As the forces of Slobodan Milosevic increased a reign of terror in Kosovo, the United States and NATO launched missile strikes and bombing missions in Jelena Pavlovic's hometown of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In her Kent apartment, Pavlovic watched the bombings on television and feared for her family.

Pavlovic came to the United States when she was a senior in high school. She was a foreign exchange student at Lorain High School in Lorain.

"I wanted some exposure to different cultures," she says. After graduating, she enrolled at Kent State and received a bachelor's degree in psychology and is now pursuing a master's degree in clinical psychology.

Despite her decision to stay in the United States, Pavlovic says she still has deep connections with her family back in Belgrade. During NATO's bombing campaign, bombs exploded 150 feet from her house and left debris in her front yard. She had trouble sleeping and called home every day to make sure her family was still alive.

"It was hard for me to be here," she says. "I feared for my family and friends."

Pavlovic says she wanted to be home with her family both during the bombings and also last October when a furious Serbian revolution ended Milosevic's 13 years of tyranny.

"I wish I had been home when Milosevic was overthrown by the people," she says. "My family protested in the street that night."

Pavlovic has been in the United States for seven years. Unfamiliar laws and holidays were some of the new cultural experiences she first encountered.

"We don't have an age limit on drinking alcohol in Yugoslavia," she says. "It surprises me when I hear college kids brag about consuming a lot of alcohol."

Yugoslavia does not celebrate Valentine's Day, Sweetest Day or Halloween.

"There are a lot of commercialized holidays in America," she says.

But she says she liked Halloween.

"It was fun dressing up in costumes and walking downtown," she says.

After she earns a master's degree, she plans to pursue a doctorate.

"I want to teach or practice clinical psychology, but I don't know what continent I will be on," she says.