Class XI (2013-2014)

Sponsor Club: Budapest-Budavár Rotary Club, Hungary. District 1911

Host Club: Centenary Rotary Club, District 9630

Born and bred in Hungary, Zsofia earned her Master’s Degree in International Relations in 2010 at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. Eager to get international experience she studied for one semester in Barcelona, Spain and spent another working for an international NGO in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA. In 2009 she did an internship at the UN Headquarters in New York at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support (DPKO). This experience fundamentally determined the course of her path and was what ultimately turned her direction towards peace and conflict studies. Following her graduation in 2010, she worked for the NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) in Norfolk, Virginia in the USA, a four-star military command of the organization serving as a think-tank and an engine within the alliance driving innovation and development. Here, Zsofia was involved in strategic communication, public information, capability development, civil-military cooperation and multinational experiment planning (MNE 7 on the Global Commons). In 2011 she returned to Hungary to work, in a complimentary field, for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

During the Rotary Peace Fellowship Zsofia focused her Applied Field Experience to the topic of simulation as the primary tool of experience-based learning in the fields of crisis/ disaster management and conflict resolution. She did simulation design and development at Crisis Ready, a Brisbane based consultancy for crisis management and crisis communication and at the International Peace and Security Institute (IPSI) in Washington D.C. developing a simulation that will debut at The Hague Symposium this summer. She feels that simulation design allows her the freedom and creativity to incorporate her diverse yet complimentary experiences ranging from communication to international security. The simulation has the potential to positively influence people’s personal development and as such could ultimately bring about change in people’s worlds.

Apart from her professional career, Zsofia was Secretary of the Budapest-Budavár Rotaract Club, is a big fan of her country and its cuisine; organises wine-tasting tours in the Hungarian countryside and international west-coast-swing-dance events in Budapest, loves to cook, enjoys theatre, good books, great conversations and dancing.