Jasmina Bajraktarevic wanted to be an astrophysicist.

She dreamt of life beyond the stars but was grounded by some of the darker aspects of life on earth. Working with refugees has exposed Jasmina to the best and worst traits of humankind. She has been bound by these terrestrial concerns as both a provider and recipient of services to help the world's displaced peoples and victims of human rights abuses.

Jasmina's first experience of refugee camps was in the early 1990s as a young Bosnian student, studying astrophysics in Croatia, who volunteered to teach maths and physics.

"They didn't have any teachers for the camps, so I just went to help out… I never had any intention of doing social work," said the young woman who is now graduating with first class honours from the Charles Sturt University Bachelor of Social Work degree program. She was presented with a University Medal - the highest academic honour for graduating students - at today's CSU Wagga Wagga campus graduation ceremony (Thursday 11 May).

Jasmina, 28, undertook her course by distance education while working in Sydney with the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). She is also a former nominee of the Reebok Human Rights Award, for which she was lauded as making an outstanding contribution to the STARTTS service, and to refugee issues and human rights advocacy in Australia.

As a refugee from the former Yugoslavia herself, Jasmina began working with STARTTS as a bicultural counsellor for clients traumatised by war, torture and refugee trauma. She was also involved with community development, advocacy for refugees in Australia in general, liaison with refugee organisations in other parts of the world, and was selected to represent the Australian National Committee for Refugee Women at the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

"I had no intentions of doing anything like this when I first went to university in Zagreb… I sort of thought I might even get to go into outer-space one day!" Jasmina said.

"I went to teach at the camps for three weeks and stayed for six months. After that I worked at the head office of an organisation called Sunflower - an implementing partner of the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees. Then I became a refugee myself.

"Once my parents escaped Bosnia and my family was reunited in Croatia we all fled to Australia together. My parents have since returned, but my brother and I are staying here. In this sort of work I see the best and worst of humanity. Learning about the experiences of some of the clients I deal with makes me sad, but they can also be highly inspirational. Sometimes the work is draining, but often it is energising.

"Every life you touch and every person you deal with you learn so much from, it means more than the words can express… I started out in the camps just doing little things - helping organise women's groups and childcare - and soon realised that work with human beings was much more important than my physics studies."