Serbian Club President: Luka Cejovic

Being a student calls for hard work and dedication, but imagine juggling multiple clubs and sports all at once while being a student.  It seems like a challenging task, but for some it isn’t. Sophomore Luka Cejovic has repeatedly proved that there isn’t an excuse as to why school should prohibit you from joining other extracurricular activities you may enjoy.

Cejovic is involved in plenty of activities all ranging from language clubs to a variety of sports at West. “I’m the president of the Niles West Serbian Club, a member of the French club, and soon, a member of French Honor Society. At school, I am also very involved in Niles West sports. I’m the starting kicker for the Varsity football team, am a member of the Boy’s Soccer program, the NW swim team, and the boys volleyball team. I’ve always viewed high school as a great time to try as many things as you can, so I try to be as involved as I can throughout the entire school,” Cejovic said.

Several students take honors classes with a few APs, and it’s already a nightmare balancing school life and your social life- so how does Cejovic do it? “I have to admit that balancing four sports a year, multiple clubs, and almost all honors and AP classes gets pretty exhausting; however, I can’t say that there is one specific thing that I do that allows me to succeed in all of them. It’s a combination of hard work during and after the school day, and a lot of very focused work, but most of all, it’s the ability to know when I need a break. For me, knowing when to take step back and just chill out for a little, whether it’s with family or friends, or just by myself, is key. It’s what allows me to come back focused and ready to go,” Cejovic said.

As mentioned before, Cejovic is the president of the Serbian club, which comes along with great responsibility.  “First of all, any opportunity to take part in the Serbian community and diaspora throughout Chicago is an honor and a privilege. The daily chance to bring people of the same heritage and history together and represent such a rich, vibrant, and proud culture in a positive light everyday is something that I, along with the other members of the club, do not take lightly. Whether it’s something as simple as our bi-weekly meetings at school, to taking any and all volunteer opportunities to help others, it’s such a great experience and one that really inspires me everyday to take part in all the wonderful things going on at Niles West,” Cejovic said.

Along with that responsibility comes an action plan. As a leader of a club, planning out the year for a successful club or activity requires a lot of effort and dedication. “Serbian club has had a huge year. A couple of years back, the club was kind of dwindling, and wasn’t very active. The past few years, we have really made a push to become a bigger, better version of what we once were. For example, we have gone to Six Flags as a group many times, we went to a Bulls game together, and just this December, we had an Ice Skating party with about 40 people there. For a smaller cultural club, to have 40 people come together at an event is pretty impressive. Coming up, we plan to go skiing sometime in February, and are actually planning a Spring Formal with Serbian Clubs throughout the CSL. We have an exciting couple of months ahead,” Cejovic said.

When it comes to college, many of us can relate to Cejovic of being conflicted on what we want to do in the future. Even though Cejovic is only a sophomore, college is always on his mind.  “My plans for the future are very fluid right now. Ideally, I would like to go play football at one of the big football schools in the US. The thing is, I am also very dedicated to my academic success, so I want to make sure that I am going to an academically and athletically successful school. I think the perfect combination would be for me to go play football at a school like University of Chicago or Northwestern. In terms of majors, I am so interested in so many different topics that it’s hard to say, but right now, I would like to major in history and then go to Law School. I’ve always loved history, and one of my favorite shows has always been “Law and Order” so I think my motives are pretty clear,” Cejovic said.

Of course college is important, but sometimes we all have one thing we wish to accomplish no matter that. For Cejovic, that is passing down his culture to future generations to come.”My biggest goal in life is the same goal as my parents had, and their parents before them, and theirs before them. It is to give my children a better life than I had, but to not forget where we came from. My sister and I are what some would call “The Sandwich Generation”. I am the first generation in my family that was born in the US, so I have the unique job of assimilating into the American culture, but I am also accountable for keeping our Serbian culture and roots alive, and advancing them into the future of our family. So, in short, my biggest goal is to find that perfect middle ground where my family has all the perks from both sides of the cultures,” Cejovic said.

With all these activities Cejovic takes, it’s important to destress yourself once in a while. “In my free time, which among all my activities is scarce, I absolutely love to play music and to sing. I play the piano, the guitar and the trumpet. I don’t know if a day goes by when I don’t sit down at the piano and play a song, or start singing along with some of my favorite tunes. As long as I can remember, my sister and I have been performing for our family. In fact, both my sister and I won our own respective divisions in the Skokie Idol Singing Competition. Music is such a huge part of my life, and I’m so happy that my parents initially forced me into it,” Cejovic said.

Many agree that Cejovic has lots of dedication when it comes to his extracurriculars. ¨Luka is a big thinker and is very determined to make his ideas come to fruition. Through a lot of passion and hard work behind the scenes, a lot of people can benefit from him. Even though I’m the older sibling, I have so much to look up to him for,” senior Mia Cejovic said.

As for being a leader and attaining a leadership role, many of Cejovic’s peers believe he is a great fit.  “Luka is a great leader and the perfect person to be president of Serbian Club due to his great desire to grow the club, gather the Serbian community together, and learn more about our history. He is always prepared for the club meetings, is always so proud of what the club has become, and only wants for it to continue growing,” junior Niki Manojlovic said.

This being said, hopefully Cejovic keeps up the great work and good luck to his years remaining at Niles West!