Fellow:Maria Sjøblom Bjørndalen


Name Maria Sjoeblom Bjoerndalen School (Cohort) Sophia University (2021 cohort) Majoring in International Business and Economics Country Norway Email Special:EmailUser/Maria.sb1993

Bio

Maria Sjoeblom Bjoerndalen(Maria Sjøblom Bjørndalen) is a third-year student at Sophia University, where she belongs to the Faculty of Liberal Arts and is majoring in International Business and Economics. She is born and raised in Norway and decided to move to Japan in 2018 to start a new University adventure on the other side of the world. Maria believes studying in a different country and culture than her own is a valuable experience that gives you unique knowledge and understanding of how the world works, helps you grow as a person, and makes you a better world citizen. This belief has also resulted in her being an active part of the Norwegian student organization ANSA (Association of Norwegian Students Abroad). She started as the Treasurer(in charge of the economy) for the Japan chapter and is now the current Head of ANSA Japan. ANSA is an organization built on volunteer work and revolves around making a safe and inclusive environment for Norwegian students in Japan and helping them gain information about both studies and job opportunities in Japan after graduation.

Maria loves to travel, and tries to see as much of Japan as possible, when the opportunity strikes. She has become especially fund of Onsen Ryokans (Traditional Japanese hotels with hot springs), as the perfect way to get away from everyday stress. She wish to start working in Japan after graduation, hopefully within the fields of Marketing or Management.

The experience of being a part of the 2021 UIF cohort at Sophia University has given her a lot of new knowledge and experience about team work, design thinking and how to become a change-maker at her campus. She is exited to continue to develop these skills when working with implementing the students priorities at Sophia. She also hopes to use the knowledge she has gained in other parts of her life, keep growing her confidence, and hopefully positively impact other people's lives.