SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
Venera Novakovska, Head of Schools
During our ten year journey we have steered our vessel against all currents. In the process of growing and maturing we have built up confidence and ability to safely bring us to our present destination. We have imprinted our institution into solid ground, and can now continue our journey with the experience and respect we have earned along the way. Following our vision we will continue to inspire generations of students to come, and to work hard in making a difference in their lives and the society as a whole.
Viktor Novakovski, Assistant Head of School (2005 – now), Dean of Faculty and Administration
Education is a process, not an outcome, a process of continuous improvement. Education does not happen because a student receives an A on the final in Ethics, but because she thoroughly enjoyed Ethics, without a second thought to outcome. While NOVA is home to academically brilliant students, perfect SAT scores, and acceptance letters to Columbia and Harvard, this alone is not success. Only when a sense of academic accomplishment is paired with pride in helping others, is NOVA willing to call it a day.
Matthew Young, Former Assistant Head of School (1997-2000)
Those early years at NOVA were incredibly vibrant and rewarding. Set within an exceedingly complex, dynamic and, at times, difficult climate, the school served to guide and steady each of us involved in its development. It was the framework in which we worked together towards bringing about important social and educational change. Hurdle after hurdle and setback after setback, the doors opened each and every morning to a sea of possibility in what lay ahead. I am honored to have been part of this process, and know that this unique characteristic of the NOVA community will support the school well into not just a successful second decade, but to an important place within the fabric of education in Macedonia.
Audrey Pitonak, Former Assistant Head of School (2001-2004)
As a previous member of the NOVA family, it was both an honor and an inspiration to be a part of NOVA’s remarkable growth and development. From completing the accreditation process to better serving the needs of graduates through the development of an annual College Fair, NOVA was and is on the move! Step by step grade levels were added, curriculum was expanded, and community outreach grew as a part of service learning. Throughout the changes, cohesive and stability were maintained through projects which encouraged togetherness. My years at NOVA were personally and professionally eye-opening, enlightening, and fulfilling.
PARENTS
Zdravko Sami, Project Management Specialist USAID Macedonia, former NOVA Board President
When the opening of NOVA High School was announced, we were among the first to encourage our daughter to apply. It turned out to be a very exciting and mind-broadening experience, where children are taught to think with their own mind, to be free to doubt and ask not always appropriate questions, to be creative in a whole number of different ways. Several generations of students that graduated here have had the same experience and many of them are already successful in Macedonia and all over the world.
Mary Jo Wohlers, member of the Parent Teacher Association
NOVA has a personal touch. The administration has always had an open door policy and has been warm and receptive to new ideas and suggestions. This has made NOVA stand out among other schools our daughters have attended. We have appreciated NOVA's work at reaching out to the international and expat students welcoming them and creating a friendly atmosphere for them. Having served on the Parent Teacher Association for the last two years, I have seen first hand how the teachers and parents and administration have worked together to communicate better, raise money for small projects and work to improve a variety of areas at NOVA.
DEPARTMENT HEADS
Venko V’ckov, Head of Mathematics and Natural Science Department
Reaching the10th year anniversary of NOVA is a time of reflection and retrospective. It has been my great fulfilment to be a part of this laborius process full of unsurmountable challenges, having witnessed both the school’s early beginnings and the undprecedented growth later on. It was not easy at the beginning. Only a few people supported the idea of creating a school based on the American curriculum, standards, and organizational structure; in a time where the domestic educational system was seen as superior. However, today NOVA has become the standard for quality education, a standard against which other instutituons are compared.
Dijana Obradovic, Head of Language Arts Department
More than ever, the disorderly reality of today’s world featured by soaring violence, encroaching influence of computers and the mass media, and rapidly declining moral values calls for schools and educators to touch the hearts and minds of youth in order to induce them to think critically, express themselves creatively, and trigger off a lifelong release of their potential. This task is only worthy of inspired and dedicated teachers, which, I firmly believe, my colleagues are.
Tihomir Jancovski, Head of Social Sciences Department
From the many lasting impressions of NOVA, there are two noteworthy, and at the same time very simple, details that I especially admire, the small class size and variety of the curriculum offering. Thanks to these prerequisites, combined with many more, NOVA takes pride in providing inspirational lectures and superior education.
FINE ARTS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION FACULTY
Aleksandar Ristovski, PE Teacher, Community Service Coordinator
Being at the same time a Community Service Coordinator and PE teacher is a unique opportunity and a huge challenge; a challenge to enable my students to improve their quality of life by taking seriously the importance of life outside the world of scholastics, classroom time, and self-centered academic life; and at the same time helping them become more active, compassionate, and socially aware citizens. In this role I organize and manage many diversified classes, tournaments, matches, games, events, projects, and activities that can be very demanding and tiring, but is there a higher reward than having a positive impact on someone’s life and modeling the character of future leaders of our society?
Marjana Kostojcinoska Uzunceva, Teacher of Art
To be with children all day long is its own reward, and to usher them into maturity, to see them create and understand the intricate nature of art is a blessing. It can be challenging to work with children of different ages, but then again it is the best part of my job. At the end of each day, I come back to one key component: what matters is to inspire and teach all of them about their own creativity, since all are creative in their own distinct ways. And if I can, with a degree of success, implant this with my students, my learners, then indeed it has been a day well spent.
NOVA STUDENTS
Gavril Rosoklija, NOVA High School, class of 2009
Academics, athletics and music are very important in my life. Academics have always been a mode for the development of my intellect and individualism, while athletics have served as a way to learn competitiveness and experience kinship. Music is my world for relaxation and to experience the beauty. In these past two years, NOVA has fulfilled all of this in an atmosphere so different from all other high schools, which sometimes creates a feeling in me that someone read my dreams and created NOVA.
Anna Milovanovic, NOVA High School, class of 2007
After having studied in five different schools across the globe, I have found NOVA to be the heaven of inspiration. NOVA teaches everyone (students, teachers, and administration) how to be a decent person in society; one filled with knowledge and a thirst to know more. This institution has made me a part of its family which is why I truly appreciate its welcoming atmosphere. I wish the best of luck to the future generations and courage to the brilliant scholarship students that I have met here, as I know that NOVA is heading to perfection.
Anja Nikolova, NOVA Primary School, class of 2001
Being in the presence of a diverse, multicultural group of students and teachers was a relief and enjoyment, as I had also experienced it in the previous international schools I attended. NOVA students were very supportive of my background, and often offered to help me with orientation around the spacious building, and with my schoolwork. Pretty soon, I felt completely relaxed in NOVA, along with my classmates and other friends beside me. And I still am.
NOVA ALUMNI
Nina Sami, class of 2001, University of California - Berkeley
In a time of strive Nova was the only school to boast diversity, tolerance and camaraderie. It is hard for me to name favorites however Dijana Obradovic immediately comes to my mind as a very strong role model. Venera’s vision followed me since I was a child and now as an adult it makes me believe that hard work and endurance is one thing that makes dreams come true.
Sandra Ristovska, class of 2005, University of Kansas
Education is the essential component of who we are; the image in which others perceive us. Therefore, an education with high standards can broaden our horizons, and shape us into a person who is ready to cope with today’s urban and global living. In that sense, I was happy to be a Nova graduate student and even happier to realize the importance of that experience afterwards. I cannot help but be grateful to the Nova faculty that prepared me for the intense and demanding American educational system.
Georgi Unkovski, class of 2006, Rochester Institute of Technology
NOVA gradually helped me develop and realize my potential, and I believe that is the most important thing a school can do for you. The social and academic experiences within the four years I spent at NOVA had me ready for the immense challenges I face today, and to this moment I can not truly express the gratitude I owe to the people that got me where I am.
FACULTY REFLECTIONS
Bela Gligorova, College Advisor, Teacher of English Language and Literature
7 years. 11 different courses. Over 500 students. A handful of school clubs. A small fortune of community service hours, Orientation Days, Christmas Performances, Commencement Ceremonies. PSAT, SAT I, SAT II, AP, IB scores, scores. Statistically speaking this would sum up the cumulative value of my NOVA experience. Call me a working optimist, but stats and figures have never been a favorite of mine; I have always preferred smiles, essay responses, wonderful impromptu poems and surmounted challenges, with texts, future academic plans, scholarship opportunities and parents’ and teachers’ expectations. Whether it is a bleak Monday morning, or a sunny Friday early afternoon, or a quizzical Sunday, I learn to teach myself that ‘anything goes’: in a community of life-long learners, as we at NOVA hope to be, there cannot be any gray areas, liminal spaces, or undiscovered terrains. Come Commencement hour, I see that my optimism is not a mere piped dream, and that indeed we learn to let the other know we are not alone
Tatjana B. Eftimovska, Teacher of Macedonian language and literature
How can you string together all the words that weave one single school day, a day which seven years of growing and satisfaction are part of? There is the nobleness of Dostoyevski’s characters, the curiosity of Oedipus, the kindness and the laughter of Keyten, the courage of Icharus…. All these years with the students made a better person out of me. They say there are three reasons to be a teacher – June, July, and August. I would add at least seven more, each of them for each year I’ve spent at NOVA. As a summary, I have my 10 personal commandments to represent all the classes spent in arguing whether the students had read the book, all their grammatical innovations, senior trips, and life-time friendships. I am grateful for that.
Eric Davis, Middle School English teacher
I love these little people, and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us. Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop
I’ve spent 7 years with Nova, taking care of other people’s children; and, for the last 3 ½ years, I’ve had the wonderful privilege of taking care of my own. The feelings of children are - if sometimes erratic or misguided - genuine. Thanks is thanks. A hug is real feeling. Anger is not a lie - and, what’s better, it is short lived. There are problems, of course, but none that are insurmountable. Children are receptive, lively, creative, motivated - each in his or her own way, even if that way is not always clear to us; and it is only the ignorance of adulthood that prevents anyone from recognizing the wisdom of children.
SCHOOL ARCHITECT