top of page

Ásta Kristrún

Ásta Kristrún is a pioneer in study counseling in Iceland.
As director for 18 years, she built up and shaped the Study Counseling of the University of Iceland and worked on the development of studies in study counseling at the University of Iceland. She was also a pioneer in the affairs of disabled students, which led to legislation by the University of Iceland for that issue.

 

Ásta has a rich organizational talent that the University of Iceland used extensively in large projects, such as the University of Iceland's presentations at home and abroad and the first graduation of students in Laugardalshöll.
After graduating from the University of Iceland, she directed the performing arts for the conference "Women and Democracy" at the Borgarleikhúsið, where Hillary Clinton was "Key Speaker".

 

Child protection issues have been on her mind, she sat on the Icelandic Child Protection Council for 4 years and on behalf of the council she sat on  The Ministry of Justice's Artificial Insemination Committee for 9 years.

 

Ásta founded Hollráð's own consulting firm, where she offered companies and institutions consulting and human resources courses.
There were also week-long courses for children aged 5 -12, where the topics were expression, etiquette, communication, meditation and nature conservation.  
 

Ásta lived and still lives on her experience working at the Steinahlíð Orphanage for five summers and making material and presenting in "Stundinni okkar".

 

"Wealth seniors" course  which Ásta developed for those looking forward to retirement received EU recognition as a "Model of Good Example".

 

She worked on two web-based software tools based on her theories; The first was the NemaCode interest analysis, which received funding from the European Union's Leonardo program, and the other was Nemanet, a web-based tool for efficient information and knowledge acquisition for students, which was funded by Rannís.

 

Ásta's artistic talents came in handy when she designed and renovated old houses that aroused great interest and led to countless publications and coverage in the print media and television.

'IMG_7883-1 copy-s.jpg

Ásta by Húsið á Eyrarbakki, where her great-grandmother and namesake was born.

For the past 6 years, Ásta has managed Bakkastofa, a cultural center in Eyrarbakki that has been visited by a number of Icelandic and foreign guests. At the same time, Ásta has made a name for herself as a writer with her book "Det sem dvelur í þögninni". Bakkastofa has been responsible for programs in the spirit of education / entertainment for children of all ages

ÁSTA KRISTRÚN - ENGLISH

Ásta Kristrún Ragnarsdóttir 
- a Genuine Renaissance Woman

An avid horserider from the age of 6, Ásta grew up in Reykjavík, or rather in the scarcely populated Reykjavík countryside, today a busy East Side district of Commerce and Industry. As a teenager she spent a year and a half in the US and after graduating from high school, she moved to France to study Latin and Greek for two years.

​

Realizing that she and the classics were not an ideal match, Ásta moved back home and graduated in Psychology and French, combining the two by writing her final essay in French on the renowned Child Development Pychology pioneer, Jean Piaget.

During this period Ásta met her future partner, companion and husband Valgeir Guðjónsson on a mountain hike which has lasted for more the 40 years.

​

Together the young couple moved with their 2 year old son to Norway to study in the old Viking Capital of Trondheim. Here Ásta enrolled in the first Student Counseling program in Scandinavia and when the couple returned to Iceland  in 1981, Ásta was recruited to spearhead the development of The Student Counseling Sevice at the University of Iceland. She was the Director of Student Counceling Services and was primus motor in mapping and shaping the field of Student Conceling in Iceland.

 

​

Ásta left the University to pursue other interests, including the development of practical tools to help students choose a suitable education, based on their interests and matching them with a fast expanding choices of subjects and fields available. Ásta elaborated on the fundamental theory of Human Interst Fields, the RIASEC model by the late and great Dr. John Lewis Holland, a professor at Notre Dame University in Maryland, USA. 

She met with the old master at his home, where they discussed Ásta's approach, NemaCode. Dr. Holland gave Ásta his blessing and encouraged her to take it further.

AD 1999  - Ásta Kristrún, Visual Director of the  First "Women and Democracy International Conference"
in Reykjavík, with the Keynote Speaker,  an American lady. Ásta is on the left.

Ásta with the late Dr. JL Holland in his Baltimore home.

During her busy professional life Ásta found the time to nurture her considerable talent as a designer. She did the interior design for 3 apartments in downtown Reykjavík where the family lived, which was duly reported in fashion and interior design magazines and TV shows.

Ásta's passion and determination to provide her clients with constructive advice on matters regarding  studies and career is reflected in her ingenious Nemanet webtool. A focus-enhancing personal website for students and professionals who need to make sense of various content in order to make it useable in the various circumstances that call for decisions based on sound knowlegde.

In 2017 Ásta wrote a Family Novel "What Dwells in Silence", based on the stories of her colorful grandmothers and aunts, dating back to the beginning of the 19th Century.

​

It was warmly reiceived as countless remarks of impressed readers have messaged to the author.

bottom of page