From April 2020 until December 2021 I worked at TU/e innovation Space as a student assistant for the education cluster. TU/e innovation Space is the center of expertise for challenge-based learning and student entrepreneurship at TU/e. Additionally, it is a learning hub for education innovation and an open community where students, researchers, industry, and societal organizations can exchange knowledge and develop responsible solutions to real world-challenges. In my work as student assistant I supported the education cluster with the promotion of courses and challenged-based learning. Next to this I was involved in the development of a project documentation platform that would allow students to showcase their projects to clients and establish a portfolio about their work at the TU/e.
From September 2019 - February 2021 I was a tutor at the faculty of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology. During this time I have guided and coached first, second and third year Industrial Design Bachelor students. The coaching mainly focused on the development of their professional identity as a designer and their vision on designing. Additionally, it included giving lectures about certain elements of our education and providing the students with feedback on their work.
I am an ambassador for and finalist of The Young Lady Business Academy. The Young Lady Business Academy is an initiative of Elske Doets, businesswoman of the year 2017. The academy aims to connect ambitious young women to share their vision and expand their networks. In June 2020 we came together for a week full of masterclasses to learn from several experts about different elements inherent to being a businesswoman. My goal was mainly to learn about setting up my own business and to gain knowledge on how to deal with prejudices against female entrepreneurship. In the end, I made it to the final 20 girls that were allowed to pitch their professional dream (we started with a group of over 300 applications).
In 2018 I participated in the Universiteitsstrijd as part of team TU/e. During one day, fourteen teams, one from each Dutch university, compete against each other to work out a business case. At the end of the day, the best concept wins. The assignment focused on coming up with an idea to prevent burnout within companies by improving physical and mental health. We came up with a personal coach in the form of a robot, to stimulate break taking and social activities with colleagues. After pitching our idea several times, we were chosen as winners of this edition of the Universiteitsstrijd! Achmea had initially shown interested in the idea, but no further steps were taken.
In the year of 2018 - 2019 I was part of a competitive women's eight crew. We trained 6 to 7 times a week to prepare for our races. Almost every other weekend we would travel the country to race. Next to that, we went to several training camps (e.g. in Cologne). I did this during the year of my internship at Philips Design and my Final Bachelor Project. Rowing has taught me a lot about my personal health, perseverance and working together as a team (vital in rowing). It was an amazing year full of unforgettable experiences!
In 2018 we participated in the TU/e contest with our concept of DirigeerBlad. The TU/e contest is an initiative of TU/e innovation Space to offer students the opportunity to further develop their ideas, prototypes and research projects into business plans.During our participation we were coached by several companies (Medtronic, KPN, Holst Centre and Bosch) to develop DirigeerBlad further. During this edition, 120 projects registered. 72 projects made it through the first round and 40 of these made it to the next round. In the end, we didn't make it to the final 20. However, it was a valuable experience to gain more insight in how to bring a product to the market and to expand our networks.
