In the early 1990s, when her future teammates were playing hopscotch and hide-and-go-seek carelessly, as all children should, she was huddled with her family in a neighbor's basement while a bomb hit a home mere feet from where she slept each night. Anci Borozan knows a childhood defined by war. Now, thanks to the “jackpot of her life”, as she calls it, her chance at an American education has provided an adulthood defined by opportunity.

Born in Split, Croatia, the Croatian War of Independence rocked the childhoods of countless bright-eyed, dream-filled youth. Borozan remembers being clothes-less and the family that generously shared all they have so that she could have an outfit or two to call her own. “It's amazing to think that after war, after that stage in my life, that I could achieve all this.”

“All this” is a successful tenure as an EIU pole vaulter and Lumpkin College of Business graduate with a 3.89 GPA headed towards a graduate assistantship with the same college whilst she earns her MBA.

Her future looks bright and her goals noble: she looks to bring “the best of the (USA athlete-support) system” back to her hometown in an effort to build a development center for athletes that provides all the pieces of the puzzle – nutrition, psychology, physiology, strength training, education – that can streamline an athlete's potential towards success.

Her goals may seem lofty to the outsider, but once glimpsing into Borozan's past, it's clear to see that while her childhood may have been void of hopscotch and hide-and-go-seek, it was rich with lessons that catapulted her forward.

Borozan's father owned a weightlifting gym in Split – a town that, like Borozan, achieved much with little. Over 200 Croatian Olympians hail from this “sport-crazy” town of no more than 350,000, an astronomical ratio comparatively speaking. Tony Kukoc, renowned Chicago Bulls forward, and Tina Erceg, of whom a gymnastics element is named, are quick highlights. 

Borozan spent a lot of time in that gym and, at the age of three and a half, peered through a crack in the door that joined her father's gym to the neighboring gymnastics gym. Unto her, a new world unfolded: a world she wanted to be a part of. Her mother gently led Anci into the sport but elbowed her own way onto the city's council – the first woman ever – which ultimately led to the production of a new gym. 

Borozan progressed through the national and international gymnastics ranks quickly and found herself – full of guts, gusto and nerves – at age 14 at the night before a national competition. Her prowess ranked her just behind Erceg. However, as Borozan tells it, “her pieces didn't come together”. A fated injury just hours before the competition from a balcony door slammed on her finger resulted in a broken phalange and a cast spanning all the way to her elbow.

Thus her gymnastics career would end.

And her pole vaulting career would begin.

As in anything, the activities people associate themselves with involve a fraternity of sorts; people that relate to you and your goals. Several of those people suggested Borozan consider pole vaulting. After all, there were many elements that paralleled gymnastics.

Borozan considered the option and, ultimately, really, fatefully, took it. The only problem was that for the entire track and field club that she became a part, there was only one pole. So she shared and learned and progressed to a tipping point moment in her junior year of high school.

“Our junior class took a trip each year to somewhere in Europe,” Borozan recalls. “This year, everyone was headed to Poland and the Czech Republic; it was something we looked forward to for years, but was an expensive proposition. My mom told me that she would either pay for my trip or purchase a new pole for me. I chose the pole. I think that's why I'm here today.”

Borozan vaulted 10' 6” and caught the attention of EIU assistant track & field coach Nate Davis. “If it wasn't for (Davis), I wouldn't be here. He knew a lot about the basketball players that came from Split and became a friend to me.”

Her flight landed in January of 2007 in Chicago and Borozan found herself impressed with what she saw. And then the car ride to Charleston, with distant Croatian relatives that live in the Chicagoland area serving as chauffeurs accommodating her, kept going farther and farther and farther… south. 

Her attitude, the same one that served her during the unforgettable moments hiding during bomb scares and once she realized that the injury to her hand would cripple her gymnastics dreams, kept her “embracing everything. I never had problems adjusting and being in the unknown on my own. I didn't know what I was doing, I just did it.”

Arriving at EIU smack-dab in the middle of the indoor track & field collegiate season, Anci was competing within days and amalgamating to what she now sees as her family – a group of people that now makes sacrifices for the good of the group. “I never had my family here cheering me on. That was the cost of this opportunity and that was hard. But I was able to live the American Dream: for every effort I put forward, I saw something in return. I call my time at EIU the jackpot of my life.

“I learned that people can come and go. Just after I arrived, Coach Davis left to go to the University of Wisconsin at Madison and now Coach (JaRod) Tobler just left. Coach Kyle Ellis, an ex-teammate of mine, is a fanatic about pole vaulting and I'm just now feeling that the pieces are coming together. And now I'm a senior…”

Borozan is headed to a graduate assistant position with the EIU Lumpkin College of Business and will earn her MBA. “It's hard to believe that I'm going to be at Eastern but won't be on the team. Sports are my love, but perhaps there's a time when you have to leave your love for a little bit to work on a career. Someday, I want to tie the knowledge and my love for sport together.” 

Borozan's optimism and drive is inspiring – she's lived through so much yet accepts the road bumps of today and of years to come with a maturity and seriousness that allows her to find pride and enjoyment for herself. “I have a professional mentality – maybe because of my history or maybe because I've learned to accept me for what I am. My athletics career has brought me here. The jackpot of my life, EIU, will keep me going.”