Tiril Høye Rahn was sitting in front of her television one evening at 14 years old. Forget homework, her eyes were glued to a documentary about women’s rights in Iran.
“I remembered it so clearly,” the international relations graduate recalls. “It was a documentary about women’s rights after the Iranian Revolution. I was just 14, but it really stuck with me, what people, or specifically women, from the other side of the world were going through after 1979.”
She wanted to do something about it. Tiril went straight to the dinner table to ask her mum how she could work on it.
“Why don’t you call the Prime Minister? I think they work on issues like that.”
So she did.
Tiril picked up the phone and called the Norwegian Prime Minister’s office. The call started with a “hello,” followed up with: “I’m Tiril. I’m 14. And I’d like to see how I can work on issues that are happening in Iran.”
The response was polite, but practical, especially for a 14-year-old with no degree or work experience. The Prime Minister’s office suggested she try Norway’s Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs instead.
“I said the same thing I told the Prime Minister’s office, and to my surprise, they were really kind,” Tiril laughs. “But they explained that they normally take people with a master’s degree and two years of work experience. And I had just started eighth grade.”
Tiril at the Peace ResearchInstitute in Oslo. Source: LinkedIn/Tiril Høye Rahn
The life-changing phone call and a full-circle moment
For many teenagers, that would be the end of the story. But for Tiril, it was just the beginning.
She remembers thinking how urgent this was. So, she tried one more place: the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo.
To her surprise, they asked her to send in her CV and to come in for an interview. But there was a small problem… she didn’t have a CV — she was only 14.
“I sat down and made my very first CV,” she shares. “It basically said I played volleyball and that I was the class representative.”
Apparently, the eagerness to work and learn was itself a qualification.
The Nobel Peace Centre offered her an internship once a week, and she said yes immediately.
Tiril stayed at the Nobel Peace Centre for eight years, working part-time while finishing school.
“I was the youngest employee the entire time I was there,” she says. “But it shaped my interest from a very early age.”
The experience placed her face-to-face with some of the world’s most influential changemakers.
One encounter in particular felt almost surreal — meeting Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and activist who was awarded theNobel Peace Prize for her work on human rights in Iran.
“In a way, it was a full circle moment,” Tiril shares. “The issue that had first caught my attention on the TV one night was suddenly right in front of me.”
Tiril has worked for the Nobel Peace Centre, Hedayah, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in New York City, NATO and PRIO. Source: LinkedIn/Tiril Høye Rahn
Chasing a dream that is “beyond reach”
Perhaps the phone call helped lay the groundwork for something that, at 14, almost seemed impossible.
However, to work in big organisations, Tiril knew she needed a master’s degree and two years of work experience, based on the call she had with the Prime Minister’s office.
So here was her plan:
- Study abroad
- Get a master’s degree
- Get relevant internships
Tiril was accepted into a newly opened “United World Colleges” campus in Germany, joining a cohort of just 100 students from around 85 countries.
“It completely opened up my world,” she says. “I met people from countries I had never heard about before. But what really stayed with me were the friendships.”
Tiril Høye Rahn attended the United World College (UWC) Robert Bosch College in Germany to pursue an International Baccalaureate.
From there, Tiril continued studying abroad. She attended New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi for a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in Peace Studies in 2016, drawn by its global student body and the opportunity to study across multiple countries.
She graduated Magna Cum Laude (top 10%) in 2020.
“I could have moved back to Norway,” she explains. “But I knew what I would learn outside the classroom would be different in Abu Dhabi.”
Her studies at NYU Abu Dhabi took her even further, including time in Shanghai and New York. While in the US, she secured an internship at the United Nations (UN) — something her 14-year-old self would call “beyond reach” and geek out over.
“I had the chance to sit in the Security Council,” she says. “I was a Norwegian, interning for the UK mission in New York. It felt like everything in my life was coming together.”
Tiril is a Master’s and PhD in International Relations graduate from the University of Oxford. Source: LinkedIn/Tiril Høye Rahn
Oxford and an unexpected PhD in International Relations
Tiril was one step closer to her dreams; all she needed now was a Master’s degree.
So, she applied to the University of Oxford, another dream that was “beyond reach”. But she got in for a Master of Philosophy in International Relations, started in 2020 and graduated in 2022.
However, another opportunity came — one she wasn’t expecting.
“I was the one person in my friend group who was absolutely not going to do a PhD,” she says. “I had offers for some junior positions in international organisations.”
But then came a piece of advice from a familiar voice: her mother.
“She told me, ‘A junior job offer will remain at your doorstep. But the chance to do a doctorate at Oxford only comes once.’”
Tiril knew her mum was right, took the advice, and never looked back.
In 2022, she started her PhD in International Relations at the University of Oxford. She graduated in 2025.Her doctoral research focused on UN peacekeeping, work she combined with a practical year at NATO.
Today, her efforts since she was 14 years old have paid off.
Tiril has recently started her job in security diplomacy at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on track to work in diplomacy — it has come full circle.
