Akif Cogo says St. Louis is an excellent place to find a healthy work-life balance

Akif Cogo never planned to become the leader of a nonprofit organization with more than 70 regular volunteers and a multifaceted mission. He was simply an undergraduate history student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), working to complete his senior thesis.

Cogo’s roots in Bosnia-Herzegovina are deep. His family had held property in the small town of Zenica for several centuries, and it was a beautiful place to grow up, he says, surrounded by hills and rivers. His family survived the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, but they sought a safe haven in its aftermath, following Cogo’s uncle to St. Louis in 2001. Akif was just 17 years old. Read more on our Mosaic stories.