Her Esto language and identity training began early at her great-grandmother's knee and subsequently included lasteaed in Toronto, eesti algkool in Hamilton, followed by keskkool and gümnaasium in Toronto, esto guides, summers at Seedrioru and dancing with Kungla at ESTO 2000.
Anneli received her early formal education in Hamilton graduating from Westdale High School Summa Cum Laude and as an Ontario Scholar. As an honour student, Anneli's name is forever engraved in the marbled walls of Westdale High along with many other Estonian honour students before her, dating as far back as the early 60s.
While in high school Anneli participated in a program called Junior Achievement – students working with established businesses in creating their own companies. One year Anneli's group formed a company named “HanzOn”, which won Company of the Year and Shareholder's Report of the year with Anneli as Vice-President of Marketing.
In 2007 Anneli was awarded an entrance scholarship to Guelph and after graduaing with a Bachelor of Arts, Honours with a French Major and a Criminal Justice and Public Policy Minor, she proceeded to the University of Ottawa to study law.
Anneli studied in the French language program at the University of Ottawa Law School and the Licenciate of Laws (LL.L) in Civil Law degree she earned in 2010 allowed her to study the most widespread legal system in the world and qualified her to practice law in Quebec. The J.D. (Juris Doctor) National Program (Common Law) degree which Anneli earned in 2011 at Ottawa Law School qualified her to practice in Ontario and other common law jurisdictions in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
While in her final year at Ottawa, Anneli obtained her Estonian citizenship and passport which prompted her to consider continuing her studies in Europe. She applied to and was accepted to the
2-year International Masters in Economy, State, and Society (IMESS) program and was awarded the EU Erasmus Mundus scholarship to study in the politics and security stream of the IMESS program.
The first year of study of the IMESS program is offered at University College London but the second year of study occurs at a EU university of the student's own choosing, the only condition being that the language of the country where the university is located, be unfamiliar to the student; in other words the 2nd year program requires that the student learn a new language.
Due to her facility in Estonian, Anneli's first choice, the University of Tartu, was eliminated and she chose instead to study at the University of Helsinki because “she always wanted to learn Finnish anyway”. As a result, Anneli added a working knowledge of a fourth language, Finnish, to her previous fluency in English, French and Estonian. Anneli's thesis was titled “Politics, Law, and Environmental Cooperation: The Renegotiation of the 1992 Helsinki Convention”, for which she was awarded cum laude.
Anneli is currently completing the licensing process to become a lawyer in Ontario. She has been a member of korp! Amicitia since 2004.
Consulate General of Estonia
