Meet Daniëlle van Kalken, only a first year at IBCoM but has already 3 years of Erasmus University experience in her pocket. Her excitement to partake in activities outside of the course fuels her on a daily basis and she encourages everyone else to do it too. Here’s her story.
“I was born and raised here in Rotterdam, so it was an easy choice to come study here. However, my first study choice ended up not being the right one.” Daniëlle’s first year was spent at IBACS (International Bachelor of Arts and Culture Studies), but she soon discovered that she wasn’t so much interested in art as she was in media and marketing. “So, I switched to IBCoM, but then soon after I was asked to do a board year at ACE.”
When asked how she got involved at ACE, Daniëlle explained that in her first year at EUR she joined the ACE party committee. Which was fun, but also more serious and interesting than the typical Dutch partying student associations. “That’s what I liked about ACE, for me it bridges the gap between education, career and social life.”
She was the Chairman of the overall functioning board of ACE, and so responsible for the networking, the presentation and the overall wellbeing of the association. “During my board year I learned a lot such as networking and building connections, as well as gaining more professional experience, but also having as much fun as possible.”
This year she finally started doing IBCoM, so she downsized to being the chairman of the IBCoMmittee. “I wanted to relate my IBCoM life to my ACE life.” Daniëlle explained that it is a lot less responsibility, but just as much fun organizing events and meeting IBCoM students.
“One of the events we organized are the IBCoM awards. This is a night where teachers, staff members and students get together to celebrate the talents and people within IBCoM.” Awards are handed out for different categories, both more fun awards such as “couple goals” or “social media tiger” and more serious categories concerning inspiring courses and lecturers.
“The IBCoMmittee tries to focus on getting all students and staff members involved. We feel that staff members are underappreciated and so this is also a good moment to get to know them and their moment to shine.”
“IBCoM is really great at creating a community, but also to creating other opportunities for students outside of their mandatory courses to gain more real-life experience.”
Daniëlle feels that the pressure of university is so high at the moment that it is important to have those moments outside of worrying about getting good grades and gaining enough experience to work later on. IBCoM and ACE do a great job at creating experiences that are useful in future working life, which are also very fun to partake in. “Students should also consider doing something that they love outside of studying, so for me (as I’m an organized person) I love being so involved with the study association and the IBCoMmittee.”
Thanks to Daniëlle for sharing her story! Be sure to check out the IBCoM awards tomorrow, there are still tickets available!