed her clothes and went straight to the team meeting.
The students decided for themselves exactly what they wanted to do and how they would do it. They were concerned about something they witnessed every day.
"We noticed that many people don't take care of our environment," Tea explains.
So they decided to combine two improvements in a single project: installing a solar panel on the roof and building a new information desk in the lobby. At the same time, they wanted to help others understand why protecting the environment matters.
Tea wrote the project application with support from the rest of the team. They shared all the other responsibilities equally.
"We Couldn't Do It on Our Own"
Their first task was to calculate how much solar power the school needed. Tea was studying to become a civil engineering technician and had never worked on such a calculation before.
"We couldn't do it on our own. We needed help," she admits.
Their teachers stepped in to support them. And whenever they worried that they might not succeed, they encouraged one another.
"Whenever I say, 'I can't do it,' the other four tell me, 'Yes, you can,'" Tea recalls.
Eventually, they completed the calculations. Today, Tea says she can even make a rough estimate of the solar panel capacity a building would need.
A School Workshop You Might Remember
Once the calculations were complete, the students used AutoCAD, a technical drawing programme, to design the panel's mounting structures and the new information desk.
One of the team members, Rade Jorgić, took on the main structural design task.
3D visualisation was also important for implementing this project. I was responsible for the main structural design task, which involved designing the lettering.
Rade JorgićStudent team memberThen the work moved into the school workshop.
There, students undergoing practical training, future mechanical engineering and CNC technicians, built the panel's mounting structures and the new information desk with their own hands.
As they worked, much of the school gathered in the workshop to watch them. This time, they were applying what they normally learned in class to something that would become a permanent part of their school.
If you remember the smell of a school workshop — that distinctive mixture of oil, metal and shavings — you can probably imagine the scene. Perhaps your own journey into a skilled trade began in a workshop just like this one.
The solar panel itself was installed on the roof by employees of the company that supplied it, while the students observed the installation process.
Less than six weeks passed between signing the agreement and installing the panel.
The grant funding was not enough to cover everything. The project had a total value of BAM 3,960, of which BAM 2,640 was covered by a Mozaik Youth Banks grant.
The students secured the remaining third, worth BAM 1,320, themselves: BAM 264 through a crowdfunding campaign and BAM 1,056 through direct contributions of goods and services.
What the School Gained
Today, a teacher on duty sits behind the new information desk in the lobby, providing information to students and parents.
The lighting in the lobby is powered by electricity generated by the solar panel on the roof, helping reduce the school's monthly electricity bill. The school principal, Dragan Dostanić, and the teacher responsible for the system monitor the panel's performance through a mobile application.
But the students did not stop there.
They taught children from two kindergarten groups, approximately 150 primary and secondary school students, and even their own teachers how solar panels work and why renewable energy matters.
At the end of the activities, the youngest children made little planets out of modelling clay. Each child took their planet home as a reminder to protect and care for it.
One solar panel is not enough to meet the school's needs. The school now hopes to install solar panels across the entire roof of the main building. The project proposal has already been prepared, and the search for funding continues.
"My Generation Made This Happen"
The solar panel became a permanent asset for the school. For the students, the lasting benefits were the skills they developed along the way: identifying a problem, agreeing on a solution together, and taking responsibility for seeing a task through to completion.
Calculating the required solar capacity taught them how to work with numbers, make estimates and think analytically. Preparing technical drawings and project documentation required them to follow procedures and pay close attention to every detail.
Before this project, Tea had never stood in front of a camera or spoken to such a large audience.
"Now, speaking in front of a camera or standing up in front of people and saying something is the easiest part," she says today.
Immediately after completing the project, she became an assistant at Mozaik Youth Bank Doboj, where young people themselves decide which projects proposed by their peers will receive support.
"We started with very little knowledge and came out with an enormous amount of knowledge," is how Tea describes the entire experience.
Another school saw their project and decided to do something similar. That is what the students are most proud of.
Their teacher, Jadranka Blagojević, says the students sometimes joke with her, insisting that they have not done anything particularly special.
"But we have actually achieved something significant," she tells them.
And when these students return to visit their old school one day, they will be able to say:
"My generation made this happen."
Building Our Homeland Through Skills
You know this from your own experience: no one can take away the knowledge and skills you gain through practical work.
Many people have taken those skills abroad and built successful lives and careers.
Tea and her team gained that kind of knowledge at home — and put it to use at home.
The proof stands on the roof of their school in Doboj.
And Doboj is not the only example.
Across Bosnia and Herzegovina, students have ideas for improving their schools. Often, all they need is the first opportunity and some financial support to turn those ideas into reality.
Teacher Jadranka knows how little it can take to get such an idea off the ground.
The entire project was worth BAM 3,960, and as she puts it:
"We don't have to receive all the funding we need. It's enough to receive part of it, and we can build on that."
Your donation to the Mozaik Foundation could be exactly that first contribution that brings the next idea to life.
Every convertible mark you donate goes towards programmes for young people, such as Mozaik Youth Banks, which provided the grant that made the Doboj school project possible.
P.S. Remember that first real responsibility we asked you about at the beginning of this story? Someone once trusted you enough to give you that opportunity.
Through your donation, you can now extend that same trust to young people across Bosnia and Herzegovina.