ISSUE 1
BUILDING
BRIDGES The culture gap filled Building bridges with... AIESEC New year, new opportunities It’s Christmas: time to give back
EDITORIAL
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s IBCoMmers, we are experts at building bridges. Not the literal ones, of course. We build bridges between academic disciplines, between theory and practice, between cultures
and perspectives, and between people from all around the world. At IBCoMagazine, we’ve been building bridges too: we have been reaching out to organisations like ACE and AIESEC to collaborate and help each other out. Additionally, we gave life to this IBCoMini magazine to bridge the gap between our first and second issue of the academic year. This mini edition of the IBCoMagazine contains four bite sized articles, all about crossing borders, filling gaps and building bridges. Enjoy!
CONTENT The Culture Gap Filled (p. 2) How our editor Reyhaan filled the cultural gap at an enlightening Crossing Borders event.
Building bridges with… AIESEC (p. 3) How IBCoMmer Alisa got to help build bridges as an AIESEC board member.
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New year, new opportunities (p. 4) How you can build new bridges and broaden your horizon in 2017.
It’s Christmas: Time to Give Back (p. 5)
How you can spend your time and/or money to give back during Christmas.
THE CULTURE GAP BY REYHAAN KING
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hroughout my time in IBCoM the word ‘culture’ has by far been the most frequently used; not a day goes by without someone mentioning this buzz word or using it as an explanation to an experience they have had. Usually, culture is a separating force: you see it in the groups of friends that form and the interactions that go on between people, not often is a culture gap filled. I had the opportunity to bridge a cultural gap through the meet and greet event, run by Crossing Borders. The event aimed at connecting university students with refugees of many backgrounds, such as Eritrea, Syria, Palestine and even Somalia, in order to counteract the rise of xenophobia and cultural prejudice currently gripping Europe. As a victim of prejudice myself, I felt that the least I could do to counteract the negative image propagated by the media in my own mind was to meet some of the refugees and challenge the societal norm. The event began with everyone meeting in a gym hall and a friendly game of dodgeball with combined teams of students and refugees. Sadly my team lost, but it was a great ice breaker and sparked conversation. Students were then separated from the group and were given a presentation by Adel, a Syrian law student turned refugee who shared information about Syria, the war and his story about how he arrived in the Netherlands. He also shared his vision for the future of an NGO that he started, aimed at connecting refugees and helping them rebuild their lives in the Netherlands.
FILLED
After the presentation we gathered again to participate in another activity, the stare game, in which we had to stare into the eyes of the person sitting opposite you for three whole minutes in silence. My partner and I decided to improve the game by pulling hilarious faces at each other in order to make the other person laugh. Again, I lost this activity. Aside from being very awkward and hilarious, the game allowed for easy conversation once it was over, which created a great atmosphere as we shared traditional food brought by both local Dutch students and the refugees. This event showed me how the drive of a group of students can make an impact, and how you really need to experience things for yourself before making judgments or picking sides. Crossing borders is on a good path to making a difference, and I urge everyone to keep an eye on them for future events, because once you cross the cultural bridge, you will find the other side a lot more inviting than you once thought.
BUILDING BRIDGES WITH...
AIESEC
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year ago, I was accepted to the board of AIESEC Rotterdam, but at the time I didn’t understand how much the organisation would come to mean to me. Having recently moved to the Netherlands, I was quickly accepted into the group and, as cliché as it sounds, AIESEC became my second family. At the time of my joining, I was the only international working at the Rotterdam entity, which gave me an opportunity to dive into the warm-hearted Dutch culture. Having become an integral part of the local committee, I managed to convince others about the importance of having more internationals in the team. After my term finishes, there will be 7 internationals in the local committee, which makes me really proud! We are the world’s largest youth run organisation and this diversity is now also reflected in Rotterdam’s local committee. AIESEC has been a unique opportunity to contribute to the society. By sending youth abroad for internships and volunteer projects, we believe to have a permanent impact on their lives and
BY ALISA KNUUTINEN others around them. When experiencing another culture, one is able to broaden their horizon and to develop into a world citizen. Being able to cope with the challenges faced in a foreign country makes you self-aware and solution-oriented. Eventually, we hope that these people will empower others and have an impact on the world of tomorrow. By increasing cross-cultural understanding, we aim to build bridges between cultures and inspire the birth of future leaders. The most inspiring aspect of my job has been seeing interns and volunteers talking about the impact their experiences abroad have had on them. As my term is coming to an end, there is an odd nostalgia taking over me. I remember my descendant embracing the organisation and telling how it had changed his life. Back then I remember cynically thinking: Can an organisation truly change person that much? But now I understand. The learning curve has been steep, which has given me a strong confidence in the life after AIESEC. I want to thank the organisation for the enormous amount of inspiration and support. In the future I hope to be able to hire an AIESEC intern to my own company and change someone else’s life for good. Interested in going abroad with AIESEC? Find out more at aiesec.nl or visit us at NB-09!
NEW YEAR, NEW OPPORTUNITIES
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i there! First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Naomi van Kalken and I am the Editor-in-Chief at Embrace Magazine this year, as well as the Marketing Manager at International Faculty Association ACE>. By now, the academic year is almost halfway through, and it will be Christmas soon. When drinking your fourth glass of white wine and telling your grandmother that you will eventually get your own place and a boy/girlfriend, you might want to distract yourself by thinking about the new year. 2017 is just around the corner and this might be a great opportunity to start broadening your network, to build new bridges and invest in your future! It just happens to be so that we, at ACE>, are especially good at helping you to broaden your horizon. For example, we organize the Career Days every year; companies come to our beautiful campus to tell you all about how to achieve what you want to achieve professionally. This is done in great workshops, in lectures about in-
ternships and job opportunities or just by drinking a beer together with your potential future employer. Big names from the Netherlands and abroad come to our event, so make sure you don’t miss out on this opportunity. Of course, it’s not only important to think about your future career path. Your time as a student is supposed to be the best time of your life, so you might as well surround yourself with fantastic people to share it with. What better way is there to connect with friends than by going on a trip together? This February, we are going on a weekend trip to the beautiful city of Vienna! Those of you who were there at our Short Trip to Lisbon last year know that the best of friendships are made abroad. It’s a special experience to explore a new city with such a big group of students. I personally cannot wait to stroll through the streets of Vienna, enjoying the surroundings and the atmosphere that are so unique in every city. Vienna is not the only destination we will be heading to this year. This summer, there will also be our Long Trip, of which the destination is still unknown. Previous years, we went to countries that are not in your everyday travel guide. For example, we went to Ukraine, Macedonia, Albania, Israel and Russia. Each of these destinations provides us with lifelong memories and friendships. As you can see, we try to give you the best student experience as possible. Every other Thursday, we share a drink at café Parket. By doing so, people from three different study directions come together over cheap beer and laughter. In short: make sure to make the most of your time here as a student in Rotterdam! You won’t be able to do it all over when you are 40, so enjoy this while it lasts before the real life starts. BY NAOMI VAN KALKEN
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IT’S CHRISTMAS: TIME TO GIVE BACK
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rom a young age, the most exciting part of the holidays was opening your presents from under the Christmas tree. As an adult, this might be less exciting, because now you have to do the gift giving part yourself as well. This means stressfully trying to get presents for all of your family members two days before Christmas in a mall… just like the rest of the world. However, giving doesn’t have to stop with just some wine and chocolates for your family; nowadays, and especially with Christmas, there are many projects in place for you to give back to your local community. There are multiple things that you can do to help out. Understandably, if you aren’t a native Dutch speaker, you might find it harder to come across projects that don’t require any Dutch. However, the voluntary work organization ‘Rotterdam Cares’ has projects especially for internationals. The Rotterdam Cares website1 is fully in English and explains clearly how to sign up and check which projects you can and can’t do as an international. Their calendar2 tells you exactly when projects are happening, what they entail and where they are in Rotterdam. So, you can easily select which days you can volunteer and see if those particular projects interest you. Helping the elderly, planting in a vegetable garden, and working together with the Food Bank or the homeless are some of the projects that they organize. Secondly, you could ask for no presents this year. What? No presents?! Okay… maybe a few presents, but you could also ask your family to donate some money to a particular charity that you’re passionate about. Charities across the world and in your local area need funding more than ever at this time of year, as they are all trying to set up special events to celebrate the holidays. A few examples of Dutch charities are ‘CliniClowns’3, ‘het Leger des Heils’4 and the ‘Dutch Red Cross’5 (Rode Kruis). CliniClowns is an organization that cares for children in hospitals by brightening their day and making them laugh. Het Leger des Heils is the national
organization for homeless shelters and they try to make the holidays a little less bleak for these people. Lastly, the Dutch Red Cross has many charity projects in place in The Netherlands and internationally. Of course you can always look into charities from your home country or local community and see if you could help out there. Christmas is for us students a very happy time of year: we finally get a break from school, we enjoy home-cooked meals and we have a few less stressful weeks. Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as we are and we might be able to help out by giving back some time or money. Merry Christmas! Rotterdam Cares Information (1): https:// www.nederlandcares.nl/en/rotterdam/ Rotterdam Cares Calendar (2): https://www.nederlandcares.nl/en/rotterdam/ volunteers/calender/#31070 CliniClowns Info (3): https://www.cliniclowns.nl/en Leger Des Heils/Salvation Army (4): http://www.legerdesheils.nl/mcr Dutch Red Cross (5): http://www.rodekruis.nl/
BY CARA SAINSBURY
CREDITS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MANAGING EDITOR
COPY EDITOR
ART DIRECTOR
Yannick van Dooren
Reyhaan King
Sophie Defaix
Joshua Kruter
BLOGGER
GUEST WRITER
GUEST WRITER
Cara Sainsbury
Alisa Knuutinen
Naomi van Kalken
“Thanks for reading!” - IBCoMagazine Team
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