Anesa Kajtazovic
Waterloo
Contact: (319) 504-2733
Anesa was born in Western Bosnia. It was at the age of seven that Anesa was exposed to the destruction of the conflict in Bosnia. She and her parents and sister fled the country as refugees. They spent 4 years in various refugee camps before taking the opportunity to move to Iowa in 1997 with the hopes of a better, more stable life with more opportunities.
Upon Anesa’s parent’s arrival to Iowa with very limited resources and language barriers, they were quickly faced with obstacles and hurdles regarding employment. Both of Anesa’s parents went on to find labor jobs, sometimes holding multiple jobs, while Anesa & her sister were children. While her parents worked at manual labor jobs, Anesa quickly was reminded of how important having a union represent the workforce can be, as her mother was injured on the job and was denied the opportunity to visit the physician of her choice.
Anesa excelled in school and went on to earn both her Business and Public Administration Bachelor Degrees from the University of Northern Iowa in 2007, 3 years after she graduated High School.
After college, Anesa eventually went on to gain employment at GMAC Mortgage, where she assists homeowners keep their home as a mortgage analyst. She has been an active member of the Waterloo community and was recently named as a member of the Waterloo Community Development board and has been active with the Black Hawk Democratic Central Committee since 2006.
Svaka cast zemljakinjo! :-)
Anesa, I am writing regarding the purposed decrease in funding for Iowa State Extension. I am employed with the Waterloo Schools and we use the Extension for many things to support what we are doing with at-risk kids and families. They provide parenting classes, classes on family budgeting and financial planning, gardening and horticulture classes, brochures on anything you can think of, and much, much more. When the Bosnian refugees came to Waterloo, Extension was one of the first groups to reach out and do programming at a local church to give the kids living on Leavitt Street something to do in 4H. Please look into this issue and see if you can be an advocate for continuing the funds Iowa State Extension nedds to provide these great services to the schools and to the larger community. Thanks!
Anesa – I met you at the Legislative Public Forum on Education at AEA on Sat., Feb. 5. I am an AFSCME member (Local 3009) who works at IWD, and will be in Des Moines for Lobby Day March 9. I asked if our AFSCME group could take you to breakfast that morning.
Are you available? Thanks, Anesa!
Douglas Marshall, Cedar Falls, 319-360-5570