UCU Alumni Newsletter June 2015

In This Edition

Farewell message from the Dean

Professor Dr. Rob van der Vaart's farewell party

UCU’s new strategy

Futures Project and UCU Futures Centre; call to all UCU Alumni:

give us a snapshot of your working day!

or: want to host a visit to your workplace/ tell students about your work/ host an

intern....?

Looking back on UCU Commencement Ceremony June 5, 2015

'Keeping track’: read the story of Alumna Floortje Bijleveld (class of 2004)

‘The Eyes and Ears of College Hall’; interview with your old Housemaster, Maarten

Diederix

Summer update from University College Student Association: Tedx Utrecht University

Conference and introducing the new UCSA Board

Summer Update from Academic Student Council: Introducing Sophia Orellana (new chair)

and her team

In the next Alumni Newsletter

Keep us updated and follow us on Social Media!

Farewell message from the Dean

Dear Alumni,

The UCU community offered me agreat farewell party last Tuesday –June 23. I enjoyed it immensely. Thisdoesn’t mean that all my UCU work isnow done. I have until August 1 forloose ends and transition issues. Thenit will be over: the end of a fantasticperiod of seven years as UCU Deanand of a much longer

phase – actually sixteen years – as a teacher at UCU. UCU is an energisingenvironment to work in: full of ambition, initiative, and fun. Among the annualhighlights were the graduation (more correctly: commencement) ceremonies – Iestimate that I have shaken hands with some 1,400 of you during these ceremonies.All Alumni now, adding to the total pool of UCU Alumni which should now bealmost 3,000.I am sure that I shall think back about UCU a lot in the years to come, and I hopethat you will continue to do likewise. I have experienced that our Alumni are aprecious resource for UCU – many of you have advised UCU students about prosand cons of certain graduate programs, participated in career events, helped out atOpen Days by giving Alumni perspectives, offered internships to new generations ofUCU students, and much more. Please stay in touch!James Kennedy will start as the new Dean of UCU on October 1 – I am sure that hewill introduce himself in the next newsletter. In August and September one of theHeads of Department, Johannes Boonstra, will be Acting Dean. Professor Kennedywill inherit a strong, vibrant and healthy UCU with an impressive Alumni network.

Have a great summer, all the best to all of you,

Rob van der Vaart, (still) Dean UCU

Professor Dr. Rob van der Vaart's farewell party

On June 23 we celebrated the farewellparty of Professor Dr. Rob van derVaart, who has been UCU Dean for aperiod of 7 years. According to Rob’swish, it was an informal farewellreception, held in a tent just behindLocke. Guests were, amongst others,

Prof. Dr. Bert van der Zwaan, RectorMagnificus of Utrecht University, JamesKennedy, the new Dean and manyother representatives from theUniversity Colleges and UtrechtUniversity. UCU students and Alumniwere also present. Rob didn’t want anylengthy speeches. Instead there wereentertaining performances by studentson stage, like a persiflage on Medeaand a persiflage on Rob himself, whichhe clearly seemed to appreciate.

The only speech was given by Bert vander Zwaan who called Rob a Dean witha strong vision and someone who likesto please others. Students, UCUAlumni and Staff had written essays forRob and the submissions werecollected in a booklet. Some of theessays were

declaimed on stage. In the forword of the booklet, Bettina Nelemans, ManagingDirector at UCU, calls Rob ‘extremely approachable and personable, humorous,cheerful and spontaneous’. And Rob was ‘a pragmatist who was averse to rules andconventions’.We will miss Rob dearly, but we are happy that he shall still be active at UtrechtUniversity next academic year, as Vice Rector for Education and as UU HonoursDean.Rob, thank you for being our Dean for 7 years!

UCU 's New Strategy 2015-2019

After elaborate talks with students, staff, Alumni, the future Dean James Kennedy,the board of the university and other important stakeholders, UCU has nowpublished its new strategic programme 2015 – 2019. The aim of the document is forUCU to redefine and strengthen its position, so that the oldest Liberal Arts andSciences College in The Netherlands can maintain its pioneer and qualitybenchmark position.

The main action categories for the coming years are:A. A balanced and connected curriculum and state-of-the-art teaching and learningfacilitiesB. A diverse and connected communityC. High quality campus as a work and living environmentD. High quality organizationE. Continuing and strengthening our role within and for Utrecht University as a placefor innovation, experimentation, and agenda setting with regard to high-qualityundergraduate educationOver the coming months, these categories will be shaped into more action orientedplans. Please click here if you’d like to read the entire document.

Bettina Nelemans, Managing Director UCU

Futures Project and UCU Futures Centre;Alumni Storytelling: give us a snapshot of your working day!

A growing demand for guidanceRecent feedback from Alumni, theopinions of UCU students andcolleagues, and conversations withOpen Day visitors, have all highlighteda demand for new ways to consider thequestion “what next for UCU-leavers?”.

The question incorporates issues such as: further study; employability; curriculumorientation; student preparedness; employer relations; Alumni relations; and more.And, of course, this is not only a UCU matter. Our local discussions are part of awider UU initiative to enrich the offer of support for those entering the labour marketin NL and abroad, and/or selecting further studies. This fits into a national picture,too, where the topic is high on the institutional agenda at many Dutch universities.This demand illustrates the growing importance for UCU to further develop the wayswe help our students to prepare for the future.

What have we done so far to guidestudents and young Alumni? The annual UCU Career Conferences successfully bring organisations to

campus to help students learn moreabout various professional sectors,particular roles within them, and how tobest orientate themselves towards afuture in that area.

The 2015 Conference brought no less than 14 organisations to campus including 4where our Alumni are employed: Google, Allen & Overy, Sotheby’s and EVG Start.There is also a considerable number of internship opportunities gathered centrallyeach year by the UCU Careers Development Officer, and distributed to both Alumniand students, along with advice on how best to discover more about this. A smallpercentage of these internships come to us via Alumni.The UCU in Africa Program, the Cultural Heritage Program, and other curriculumelements bring students into practical, working contact with various developmentorganisations, museums and galleries, where their academic studies find aprofessional setting. What are we aiming for next?The increasing awareness of our responsibility as an institution to prepare studentsfor ‘life after UCU’ even better, has led to an inter-connected ‘family’ of projects withthe umbrella name ‘Connect’ whose aim is to build stronger connections betweenstudents, Alumni, employers, graduate schools, teachers and staff. One of theConnect projects is called ‘UCU Futures’, an initiative to enrich our offer ofinformation, advice and guidance to students and Alumni, moving into furthereducation and/or work. This project will help build upon existing guidance oncampus but, crucially, will also offer students and young alumni more central, visibleand accessible resources to cater for their ongoing enquiries as well as stimulatemore awareness and proactivity amongst those who want to begin looking ahead.Part of this project will be to set up the ‘Futures Centre’ on campus, an officededicated to further study and careers guidance for students considering their nextsteps.

The physical location of this Futures Centre, due for launch in the Fall 2015semester, will be a base for renewable materials, publications and other resourceswhich can support students’ future orientation, be it towards further study orprofessional work. This room will also be available for one-to-one conversations orsmall group sessions and workshops (e.g. effective networking, sector-specificlabour market information, CV-checks, interview practice, master application advice,or general job search guidance). The Futures Centre will offer ‘surgery hours’ staffedin rotation by colleagues with experience/training in these areas, and perhaps alsovisiting Alumni, employers or even specially trained students.

The UCU Futures project also aims to connect students with the outside world moreactively. It will include a series of external visits to employer premises and graduateschools, as well as a series of on-campus gatherings where outside professionalsand academics are welcomed to UCU.There is also an ambition to facilitate new mentoring relationships together with theUU’s new online mentoring platform. More information will follow soon.

Alumni can help!On a very practical note, the UCU Futures project will provide students with‘snapshots‘ of various careers and job functions. This is where you come in! Pleasehelp to give students an insight into your working day. Simply click the buttonbelow where a short form asks a few questions about you and your current work.This will then be made available as part of a wider resource in the Futures Centre.

But there is more:

Perhaps you would be willing to host a visit to your workplace by a smallgroup of UCU students?

Perhaps you would be willing to visit UCU and talk about your work and yourpathway since graduating?

This would be a great boost to the project! If you are interested please click one ofthe button's below and we will be in touch with you:

Click here to share your snapshot

Hosting a workplace visit by a small group of UCU Students

Could you offer working experience to a UCU student or young Alumnus? Fora day, a week, a month, or longer? We hope to encourage theseopportunities via our Alumni in the coming year, so if you're interested pleaseclick the button below and we will contact you:

Want to know more about the Futures Project…? Feel free to contact Mark Baldwinm.p.baldwin@uu.nl

UCU Commencement Ceremony June 5

On Friday, June 5, 2015, 192 UCU students celebrated their commencement at theStadschouwburg, Utrecht in the Douwe Egbertszaal. Together with their family,friends and UCU staff, they celebrated the fact that they will officially graduate beforeSeptember 1 as they reach completion of their final degree requirements.It was a splendid day with tropical temperatures; we couldn’t have wished for betterweather. The ceremony officially began with a procession of faculty and studentsfollowed by a word of welcome by the UCSA and our Dean, Professor Rob van derVaart. Mr. Ronald van Roeden, Deputy Secretary General of the Dutch Ministry offoreign affairs, gave the commencement speech. Mr. van Roeden is an Alumnus of

Visiting UCU to tell students/young Alumni about my work

Yes I would like to host a UCU intern

Utrecht University and Ecole National d’Administration in Paris. After a musicalinterlude, the conferring of degrees took place, which is always an important andmemorable moment for all the students.The senior class address was given by Tim Coorens, the class valedictorian 2015.Thijs Olthoff, treasurer of the University College Alumni Association addressed thestudents and welcomed them to the Alumni community. The ceremony concludedwith the ASC Teacher of the Year announcement that was awarded to LonginaJakubowska, Anthropology fellow at UCU.We want to thank the commencement team; Gisele de Souza, Marc de LiedekerkeBeaufort, Sandra Gonza and Haris Kalic and all who contributed to the success ofthis day, for their fantastic work. To our new Alumni, we wish you a very warmwelcome to the Alumni community!

Keeping track

Our alumni population consists of men and women with various nationalities anddifferent cultural backgrounds. Whichever track in life they have chosen to follow andwherever they live right now, they all share the unique experience of having studiedLiberal Arts and Sciences at University College Utrecht.In this edition of the UCU Alumni Newsletter, we are very proud to present the storyof Floortje Bijleveld (class of 2004).

Floortje Bijleveld, Class of 2004 International Category LeaderFoodservice at Friesland Campina UCU: BA, Social Science After UCU: Erasmus UniversityRotterdam; LLM, International,European and Comparative Law Erasmus University Rotterdam;MSc, International Economics andBusiness.

Last time we met was at a UCU openday in November, where you werewith a prospective student that youare guiding through the‘Giving Back’ program. Tell us aboutit! 'Giving Back' is a great program that

aims to create better guidance towards

higher education for talented high school students in the Netherlandswith a disadvantaged background. Guidance is being offered in a 2 year [it changedthis year, now it’s a 1 year] mentor program where a young professional volunteersto coach a promising high school student during the period when they have tochoose what they want to do after high school. Parents of these students usuallydon’t have the background to guide their children because they simply are not awareof all the options.

As a mentor you are matched to one high school student, which makes it possible toreally build up a good relationship. High school students that want to participate musthave good grades, but also have to show that they’re committed by writingmotivation letters and doing interviews. The organization Giving Back organizesworkshops that high school students have to attend, focusing on talent developmentand personal growth. Students are also given the opportunity to join company visits,such as to Philips or law firm Allen&Overy, but they also get to meet local politiciansat the municipal home. As a mentor you can choose to join these activities, but themain contribution lies in the one-on-one coaching: the mentor introduces the menteeto new activities, networks, and informs the mentee about different subjects you canstudy after high school.

Mentor and mentee can also meet each other on an informal basis, like going to thecinema or having dinner together. My mentee and I have weekly contact viaWhat’sApp and we met up for dinners or attended open days like the one at UCU.She recently got her diploma with flying colors and will apply for UCU in October. It isvery rewarding to see her developments over the last 2 years and I highlyrecommend all UC Alumni in the Netherlands to sign up as a mentor! Do you want to know more about Giving Back? Visit their website for more

information: www.givingback.nl

Read the full interview with Floortje here

‘The Eyes and Ears of College Hall’; interview with Maarten Diederix

All UCU Alumni will surely rememberhim as the ‘eyes and ears of collegehall‘. But how well do you know yourold housemaster? How does heperceive nowadays students compared

to the first cohorts of 1998 ? And whatare his plans for the future?Find out all about it in this interview.

Maarten, tell us something about your childhood; I heard you grew up in quitesome exotic places? My father was a geologist and that’s the kind of professionthat you don’t practice in the Netherlands. So we moved to South Africa in the ‘60s; Iwas two at the time and had an elder brother. Two other brothers were born in SouthAfrica. My father worked for a gold and diamond mine in the countryside, south ofPretoria, The Orange Free state.It was the time of apartheid and I can vaguely remember that we sat on benches withsigns saying ‘Whites only’. But as children we were not aware of apartheid and Iused to have a lot of black friends. After 5 years we moved on to Botswana, wherewe really lived in the middle of the bush with gates around the property to keep thewild animals out. After Botswana came Zambia where we lived for 7 years. Here Iattended the Sacred Heart Convent School , that was led by strict nuns. Only 4 outof 2,000 students were white, but we didn’t experience any problems with that.Then my parents sent us to boarding school in the UK for two years; which was agreat experience.What was it like to return to the Netherlands after so many years in Africa? Iwas sixteen when we moved back to the Netherlands in 1978. The whole school waswaiting for us because 4 black kids from Africa were supposed to arrive. After ourarrival, everyone was quite disappointed….When I arrived in the Netherlands Icouldn’t write one word of Dutch and had quite some difficulties fitting in. After highschool I had to do military service and I decided to join the commando’s. Thisexperience has strongly formed me. It meant participating in NATO-practices andbeing away on foreign missions only; I loved it since living abroad was in my blood.The downside was that after a year only 18 out of 140 soldiers were left.And then? Did you want to follow the footsteps of you father and become ageologist? Well, not a geologist, but I wanted to get an engineering degree in Oiland Gas and the technical college in Den Helder had just included this in theirprogram. I had a tough time studying there, following 23 subjects almost at the sametime. I came one point short for 1 subject and didn’t pass in the end, which was trulydisappointing. But things turned out well eventually and I graduated in Logistics.When my wife was accepted for a job as a nurse at UMC Utrecht, I decided to movewith her. I started looking for jobs, which was tough since at that point in the 1990’sthe unemployment figures were comparable to now. I did all sorts of temporary jobsand my career at Utrecht University started in the mailroom....read more

Summer update from University College Student Association: Tedx UtrechtUniversity Conference and introducing the new UCSA Board

What has the UCSA been up to?Finally time for another UCSA Update!Unfortunately for us it is the last one ofthis year! We had wonderfulnegotiations with the biggest beerbreweries in The Netherlands in orderto see which brewer suits the UCSAbest for post January 1, 2016.

After an intense period of negotiationswe opted for the company with thematching profile and the best offer:HEINEKEN! In-between a majestic andclassically emotional Golden Keys anda well-finished and popularly visitedBeach Party in Stairway to Heaven, wehad the you-have-heard-of-it-before,finally and first-ever: TEDxConference!

TEDx: Connecting the DotsOn May 6, 2015, history was written, tosay the least. The UCSA Team, TEDxUtrecht University, proudly introducedtheir line-up of performers and sixspeakers! They included: UCU-Alumnus, Joram van Rheede (pictureon right), who spoke about ‘SmartSpecs’, his work on the development

and testing of a set of electronic glasses designed to help visually impaired peoplesee better. In addition, UCU-Alumnus Spencer Heijnen (picture below), spoke about‘From HappyMe to HappyWe’, where he leveraged the latest scientific insights andinspired by ancient traditions of wisdom and compassion. He spoke about howothers can build happier more meaningful lives. The conference was fully booked,the experience superseded expectations and the platform paved for more futureTEDx! Please like the Facebook Page in order to watch the (upcoming) videos and

stay posted for if you want to speak or visit next year!

What’s Next?At the moment the Association is (almost) in full hands of the new Board of sixwonderful ladies! We have prepared them with a thorough, detailed andpersonalised transition period for another wonderful year ahead. Their piece isbelow…

Dear Alumni,Hereby I would like to introduce the 17th UCSA board ('15-'16). We are TineMeerdink, Inky Vos, Ying Visser, Judith Harmsen, Daan Schuttenbelt and FeliceDavids.Currently we are working on the organisation of introweek. You might remember thisexciting week: your new set of caring parents, the pub crawl, the first real lifeencounter with Maarten Diederix, and the numerous times you decided never todrink again, but somehow ended up doing it anyway the day after.But intro week is only just the start. There are various exciting events planned andwe are looking forward to work on these. On some of these events we hope to workmore closely together with you. For example TEDxUU, which we can hopefullyorganise again. Furthermore, we are curious about what you believe to be importantfor the UCSA and UCAA. So, if you have any comments or questions, please do nothesitate to contact us via ucu.ucsa@uu.nl or visit our campus.We will keep you updated on our work and are looking forward to hearing from you.Kind regards,on behalf of the UCSA board 2015-2016,Tine Meerdink (Chair)

Summer Update from Academic Student Council: Introducing Sophia Orellana

(new chair) and her team

Dear Alumni,I would like to use this opportunity tointroduce you to the new ASC board!Next year the council will be in thehands of Konstantin Tobias (StudentAssessor), Ayla von Essen, HeleneKoekkoek, Vera Janssen (AcademicAffairs Officers) and who currentlyaddresses you, Sofia Orellana (Chair).

We are an enthusiastic group ofpeople, and we have been workingcontinuously through our transitionperiod to guarantee we hit the groundrunning at the start of the comingsemester.We have an exciting yearahead, especially with the arrival of thenew Dean James Kennedy! We hopeto use this opportunity to make asignificant contribution to the academiclives of our fellow UCUers and those tocome!

Our plans for the coming year:After a lot of brainstorming and thinking, the new council has concluded that we willfocus on three main aspects during the coming year, in to truly support and representstudents in their academics:First, we will work on our visibility, making sure students are aware (and have a gooddegree of clarity) of what our tasks are and how we can help them. Second, we aimto keep on contributing to the improvement of UCU’s quality of education inside ofthe classroom; specifically by working closely with the fellows and heads ofdepartments, as well as by listening carefully to the student body’s input. Third, wewill also work on enabling a rich academic life outside of the classroom that preparesfuture Alumni for the graduate life. Contact us!Finally, we would like to invite you to email us with ideas about how you think UCUeducation could be improved. We reckon that there is a valuable perspective to be

gained from those who are already looking back to their college years. You canreach us at asc@uu.nl

In the Next Alumni Newsletter

In the next alumni newsletter, amongst other things:

Start of the academic yearIntroduction of the new Dean, James KennedyUpdate on the Futures Centre

Keep us Updated

We appreciate staying in touch with you! If you haven't selected UCU as your education on LinkedIn yet (and for instance are usingUtrecht University), we would still like to encourage you to do so. This enables you to trackyour fellow UCU alumni with just one click. To view the page click here.

Change of address? Please inform us via ucu.alumni@uu.nl

Would you like to participate in an interview for this newsletter? Have you made aninteresting career move? Do you have a suggestion for a topic that might be of interest toyour fellow Alumni? Please send us your suggestions via: ucu.alumni@uu.nl

Do you no longer wish to receive mail from us? Please contact us via: ucu.alumni@uu.nl

Contact details Alumni Office:Mirjam Nordholt MA - Alumni OfficerRoom 113 College Hall | University College Utrecht | Utrecht University | Campusplein 1,3584 ED Utrecht, the Netherlands | +31 30 253 97 84| m.nordholt@uu.nl

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