News
IAESTE Utrecht wins Award from University
(Wouter Vink not in photo, because of his participation in the Dutch National Think Tank.)
On 3 September the founders of the newly formed IAESTE Utrecht won the award for extraordinary accomplishments of students from the University of Utrecht. This prize is granted annually to students who perform outstandingly both during their studies and their extra-curricular activities. The prize is in recognition of the hard work delivered by the Dutch IAESTE committee and the support of IAESTE international.
The four mathematics students who resurrected IAESTE in the Netherlands in 2011 were Jöbke Jansen, Danny Chan, Wouter Vink and Milo van Holsteijn. According to the jury report they are ‘all-round excellent students’ and they ‘have an international focus, realise the importance of science for society and dare to take on new initiatives’.
The prize comes nearly one year after the resurrection of IAESTE in the Netherlands. It was a resurrection because IAESTE had actually existed in the Netherlands until 2006, first as part of the Technical University of Delft and later as part of NUFFIC, the Dutch organization for internationalisation of higher education. Unfortunately within NUFFIC it was subsequently dissolved.
In IAESTE Utrecht’s first year of existence, much has been done. They attended the IAESTE Annual Conference in Skopje and managed to exchange 25 traineeships. They also participated in other IAESTE events, including JUMP and CONNECT, as well as visiting IAESTE Norway to share knowledge. At the moment the committee in Utrecht consists of 15 members and is still growing strong. Their next step is to look towards becoming a full member by expanding within the Netherlands. The ambition is to be represented nationwide and to become a full IAESTE member within five years.
In addition, IAESTE Utrecht would also like to encourage other countries to take on similar initiatives. Some countries are still without an IAESTE presence and many member countries would like to start new Local Committees.
When collecting the award, IAESTE Utrecht said ‘the enthusiasm of local students discovering the possibility to do an IAESTE traineeship makes it all worthwhile’
Great news!! Congrats!