40 under 40 – 2019 winners

Ariana Kosta

Ariana Kosta
Current City: Chicago / Mount Prospect, IL
College: Cleveland State Univ.

College Associate Management Position
Family is from Zagreb and Preko, Croatia

Ariana was born in Cleveland to Croatian immigrant parents. From a young age, they showed her how important her Croatian culture was to her family. Croatian was her first language and as a result, she often struggled in school to interact with other students. She was always the girl kicking the soccer ball around with the guys until one day her parents decided to put her in the American Zagreb Jr. Tamburitzans. After that day, she fell in love with music and dancing. She picked up her tambura for the first time and didn’t want to put it down. At the age of sixteen, she was accepted into the adult group, Zelena Polja and at the age of twenty, joined Zumbercani Orchestra and Nova Nada from Detroit. Touring Croatia with her folklore group was one of the most amazing experiences for her. Over the years, Ariana helped her mother on the New Years Eve committee to get ideas of which bands should play and pricing.

She also helped her when it came to different fundraisers for her folklore group, and helped raise money in Cleveland for Vukovar and sick children in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. She attended Cleveland State University and was involved with many organizations that let the students’ voices be heard. Upon graduation from college she knew she wanted move away from Cleveland to start a life in Chicago. In August of 2018, Ariana was offered a job at an amazing company she knew it was a good fit. She began in a sales position and within two months,was promoted to manager because of her hard work ethic. Knowing many people in Chicago, she knew that she had to join a folklore group. She joined Kud Bastina as a musician and has been involved with helping the group raise money for the church and helping with fundraisers for their future trips.

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