Contact:
Aske Nørby Bonde, andrewau@live.ca  
Dixon Tam, SFU media relations, 778.782.8742, dixont@sfu.ca

Photo: http://at.sfu.ca/CZdbWt

For a complete list of Spring 2013 B.C. graduands, listed by city, please see: http://at.sfu.ca/CyYuwF

Aske Nørby Bonde has been putting Simon Fraser University’s motto, “Engaging the World,” into practice, quite literally.

An international student from Denmark, he convocates this month with a bachelor of arts in international studies and French, and will begin graduate school in Switzerland this fall.

As well, he has just returned from a six-month internship at the Danish embassy in Burkina Faso, Africa, where he helped manage Denmark’s bilateral development aid to Burkina Faso.

Bonde says he chose SFU for its international studies program, flexible trimester system and proximity to Vancouver, with its natural beauty and multiculturalism.

And while the internship was not in partnership with SFU, Bonde says his education complemented his experiences in Burkina Faso.

“I found it fascinating to help with a security conference, given my specialization in conflict and security studies at SFU,” says Bonde, who wrote an honours thesis on the lack of reliable demographic statistics in sub-Saharan Africa.

A field visit to observe how farmers benefit from the embassy’s development support was “incredibly rewarding because I was face-to-face with exactly the people, institutions and economic incentives I had learned about for the past four years.”

While Bonde enjoyed working at the embassy, he did endure some hardships. The 30-plus C evenings in his non-air conditioned room made it difficult to sleep, causing his productivity to suffer.

“My colleagues had swimming pools, drivers, maids and guards, but I now understand that such amenities are quite necessary in order to be productive in those surroundings,” he says.

A week after his arrival, France started a military intervention in Mali, leaving Burkina Faso vulnerable to targeting by extremists.

“We had to revise our evacuation strategies, reconsider our transportation habits, and use increased discretion about our work,” says Bonde.

This fall, he begins a master’s degree in international development at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. 

His goal is to work in development and humanitarian assistance.

“At the risk of sounding naive,” he says, “I’d like to help push for more just living conditions for vulnerable population groups.”

Simon Fraser University is Canada's top-ranked comprehensive university and one of the top 50 universities in the world under 50 years old. With campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey, B.C., SFU engages actively with the community in its research and teaching, delivers almost 150 programs to more than 30,000 students, and has more than 120,000 alumni in 130 countries.

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Simon Fraser University: Engaging Students. Engaging Research. Engaging Communities.