Mia Axelsen, B.S., started her academic career in 2019 when she started a bachelor’s degree in sociology at the University of Bergen, Norway, where she is originally from. After completing one semester and realizing sociology what not the major she wanted to pursue, she decided to combine education with her interest for traveling and gaining knowledge through experiencing. Mia started Mercy University (preciously Mercy College) in New York in 2021 and obtained her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in the spring of 2023. By graduating with a 3.99 GPA and Summa Cum Laude, Mia received a diploma for the best academic performance among her graduating peers. Keeping up the good academic performance throughout her undergraduate degree also gave Mia a membership in Alpha Phi Sigma, the prestigious national Criminal Justice Honor Society.

Mia is currently pursuing her master’s degree in international Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and is expected to graduate in the spring of 2025.

During her time at John Jay, Mia has taken classes like Human Trafficking, Crime, Justice and Cultural Struggles, Drug Trafficking, and Organized Crime. Within these classes, she has learned from professors with firsthand and academic experience in the field of International Crime, and conducted research on topics like what happens to unaccompanied minors who arrive at the southern US border, labor trafficking into the US, and the connection between terrorism and organized crime. By adding an Advanced Certificate in Transnational Organized Crime, Mia is dedicated to obtaining the best possible understanding of global criminal networks.

By keeping up a GPA of 4.0, Mia was one of five people chosen to take part in the European Consortium for Political Research summer school on transnational organized crime. During the program, held at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, Austria, she learned from experts in the field of international and transnational crime, on topics like human trafficking, environmental crime, and arms trafficking. Mia also conducted a case study on a specific case of drug trafficking, which is published in the UNODC case law database, Sherloc.

Lucky enough to have traveled a great deal growing up, Mia has expanded her interest and knowledge of different cultures and languages, and how cultural differences can create difficult situations. Although limited on the language side, fluent in Norwegian and English with good knowledge in Danish, with the knowledge gained from experience over the years, she brings a multicultural perspective to her work.