I graduated high school in Switzerland in 2011 and volunteered at the World YWCA (World Young Women’s Christian Association), an organization that helps impoverished women around the world to gain an education and start their own businesses. Since my mom is German-Czech, I grew up having holidays in Prague, and I already knew the place and understood the language enough to get around. In the beginning, I went to Charles university for a year to strengthen myCzech. After acquiring university level of the language I began to think about what exactly I wanted to study.

I decided to start my BA studies in Business, focusing on marketing and advertising. I mostly enjoyed the creative and psychological aspects of marketing. After two years of studying business the refugee crisis began to be more publicized in the media and as I my mother worked for a humanitarian organization, such issues were daily topics at our dinner table. I began to be more interested in the current political issues, rather than profit margins and how to sell a product to the public. It wasn’t until the end of 2015, when my mother was interviewed by a German newspaper concerning the migration of refugees in through Serbia and into the EU, that I realized what I was really passionate about. In 2016 I decided to use my knowledge about marketing for political rather than businesses issues, so I enrolled in the AAU International Relations school.

Photo Courtesy of Sofia Sollo