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Christian
Hald-Mortensen
Master of
Public Administration, 2007
As student
body demographics go, GSPIA's is pretty diverse: Students
come from as far away as Kazakhstan and China to study
government and international affairs. When Christian
Hald-Mortensen enrolled at GSPIA in 2005, Denmark
was added to the long list of countries represented
by GSPIA's student body: Hald-Mortensen, a native
of Denmark majoring in Public Management, possesses
an impressive range of talents which have already
been put to good use.
During the
fall 2006 semester, Hald-Mortensen participated in
GSPIA's Washington, D.C., semester program with a
European Union Public Diplomacy internship. There,
he studied pressing global environmental issues, working
alongside writers such as European Commission Delegation
senior journalist Kasper Zeuthen. On February 28,
2007, Hald-Mortensen saw his research acumen showcased
in an op-ed piece for the San
Francisco Chronicle on climate change and greenhouse
gas emissions. The recent Chronicle article, authored
by EU ambassador to the United States John Bruton,
contains a great deal of Hald-Mortensen's writing
from his D.C. semester.
"The European
Union thinks that climate change is a serious problem,"
Hald-Mortensen says. He lauded California governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger's statewide cap on carbon dioxide
emissions as a positive effort, calling it an American
"revolution from the state level." He regards the
recent Massachusetts lawsuit against the Environmental
Protection Authority -- the state charged that the
EPA failed to regulate auto exhaust emissions -- as
another positive indicator that state governments
view global warming as a threat to human survival.
Hald-Mortensen
was awarded a J. William Fulbright Scholarship - one
of the most prestigious academic scholarships possible
-- from GSPIA in November 2005.
"I think they
are very high-caliber, very accessible during office
hours," says Hald-Mortensen of his professors at GSPIA.
He appreciates the small class sizes and the lectures
emphasizing real-life issues students will face in
the workforce. Rajendranath Mookerjee's macroeconomics
lectures and Donald Goldstein's classes, in particular,
are awe-inspiring. "[Dr. Mookerjee] has a storehouse
of knowledge," says Hald-Mortensen. "And, Dr. Goldstein
is practically oriented. When he teaches leadership,
he brings in leaders from different fields: business,
government, nonprofit.
Hald-Mortensen's
post-graduation future looks bright. Armed with speechwriting
skills and a confidence in addressing the public that
he acquired in his D.C. semester, when he took a course
from George H. W. Bush speechwriter Daniel McGroarty,
he now has a "solid grasp of political rhetoric."
In the immediate future, he's returning to Copenhagen
to complete another Master's degree in political science,
and plans to work in a related field. There's no doubt
that he will find success: his political astuteness,
combined with his GSPIA education and his facility
with language, are equipping Hald-Mortensen to take
on the world.
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