Led out of war-torn Kosovo by penny whistle’s tune

Exchange student fulfills dream of U.S. education

By Carol Ann Gregg

Allied News Staff Writer



When Fitore Shllaku, of Gjakove, Kosovo, learned to play the penny whistle, she never dreamed it would lead to traveling to the United States.

“I couldn’t have imagined coming here,” Fitore said.

She has completed her senior year as an honor student at Slippery Rock High School. She came last August as a Rotary Club International exchange student and lived with Terry and Stacey Steele.

The Steeles met Fitore in her homeland of Kosovo while they were visiting a very unique music program there.

The program, Shropshire Music Foundation, was started in 1999 by Liz Shropshire of California. This music teacher was touched by the reports of ethnic cleansing and refugee crises in Kosovo. The images of traumatized children tugged on her heart. She had to do something.

According to information on the foundation’s Web site, www.shropshirefoundation.orgshe had fundraisers, solicited support, including musical instrument manufacturers, and spent her savings to start her project. She gathered harmonicas, penny whistles, drumsticks, four electric keyboards, beginning piano books, pencils, a portable stereo and a tape recorder to set up shop in Gjakove, Kosovo. The program began in earnest in 2000 and became a non-profit foundation in 2001. Shropshire took her program to elementary schools working with young children. Through music Shropshire is able to convey that violence isn’t the answer.

The Shropshire Music Foundation believes that programs teaching children peace through music can change the lives of war-impacted children and help build peace in war-ravaged communities worldwide. There is now a program for the children in northern Ireland and Uganda who have lived with war.

At a music conference in California, Stacey learned about the foundation and brought information home about Shropshire’s work. She and her husband, both accomplished musicians, planned to travel in Europe during their 2007 sabbatical from the Slippery Rock University Music Department. They inquired about visiting the project and added two weeks to their trip. They served as resource people with Kosovo Children’s Music Initiative.

It was while working with the teenage volunteers there that they met Fitore. She was one of many teenagers who give of their time and musical talent to bring peace and healing to children through music. Fitore had come to the program in 2002.

Fitore can play the harmonica, penny whistle, ukulele, guitar, didgeridoo, piano and clarinet. In 2003, she became a teenager and began volunteering as a teacher for the younger children. Shropshire’s philosophy is to find worth in each child and to help them deal with the traumatic situation that they have endured. The program emphasizes peace and hope and that violence is not the answer. According to the foundation’s brochure, “Shropshire has developed a remarkable grassroots humanitarian program that promotes peace and healing through children’s mush education and performance programs.”

The Steeles worked with the teenage volunteer teachers to give them additional skills to use while working with the younger children. Terry Steele taught Fitore a little clarinet during his time in Kosovo.

After the Steeles returned to Slippery Rock, they began to inquire about how they could host this bright, energetic teen in their home. How could they provide her with an opportunity to get an American education? After months of e-mails, conferences with Rotary members both in Slippery Rock and in Kosovo, and much paperwork, it was finally arranged that Fitore would live with the Steeles for her senior year at Slippery Rock High School.

“I wanted an American diploma,” Fitore said. She accomplished that by taking the required course work necessary to qualify for Pennsylvania high school graduate. This she accomplished as well has graduating in the top 10 percent of her class.

At first, Fitore appeared to be very shy because she was uncertain about speaking English.

“We knew she wasn’t shy back in Kosovo,” Stacey said.

She could understand English, but she was afraid that she would say the wrong thing so she said nothing.

“There are new words every day,” she said.

Slowly, she became more comfortable with the language. She finds even now she doesn’t always understand when two different words can mean the same thing.

“This made taking tests difficult,” Terry Steele said.

“When I first came here my mother wanted Stacey to get me to eat,” Fitore said. The food was different and she didn’t really care if she ate or not.

“Stacey was so pleased when I said I was hungry,” Fitore said. “I didn’t know the word – starving.”

“I could tell if she liked something or not by the (amount) she would eat,” Stacey Steele said.

Stacey said that Fitore existed on green olives for about a month.

“I wouldn’t eat salad at home, but now I like it,” Fitore said.

Having a computer reduced the distance between Kosovo and Slippery Rock. With computer software called Skype, Fitore and her family could make free phone calls over the Internet. The computer camera and a microphone made it so they could see and hear each other.

“It would have been much harder without Skype,” she said. Fitore has a brother, Mirvjen, 17, and sister, Jona, 8.

Besides her heavy academic schedule, Fitore was a member of the percussion section of the high school marching band. She also sang with the high school Chamber Singers.

While in Slippery Rock, the Steeles made sure Fitore had opportunities to see other parts of the country. At Christmastime, her best friend in Kosovo, Yllka, came to the Steeles’ home for two weeks. Yllka is attending a junior college in Missouri. During her visit, the Steeles took the girls to Washington, D.C.

In March, Fitore was able to visit Yosemite National Park, where the Steeles’ son works.

She enjoyed a trip to New York City with the Slippery Rock Chamber Singers where they sang at the foot of the Statue of Liberty and saw the Broadway play, “Mary Poppins.”

A real treat was her graduation present, a ticket to see Bruce Springsteen in concert.

Terry Steele plays with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, so Fitore was able to see those groups perform.

“We don’t have concerts and things like that at home,” she said.

As Fitore compared schools in Kosovo and here, “They are very different,” she said. “In Kosovo we share the school with younger students,” she said. They have half-day sessions with six periods there and eight periods here. “There is no cafeteria or anything like that so we have to go out (of school) for lunch.”

The grading and teaching is different, too.

As Fitore thinks about the future, she would like to become an architect. Fitore is going to go back to Kosovo and spend time with her family and friends and go back to work at Kosovo Children’s Music Initiative. In August, she is returning to the United States where she will be a student at Butler County Community College, taking a pre-architectural program.

“We have heard from architects that BC3 has a very good pre-architectural program,” Terry said.

“I love math and I’ve always liked to draw. Architecture uses both,” Fitore said, adding, “During the war, my mom had my brother and me sit at the table and draw to distract us from the bombing and fires outside.”

Fitore was awarded a scholarship for her tuition at BC3 based on being in the top 10 percent of the senior class.

“When I return home, I will go back to work,” Fitore said. She considered her volunteer time a job at the Kosovo Children’s Music Initiative. She and her friends spent about 20 hours a week during the school year and full time in the summer teaching music.

She reflected on her year in Slippery Rock. “It is wonderful! The best year of my life,” Fitore said. “I have two sets of parents – one here and one in Kosovo.”

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