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JOVANA SPASOJEVIC FROM PODGORICA IS STUDYING IN MILAN: The grapevine loves the shadow of its master
Jovana Spasojević from Podgorica was convinced that after she graduates from high school she will enroll Dentistry until she went on a graduation trip. When her eyes met the vineyards while passing through Venice she felt fascination. She immediately chose her profession.
We are talking to Jovana in Podgorica and she is telling us that in a week from now she will be travelling to Italy, to Milan, to continue her studies. She chose to study about wine in that country, because it is the one with longest wine tradition.
– It is a privilege to study something like this there. Milano was my choice, because the department there is very distinguished. I learned a lot – she says.
Good foreknowledge
Jovana remembers her beginnings at University and says that, thanks to the foreknowledge that she had from Elementary school ,,Sutjeska” and Gymnasium ,,Slobodan Škerović”, she relatively easily coped with the level of knowledge that was being sought. She is convinced that the Gymnasium is the best springboard for such University.
Our guest is a student at the state university, and explains to us how she managed to enroll in it.
– Everything goes through the embassy. Documents are sent to our embassy there, and then later we took the exam, which was more like a conversation, to check the level of knowledge of Italian language. And so it all began – she says.
The first year of studies was self-financing, but for the second year she got the scholarship.
– My knowledge of Italian language at the beginning was good, but when you need to learn 500 pages that can be a challenge. It took a lot of determination. I was the only foreigner at University and some professors had more understanding for me, some less. In the end, I'm satisfied with what I have accomplished – says Jovana with a smile.
She values the fact that practice is very much taken into account at her University. She says that she was at practice in Tuscany for three months and the experience was unique, great.
– I fell in love with that profession for the second time. We have worked hard, but people we were surrounded with were wonderful. I had followed the process from the very entry of grapes to the final product – the wine. I learned everything there. All I had learned from books is one sort of experience, and this was something completely different – she said.
She believes that wine is like a child who cannot be left alone, even for a second, during harvest and the processing itself, but later thanks you for it.
– They say that grapevine loves the shadow of its master, so that is what we had found – says Jovana.
In Tuscany, in the words of our guest, Montenegrin wine was praised.
As we sit and talk at the cafe we do not notice that some of the guests had ordered wine, and Jovana comments that our people have the conviction that everything that is not ours is better.
– People here still do not know how much we possess when it comes to the world of wine. We have a country that has a long tradition in the cultivation of vines, which is important. We have quality type and good wines. We can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world – she is convinced, adding that we have the largest vineyard in one piece in Europe, 2310ha ,,Plantaže”.
Project with Italians
Jovana would love to see raise in Montenegrin culture of wine. She speaks of how she was employed on a project with Italians who work in Montenegro. It is funded by European Union, and it is a project based on a number of factors such as climate, soil that determine which area in Montenegro is suitable for which grapevine type. She has been working on it for a year, and the results are expected by the end of September next year.
– I had applied for this project and I got accepted. I am glad to have this sort of experience, because I would love to return to Montenegro later in life. There is so much work to be done in the wine sector here – says Jovana.
She plans to enroll master studies, but probably not in Italy. She is currently interested in an option where one year of master studies is taken in France and the other in Spain.
It is a challenge for Jovana, as it was going to study abroad. When you are left alone, she says, depending on yourself, it is what you do and accomplish that counts.
– If I had been told few years ago that I would be able to cope with situations that were happening to me in Italy, I never would have believed it. I have to say that I am proud of myself – she said with a smile.
Commenting on life in that country, our interviewee says that people there are very charming.
She loves their style and food.
The meeting with Jovana is coming to an end, with the agreement that the next one will be marked with the glass of wine. There will be reason. And challenges. S.Đ.
