Ruza Markovic: Strength and Purpose Born of War #52

Ruza Markovic had dreamt of and studied for a career in journalism -- when war intervened to change the trajectory of her life.  While her family had emigrated to the U.S. from their native Yugoslavia when she was just 4, Markovic didn't think twice when she was asked to return to her homeland in the early '90s as a communications liaison to the teetering government while political unrest and then war-ravaged the Balkans. What she saw and experienced, she says, laid barren her faith in country, politics, the media, and herself.  Those trials and traumas, though, did not sap her spirit. They steeled her resolve to live her life in service to others -- in part as an advocate for the liberating power of education.