Endi Mato

I was born and raised in a small town in Albania, next to the border with Macedonia. I grew up living in both countries and cultures until I moved to Bosnia and Hercegovina when I was 16 to attend the United World College in Mostar. Over my two years there, I volunteered at a refugee camp and an orphanage, worked with local activist networks to co-found the first Gender and Sexuality Group in Mostar, as well as led the World Cinema Club and served as a Peer Supporter. While hitchhiking across borders and making guerrilla art on war ruins, I rediscovered a culture so similar yet different from mine, but most importantly, I learnt how to live with people from all over the world. One of the most remarkable moments of our discoveries was visiting the dark, cold underground galleries of Yugoslav war art, locked under the ruins of Sarajevo for decades. Now, I’m following my undergraduate studies in Politics, Economics and International Relations at Smith College, while debating in tournaments across the country with the American Parliamentary Debate Association and being a senator for the Smith Government Association.