Melissa Ababei
Melissa Ababei is a third-year Bachelor’s student of ‘International Relations and Organization’ (IRIO), and has been admitted to next year’s ‘Russian and East European Studies’ Master’s programme at the University of Oxford. Before coming to the University of Groningen, she acquired some experience in the field of security, politics, and law by working in two organizations in Bucharest (Romania). She worked at the Romanian senate (European Affairs Service) and the French embassy in Romania (Internal Security Service). During the latter internship, she wrote a 60-page report in French about illegal immigration, organized crime, and cyber-attacks in Romania and Moldova. Melissa is not fazed by writing a report in French, as alongside her native language (Romanian), she speaks fluent English and French, and reasonably good Russian. While doing a voluntary internship in Newcastle (UK), she, as a Romanian, taught English to adult refugees of various levels of fluency. At the same time as her Bachelor’s degree programme, Melissa followed the Honours College, which she claims taught her a great deal. As she puts it herself, it opened her eyes to the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to contemporary, complex problems.
In her letter of motivation, Melissa wrote that she was still trying to define ‘having impact’ as a concept (IMPACT appeared to be the motto of all three candidates from the Faculty of Law), but that she considers it to be a goal that you must continuously strive for. To her mind, this is best achieved through collaboration across disciplines, not only within academia but also beyond it, in society. Her CV shows just how well she puts this ideology into practice. She is actively involved with improving the design of the programme, and her Bachelor’s thesis focuses on relevant problems, namely the Ukrainian-Russian war and, linked with this, the implications of the increasing use of drones in modern warfare. She is also examining the use of disinformation in the media, something she researched as part of a study carried out by the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFAS). The subject of this study was the role of the media in radicalising and recruiting terrorists in southern Asia. Disinformation and the harmful role it can play in countries, including her own native Romania, was the subject of the good pitch she held for the jury of the GUF-100 prize.
Her supervisor during two course units in her programme wrote an exceptionally enthusiastic letter of recommendation, in which he not only drew attention to Melissa’s outstanding marks, but also to her qualities as a creative, active, team-minded student.
It is also worth mentioning that she is not only a top-level student, but also an accomplished dancer (‘competitive ballroom dancing’), who has won first prize at numerous national and international dance competitions.
