“ON THE LADDER OF SUCCESS” WITH PROF.DR. ANA PAVLOVSKA DANEVA: MY GRANDMOTHER’S WORDS ABOUT BEING A LAWYER WHEN I GROW UP, PREDESTINATED ME TO CHOOSE LAW

My grandmother had the biggest influence on me. She was an exceptional woman, she lived with us and cared for me and my brother. I think that her words: “When you grow up, you will be a lawyer”, as well as the love with which she talked about my grandfather, who was a lawyer as well, largely predetermined my choice of studies – says prof. Dr. Ana Pavlovska-Daneva for her coquetry with legal science from an early age and career growth to the higher education title of a full professor.

Prof. Dr. Ana Pavlovska-Daneva is a full professor at the Faculty of Law “Iustinianus Primus” at the University “St. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje. Her teaching subjects are in the field of administrative law and public administration at all three cycles of studies at the Faculty of Law.

Recently, in a survey by Fakulteti.mk, the students chose her as one of the most inspiring professors.

She was born and raised in Skopje but has experienced living in many other environments and places. Professor Pavlovska-Daneva always saw the stay outside Skopje to be in a certain time frame, so that she can return to her hometown.

– I was born and raised in Skopje. I spent four years of my childhood and earliest youth in Moscow, Russia, and later as a young scientist, I stayed for a year in Florida, USA. For a short time, I worked and stayed at the United Nations headquarters in Vienna, Austria as well. I spent the rest of my life in Skopje, and it seems to me that in the future, if the opportunity arises to live in another country, it will be again with a set time frame, after which I will return to Skopje. I can’t leave Skopje, no matter how small and suffocating it may seem to me sometimes. – says Pavlovska-Daneva.

A curious and ambitious child who tried everything, even singing in a choir

A curious and ambitious child, Pavlovska-Daneva wanted to try all the activities that made her life dynamic. She played sports, read many books, and even had ambitions to try out as a singer in the school choir, but according to her, her vocal abilities did not allow her to succeed in that field.

– I loved to study and to read, so I often went to my favorite neighborhood library in Karposh and sat for hours among the books. I also played handball for the school team, I was a member of the children’s ski club at Popova Sapka, and for a while I also practiced karate. I finished all English language courses at the Center for Foreign Languages ​​in Karposh, I went with my aerobics and athletics friends to Partizan, I rode bicycles, I spent the winter weekends on the skating rink on Kale, and the summer ones at the pool in Karposh. I think that at school I attended all possible so-called sections, I would have sung in the school choir if I had vocal abilities, but that’s when I experienced my only failure. Now I laugh and tell it as an anecdote, but it was quite a traumatic experience for me then.

Her motive was the high intellectual standards set by her family

Growing up in a family of intellectuals, Pavlovska-Daneva always struggled to reach the high expectations and standards set by her loved ones. Her brother that’s nine years older than her, was an excellent student, and Ana, as his successor at the same school, “Vera Ciriviri-Trena” in Skopje, took that as a motive plus. She also started writing poetry, but when your father is the writer, poet, journalist and publicist Jovan Pavlovski, the expectations were constantly growing.

– My brother had set such a high standard that for a long time my main goal was to reach it. When I enrolled in the first grade, I stumbled upon the same teacher, and then we had the same class teacher as well. It was terribly difficult to repeat his results and I think that was an additional incentive for me to learn. I loved writing poetry from an early age. On the other hand, my father was at the peak of his poetic and writing career at the time and I was never encouraged to read my works to him, I was probably nervous about what his criticism would be. After my doctorate, I was a columnist for “Utrinski Vesnik” for a long time and I was proud that he reads my columns with pleasure and a lot of praise. I learned to express myself correctly from my mother (the best Macedonian language proofreader in the world), to pronounce the Macedonian literary language correctly, to write without significant proofreading mistakes, and that helped me a lot in writing and publishing scientific papers. None of them put any pressure on me to choose my studies or profession, nor in my studies.

She left “Lomonosov University” for UKIM in Skopje

Anna decided to study law because she wanted to take part in debates and argue her views. The topics that intrigued her were most often related to the defense of human rights or the definition of their limits. Intimately, she also wanted to continue the path of her grandfather, who, unfortunately, she had never met because he died early and tragically in World War II.

– My oral skills probably helped me to quickly and easily decide that I would study law, at that time believing that I would be a lawyer. High school in Moscow lasted shorter than in our country, and in addition, I finished two years in one. Thus, at a very early age I enrolled at the Faculty of Law at the Moscow State University “Lomonosov” where I completed the first year of studies. Studying at such a world-class university was an incredible experience for me. Unfortunately, after finishing the first year, I realized that due to the differences in the legal systems of the countries, with the diploma from “Lomonosov”, no matter how significant, I will never be able to practice law in my country. That is why I continued my studies and completed them at the Faculty of Law at UKIM in Skopje.

– I have never had a dilemma about my choice of studies. I have not failed any exam; I did not have any difficulties during my studies. I have not missed a lecture, and such a student life led me to make a huge number of friends, my colleagues and I spent whole days in the amphitheaters, on the stairs and in the college buffet, we learned a lot, but we also had a lot of fun. Often, after the lectures, late in the day, we continued our hang out at the bars throughout the center of Skopje.

She wanted to become a lawyer, but found herself more in legal theory

Although her initial goal was to become a lawyer, Anna realized through her studies that theory was what attracted her the most. Thanks to the excellent assessment of Professor Borce Davitkovski, Ana started the long and successful journey to gaining the title of professor.

– I enrolled at the Faculty of Law wanting to be a lawyer. My parents even bought me a place in Skopje for my graduation that was intended for a law office. Already in the third year I realized that I am primarily interested in theory. Since I graduated from college at a very young age, I had no hesitation in pursuing my postgraduate studies. I enrolled in civil law studies, wanting to study civil law, to volunteer in a law office, then to take a bar exam and be a lawyer specializing in civil law relations.

– I was active in all the lectures with the professors who allowed activity in classes. This is probably how prof. Davitkovski, at the very beginning of my postgraduate studies met me in the hallway of the faculty and offered me to start working as a demonstrator at the Department of Administrative Law and Public Administration. I was in a big dilemma because at that time I was only interested in civil law, and I had to change the direction in which I had already passed an exam. However, I decided to listen to him, and I did not make a mistake. I switched my studies to legal and political sciences.

– I am infinitely grateful to prof. Davitkovski for that, as well as to the other professors from the department who welcomed me: prof. Simeon Gelevski and prof. Naum Grizo. Although all three were famous, big names in law, and I was only their graduate, they accepted me as their collaborator and without hesitation shared their knowledge with me. I learned a lot from all three of them. Because of them I understood and easily fell in love with administrative-legal science. Today I am convinced that there isn’t a more significant legal discipline than administrative law.

Nikola was born after receiving her master’s degree, and Viktor, after her doctorate

In parallel with building her academic status, Anna started her family. First, as a master student, she and her husband Darko, who is also a university professor, had a son, Nikola, and after a successful doctorate, Viktor was born.

– I completed my studies in four years. Then I enrolled on my post-graduate studies, when the Teaching-Scientific Council of the faculty selected me as a demonstrator for a group of subjects in the field of administrative law and public administration. I was 22 years old, and I taught exercises and conducted exams with second and fourth year students, who were older than me, so there were various situations in which great skill was needed to achieve and maintain the desired authority.

– I formed my family in that period. I got married after passing all the postgraduate exams, and two years later I gave birth to Nikola, my first son, after I got my master’s degree. I gave birth to my younger son Viktor after my doctorate.

It took her 10 years to become an assistant professor

It took Ana ten years to earn the title of assistant professor, after she initially became a demonstrator. She never separated her ambitions and career advancement from her private life, and she and her husband complemented each other well in that segment, both aware of the needs of their professions, while perfectly balancing it with family life.

– Like most employees at the Faculty of Law, I have climbed all the ladders of progress: demonstrator, junior assistant, assistant, assistant professor, associate professor and full professor. It took me ten years to become an assistant professor. I think that it is impossible to become a professor with less than ten years of university experience, which includes postgraduate studies, assistantship and research work.

– It takes a lot of sacrifice, sleepless nights, deprivation of certain pleasures, but is it not the same even if you start a family ten years later? Professional career and ambition do not last only until the formation of a family, they do not stop, they continue even after a family is formed. At some point the two things will have to go hand in hand, both career and parenting, whether it be early in life or later.

– The most important thing is to have an understanding with the partner and to make a good organization of time. When my husband was abroad in Sweden, I fully dedicated myself to two-month-old Nikola. When I got the chance to work at Florida State University, he and Nikola came with me and supported me. At one time, one of us devoted more time to work and career development, and the other to family and children.

What she requires from her students is to build and express their own views

– I cannot hide my feelings when after an exam, graduation, or master’s degree they come to thank me and tell me that I have been an example in their life or that they want to become lawyers like me, that they consider me successful and want me to share some advice with them – says Professor Pavlovska-Daneva.

She asks her students for something more than what is in the books. She asks them to watch / read the news, to follow domestic and international political processes, to attend cultural events, build and express their own views, express public criticism of important social developments. Only such a versatile person will be a good lawyer and professional.

Photo: Private archive
Author: Nikola Petrovski