Introducing…The Balkan Club!

The Balkan Club is one of the newest affinity groups added to Gilman but what exactly is a “Balkan,” what historical region do Balkan people belong to, what is the Balkan club's overall goal, and what are the club’s future plans?

The Balkan peninsula is the third great southern peninsula of Europe just to the East of Italy and borders the western edge of the Black Sea. The term Balkans refers to the aforementioned geographic location and its various states, or, alternately, the people who come from or can trace their heritage back to this region.  the Balkans. Although there is no universal definition, generally, according to Senior Marko Mihajlovic ‘25, President of the newly founded Balkan Club, the Balkan states are comprised of “Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Kosovo, and Slovenia and sometimes Turkey.” 

Marko, who is Serbian-American, was inspired to found the club his sophomore year when he saw his first assembly mentioning Gilman’s many affinity groups and a Balkan one wasn’t present. Marko’s parents were born in Serbia and his entire extended family is Serbian. While Marko was born in the U.S., every summer he lives in Serbia with his family. During his sophomore year, he began to talk with classmate Nathan Jurkovic ‘25, who is Croatian, about potentially starting a Balkan Club. However, it wasn’t until this past summer, while playing soccer in Serbia, that he decided to email Mr. Michael Molina, head of CIE at Gilman, about officially starting the Balkan Affinity group. Mr. Molina was immediately onboard. Once he, and his fellow founders Nathan, vice-president, and Chris Angelos ‘25, secretary, had a room, C2 18, a proctor, English teacher and Dean Mr. Eric Coles, and a mission statement, the “Balkan Club got kicked off” explained Marko. 

Balkan impact and culture is all around us even if we don’t quite know it. “Some of the best athletes in the world are Balkan,” stated Marko, pointing to “Novak Djokovic, arguably the greatest tennis player of all time, and Nikola Jokic, the MVP of the NBA.” Overall, Marko wants the Balkan Club,“to bring the tri-school community together and educate the community about us [Balkans.]” He notes that the Balkan club is a tri-school community with over sixty members including students from Roland Park, Bryn Mawr, and Gilman attending regularly in C2 18 every Tuesday A week. He and his co-founders hope to plan a Balkan Club field trip, Marko explains, “to an amazing place.” The location and date of this field trip are still unknown but Marko hinted it would be sometime in the spring. Finally, he hopes the Balkan Club will continue to educate the community and be “a safe space, open for anyone who wants to learn” more about Balkan heritage and culture long after he and his fellow founders leave our community.