Class III (2005-2006)

Sponsor Club: Finland, District 1380

After achieving a Master of Social Sciences degree from the University of Tampere in journalism and mass communication & international relations, Larissa has held positions as a journalist, worked with the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and volunteered with street children in Latin America. Before coming to UQ Larissa worked with Ramboll Finnconsult in Finland as a junior consultant specialising in development cooperation (gender, human rights, rural development).

Larissa has written her thesis for the UQ from Nicaragua, where she in August started as a program officer (policy work and information) with a non governmental organisation that among other works with the ethnic and indigenous minorities in the autonomous areas of the Nicaraguan Atlantic coast. In her new position Larissa hopes to promote global social justice through advocacy work and awareness rising. Larissa is proficient in Finnish, Swedish, Spanish, and English and speaks a bit if French and German too, she also added some basic vocabulary of Urdu into her range of languages while doing her Applied Field Experience – part of the studies at the UQ – in the earthquake hit areas of Pakistan November 2005-January 2006.