About me

My next chapter began at the elite “Žarko Zrenjanin” Gymnasium, a respected science and mathematics high school in the neighboring town of Vrbas, Serbia. The coursework became significantly harder, and the academic environment much more competitive. I graduated with an average grade of 4.33/5.00 (A–), but those numbers don’t tell the full story.

High school was the point where I realized a difficult truth: I couldn’t be great at everything forever. As classes intensified, my time for competitive sports shrank. Still unwilling to let go of sports, I trained, even though deep down I knew a day was coming when I’d need to choose between my two passions — sports or science. While others were discovering nightlife, alcohol, and teenage rebellion, I lived a different kind of high school experience. I enjoyed the occasional party, but they never pulled me away from what mattered to me most: learning, improving, and the beautiful world of numbers.

After defending my high school thesis, “Nikola Tesla – Life and Work,” I decided to pursue economics - an intersection of social science, numbers, and real-world impact.

From an early age, I was fortunate to be mentored and inspired by one of the most respected banking families in Serbia. Their values, work ethic, and deep understanding of finance shaped the way I thought about investing, responsibility, and long-term impact. Observing their approach to banking and decision-making played a meaningful role in my decision to pursue finance — not just as a career, but as a discipline grounded in rigor, integrity, and accountability.

I enrolled at the Faculty of Economics at University of Novi Sad and began strongly with top grades. I remained active in sports, competing in national tournaments and later playing for the university team and FK Omladinac in the district league.

Balancing university academics, a demanding soccer schedule, and leadership activities eventually caught up with me. My grades suffered, not drastically, but enough to teach me a valuable lesson: you cannot chase every dream with equal force. When I realized a professional soccer career was no longer realistic, I shifted fully into my second love: finance.

Looking back, those “failures” were blessings. They taught me priorities, focus, and what commitment truly means.

In 2011, my friends and I signed up for a Work & Travel program that took us to Sitka, Alaska. The plan was simple: earn some money, explore the United States, and enjoy a memorable adventure.

What happened instead? I landed at a fish factory. I started in fish processing, then moved into the kitchen as a dishwasher. I worked 18–20 hours a day, averaging 120 hours per week, and ended up working 87 consecutive days without a single day off — a personal and factory record.

That summer showed me the raw reality of capitalism, hard work, and physical exhaustion. And yet, it remains the greatest challenge and most transformative experience of my life. After Alaska, no job ever felt too hard again. It hardened me, humbled me, and gave me a level of endurance that has stayed with me ever since.

Coming to America was a dream. Living in America was a battle. As a first-generation immigrant, I arrived with no professional network, no understanding of the system, a foreign degree that few recognized, and no financial support. I had only my work ethic, confidence, and refusal to quit.

To fund my master’s program, I first became a semi-truck driver, saving $40,000 in just a few months. I thought it would be enough, but it wasn’t. To cover tuition and living expenses, I also worked as a valet parking helper, and later as an Uber driver, all while studying full-time at Northern Illinois University (NIU). A typical day meant waking up at 4:30–5:00 a.m., driving Uber until class, attending lectures, studying at the university library, and commuting 70 miles each way between Chicago and DeKalb.

Despite the grind, I graduated at the top of my class with a master’s degree in financial risk management.

After NIU, I joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Chicago, Illinois. I started at the very bottom; as a temporary contractor hired through an agency. But my technical skills, work ethic, and ability to learn fast propelled me forward quickly: contractor, processing specialist, underwriter for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. After two years at J.P. Morgan, I accepted an offer from Citibank and moved to Tampa, Florida, to join a highly technical group in Quantitative Market Risk Analytics and Modeling. It is the kind of work that connects every chapter of my journey - mathematics, statistics, economics, and an obsession with financial markets.

Throughout everything - sports, immigration, struggle - one thing remained consistent: I never lost my hunger for learning and fearlessly going forward.

Today, I am pursuing further graduate study in Applied and Computational Mathematics at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, with focus on probability and statistics to deepen my quantitative foundation for increasingly complex and challenging financial markets. My story is not a straight line. It’s volatile. It’s a story of unexpected turns, sacrifice, reinvention, persistence, and belief in something bigger than your circumstances.

From the small town Kula in Serbia to the financial capital of the world, the journey has been long, unpredictable, and anything but easy. But these are not endings; they are new beginnings. I’m excited to see what challenges, opportunities, and discoveries lie ahead.

One thing remains certain: failure is not an option!