TMD_Portfolio by K.L.

Portfolio Keith linthout

Artevelde university of Applied Sciences

5/17/21

Talent & management development

Table of Contents WORKSHOP 1 NETWORKING.................................................................................................................... 5 Part 1: Personal networking objective .................................................................................................. 6 Talents ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Networking Goals............................................................................................................................. 6 Follow up of Networking Goals......................................................................................................... 6 Part 2: elevator pitch.......................................................................................................................... 11 Script: ............................................................................................................................................ 11 Link ................................................................................................................................................ 11 Part 3: LinkedIn Profile ....................................................................................................................... 12 First impression.............................................................................................................................. 12 Highlighted works .......................................................................................................................... 13 Acquired skills ................................................................................................................................ 13 Connections and activity ................................................................................................................ 13 Summarized list of changes first semester AY 20-21 ....................................................................... 14 Summarized list of changes second semester AY 21-22 .................................................................. 14 Part 4: Audit social media accounts .................................................................................................... 15 Facebook ....................................................................................................................................... 15 Instagram:...................................................................................................................................... 17 Twitter: .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Youtube: ........................................................................................................................................ 18 Pinterest: ....................................................................................................................................... 19 Website: ........................................................................................................................................ 19 LinkedIn: ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Social media accounts I am not active on anymore: ........................................................................ 19 Google name search....................................................................................................................... 19 Part 5: Networking in action ............................................................................................................... 20 Korthagen’s reflection model ......................................................................................................... 21 Networking reflection towards internship/future career ................................................................ 25 WORKSHOP 2 TIME MANAGEMENT AND COACHING ............................................................................. 27 Part A1: Planning report ..................................................................................................................... 28 Priorities ........................................................................................................................................ 28 Time requirements......................................................................................................................... 28

Planning moments ......................................................................................................................... 29 Second semester ............................................................................................................................ 29 Part A2: planning toolbox ................................................................................................................... 30 Outlook .......................................................................................................................................... 30 Sharing calendar ............................................................................................................................ 30 Mentorship planning ...................................................................................................................... 31 Personal planning toolbox .............................................................................................................. 31 Second semester ............................................................................................................................ 32 Deciding priorities. ......................................................................................................................... 33 Getting the information ................................................................................................................. 33 Part A3: Task and assignment progress .............................................................................................. 35 Time wasters.................................................................................................................................. 35 Eisenhower box.............................................................................................................................. 36 Reflection....................................................................................................................................... 36 Part B1 ............................................................................................................................................... 37 Part B2 ............................................................................................................................................... 38 WORKSHOP 3 CRITICAL THINKING, READING AND REFLECTION SKILLS ................................................... 39 Part 1: Self-delusion ........................................................................................................................... 40 Part 2: Fallacies .................................................................................................................................. 41 Part 3: Critical reading report – When cultures collide........................................................................ 42 Extract one: .................................................................................................................................... 42 Extract two..................................................................................................................................... 42 Extract three .................................................................................................................................. 42 Extract four .................................................................................................................................... 42 Extract five ..................................................................................................................................... 43 Extract six....................................................................................................................................... 43 What information is missing ........................................................................................................... 43 Was the author biased? ................................................................................................................. 44 WORKSHOP 4 PROFESSIONAL TALENTS AND LEVER SKILLS ................................................................... 45 Part 1: reflection report talents and lever skills .................................................................................. 46 Part 2: Core quadrant model .............................................................................................................. 47 Part 3: Reworked CV .......................................................................................................................... 49 Part 4: Updated Linked-In .................................................................................................................. 50

E-mail to future me ........................................................................................................................ 50 WORKSHOP 5 INTERNATIONAL @HOME ACTIVITIES .............................................................................. 51 Part 1: alumni panel ........................................................................................................................... 52 Part 2: student conversation rooms ................................................................................................... 53 Part 3: reflection ................................................................................................................................ 54 WORKSHOP 6 STUDYING ABROAD ......................................................................................................... 55 Part 1: Interview with Charlotte Godefroidt ....................................................................................... 56 Part 2: Critical analysis the interviews ................................................................................................ 57 Critical analysis of my interview with Charlotte Godefroidt ............................................................ 57 Critical analysis interview Elena Geers and Manon Mattelaer ......................................................... 59 Part 3 – self-assessment ..................................................................................................................... 61 WORKSHOP 7 INTERNATIONAL DAYS ..................................................................................................... 64 Part 1: The 2030 Agenda: a commitment to sustainable development ............................................... 65 Content .......................................................................................................................................... 65 Reflection on why I chose this topic: .............................................................................................. 66 What I learned: .............................................................................................................................. 66 Critical reading/listening skills: ....................................................................................................... 66 Questions:...................................................................................................................................... 66 Part 2: Born to win – knowing one’s roots & finding oneself............................................................... 68 Content .......................................................................................................................................... 68 Reflection on why I chose this topic: .............................................................................................. 69 What I learned: .............................................................................................................................. 69 Critical reading/ listening skills ....................................................................................................... 69 Questions....................................................................................................................................... 69 WORKSHOP 8 SEMINAR SLIDECAST ........................................................................................................ 71 Link .................................................................................................................................................... 72 WORKSHOP 9 MENTORSHIP PROJECT .................................................................................................... 73 WORKSHOP 10 MY GROW STORY .......................................................................................................... 74 Part 1: learning outcomes .................................................................................................................. 75 Concrete actions ............................................................................................................................ 75 Part 2: Portfolium (not finished) ......................................................................................................... 77 Part 3: My grow story......................................................................................................................... 78 Slides ............................................................................................................................................. 78

Link ................................................................................................................................................ 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................... 79 ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................................... 80 Annex 1: SDG-corner .......................................................................................................................... 81 Concept description ....................................................................................................................... 81 Posters ........................................................................................................................................... 88 Annex 2: Outlook calendar – weekly activities .................................................................................... 89 October .......................................................................................................................................... 89 November ...................................................................................................................................... 92 December ...................................................................................................................................... 94 Annex 3: Outlook calendar – monthly deadlines................................................................................. 96 Annex 4: Interview with charlotte ...................................................................................................... 99 Annex 5: Interview Elena Geers with Manon Mattelaer.................................................................... 102 Annex 6 – links to Portfolium and videos .......................................................................................... 104

WORKSHOP 1 NETWORKING

Part 1: Personal networking objective Write down your goals for networking in the coming year. Write them in a SMART way (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound). Start from your talents and the characteristics of a good networker (see annex 1. Talent description cards) and mind the long-term perspective. (workshop assignment and portfolio December)

Talents •

Bridge builder,

•

Visual organizer,

•

Mood reader,

•

Knowledge sponge,

•

Source of new ideas.

Networking Goals 1. Acquire 10 new valuable network connections via the professional activities organized by TMD within AY 20-21. 2. Connect at least 3 networks with people that can help them out within AY 20-21. 3. Engage in a new extra-curricular project and provide input by performing at least one of the following activities within Ay 20-21; provide information you researched, think out practical solutions for a problem, partake in a brainstorm session, create unique concepts. 4. Create a visual resumé highlighting the experiences and skills complementing my IBM-education by the end of AY 20-21. 5. Connect with at least three international students from your most preferred country for studying abroad (Italy) within AY 20-21 and the first semester of AY 21-22.

Follow up of Networking Goals

Acquire 10 new valuable network connections via the professional activities organized by TMD within AY 20-21. To show that I achieved this objective I will visually present my network connections. The first visual presentation contains my most important connections prior to setting my objective. The second visual contains the connections I made this year. It is also specified how I made these new connections.

This latest visual shows some interesting personal and professional connections I have made over the past year. Looking at ‘Professional Contacts’ and ‘IBM graduates’ it suffices to say that I have achieved my first goal. Of course there are still other interesting connections I made such as: •

Clarissa Treyer – International IBM student serving as SDG corner manager,

•

Laura Luyckx – International IBM student serving as SDG corner manager,

•

Jeremy Versprille – Consultant at Deloitte Belgium,

•

Maisie Meade – Senior consultant at Deloitte Belgium.

Connect at least 3 networks with people that can help them out within AY 20-21 As this networking goal is more acquired through circumstantial situations, I have rarely found myself in this position this year. That doesn’t take away, I put myself forward to help others out at many times. Excluding groupworks or other things required for one of my IBM courses I took part in this year, I can say that I helped out some of my connections with troubles they had: •

Alison Sirichanto (friend): helped her writing a motivation letter and perfect her resumé by fitting it to the industry she was applying in.

•

Vanessa Jatzkowksi (friend): When having a mentally low period, I helped her out with reading her reports and rewriting certain parts.

•

Frank Dambre (manager pub): To make sure my boss was ready to reopen his pub in May, I adjusted the prices on his website and showed him how he could do this himself by writing a sort of manual.

Engage in a new extra-curricular project and provide input by performing at least one of the following activities within Ay 20-21; provide information you researched, think out practical solutions for a problem, partake in a brainstorm session, create unique concepts With participating in the SDG corner, I have chosen a rather large project that requires a lot of input of me. It is easy to say some of the predefined networking goals were achieved through this. One of these goals was to engage in an extra-curricular project. For the SDG-corner I imagined and described a concept for a workshop on the Climate factory. This concept was that was the result of a brainstorm session during the first meeting. This entire concept directly proves that I have thought of a practical solution for a problem the SDG corner was having. In addition to what is described above, I also helped out further by setting up and giving an entire workshop for the Climate factory, which required a lot of self-made content (mainly graphic design) Create a visual resumé highlighting the experiences and skills complementing my IBM-education by the end of AY 20-21

See workshop 4, Part 3 (page 51). Connect with at least three international students from your most preferred country for studying abroad (Italy) within AY 20-21 and the first semester of AY 21-22. At the moment of writing I have connected with two International students from Italy: •

Alessia Tedesco – my mentee – connected on Facebook,

•

Roberta Giarnecchia – friend – connected on Instagram (Robigiarne).

Roberta Giarnecchia is an international student from Italy that I’ve met via Valentina Urizarbarrena with whom I have a group work together. During my chat with Roberta, she mentioned that she lives very close to Milan (where I’ll be going) and told me that I can hit her up when I’m at Milan to connect again.

Part 2: elevator pitch Script: (Intro) Hello, my name is Keith Linthout and I know I can be a great asset to your team (Attention grabber) Why is that? Well, I already have a degree in communication sciences so I know to talk to the customer. In addition I’ve been training myself in visual design for a few years know which means I can create a message for the customers from concept to final product. (Added value) As of now I’m studying International business management in which I’ve taken a focus on sustainability. A hot topic that is becoming an important issue for businesses worldwide as more customers demand companies to be responsible with their operations.

Link HTTPS://YOUTU .BE /K VL6DACYBXM

Part 3: LinkedIn Profile LinkedIn profile You have learned how to create a professional LinkedIn-profile and have started creating your own profile. Write a short LinkedIn report, heading this part with a direct link to your LinkedIn profile: describe the action you took and why + describe 3 new insights or 3 action points you developed through these activities. (portfolio December + full update in portfolio May) HTTPS:// WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/ IN/KEITH-LINTHOUT -A34121B2/

Having had 6 years of higher education at Arteveldehogeschool prior to starting my education in IBM, I already had a Linked-in profile that was quite professional. At the moment my Linked-In profile still focuses on me being a student. Short-tracking my education of IBM, an internship is still more than a year away, so it would be a bit soon to start presenting myself to the professional world as someone who is a job seeker. However one thing necessary is to adjust my Linked-In profile as it had been three years since the last update.

First impression Starting of with the introduction section, the main message that is given to visitors of my profile is that I’m still a student. I wanted this to have a professional look, and with my profile picture being the eyecatcher of my profile, I used a qualitative professional photo. I also adapted my personal summary to present a more recent version of my professional situation. In the run of AY 20-21 I have decided to change a few more things or to adjust some information as I felt that certain aspect didn’t completely suited me. First off I changed the info section (again). I decided to provide more specific information that suited me as I found the previous text to be to vague. To do so I looked at other professional profiles for inspiration and consulted some friends. Eventually I let a friend write a short summary that fits me. The info section is written in third person to also give of the feeling that the info rubric was written by a close connection: Former info section A realist who is not afraid of asking the hard questions and who always wants to learn that what is known by few, be it both by reading or by living through new experiences. Adjusted info section Keith is a focused and passionate student at Arteveldehogeschool. Having already obtained a degree in communication management, Keith has continued his education with a focus on international business management. Over the past 4 years, Keith has gained an increasing interest in sustainability and customer experience and excels in deep dive research and providing creative solutions to solve difficult problems. Keith holds a Bachelors of Communication Management from Artevelde university of applied sciences, where he educated in business communication and understanding customer needs. He also pursued a year of digital and graphic media education. Keith is a native Dutch speaker, however has followed a professional English teachers education and studied French and German. Keith is a music and movies enthusiast and passionate about graphic design.

To finalize the introduction part of Linked-In decided to create a simple yet professional cover photo that is rather unique and encapsulates the my most important titles.

Highlighted works Next is the Highlighted section of Linked-In. As I want to limit the use of this section for projects I’ve made in the actual professional world, this section is not utilised. I wanted to include my works from my internship in communication management but as those works are stored on business emails and computers and they are not actual professional works, I was not able to find them. Technically I also have a WIX-site that functions as my resumé but as it requires an update and that takes quite some time, the website is not Linked in my Linked-In profile.

Acquired skills The final part of my profile are my experiences, education and skills. As these provide factual information, my only task was to update them to provide more recent information. For the skills I have also added new media (after the preparation) as I realised that I am quite proficient with new media. Currently my skills are mostly related to software programmes, being the main office programmes such as Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint and the main Adobe programs such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Aftereffects. Other acquired transparent skills are my language skills. As the soft skills are less obvious to determine, I have asked some friends to link some of these skills with me. The list is currently limited but I hope to expand it through my professional life.

Connections and activity A last part I want to write about my behaviour on the social medium. While I mainly use LinkedIn to connect with people, I have rarely used it to post something on the profile. The reason for this is that I’m currently not looking for a job and while I understand the benefits of posting on LinkedIn as a student, I prefer to connect with people old-school and thus don’t post. I have made some significant connections on My Linked-In profile though and must say that while there are a lot of disadvantages to having everything happen online these days, I find it a lot easier to directly connect on Linked-In. I’ve never seen this social medium on a same level as Facebook and Instagram and would never grab my phone during an actual live networking event to connect on Linked-In. In this way I must say that I have experienced some benefits with having online networking events.

Summarized list of changes first semester AY 20-21 • • • •

Updated profile picture, Updated biography, Updated info section, Updated education: o o

•

Added new section - volunteering work: o

•

Receptionist at FilmFest Ghent,

Updated experience: o

•

Graphic and digital media AY 19-20, IBM AY 20-21 – present,

Bartender at ‘T einde der beschaving,

Added connection: o

Johan Peeters.

Summarized list of changes second semester AY 21-22 • • • •

New personalized cover photo, Rewritten info section, Added new media to skills, Added connections: o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Jérôme Van Loo, Jeremy Versprille, Valentina Urizarbarrena Fernandez, Dimas Courtens, Oliver ‘t Kint, Rémi Cappelaere, Jai Goeminne, Maisie Meade, Don Keleman, Yara Alexandra Eekman, Simon Ramboer, Jens Doms, Else Deneys, Neethi Swamy, Clarissa Treyer, Laura Luycx.

Part 4: Audit social media accounts audit your social media accounts from the point of view of a potential employer. Check your privacy settings. Which changes will you carry out? List and explain which social media accounts you have and explain your choice. What could convince you to use other social media? (portfolio December) Since having had similar courses in my past educations, that focus on personal development and how I present myself to future employers. My social media has been through an audit multiple times over the past years. Although certain media settings have been adapted to suit my needs over the years, most settings remain consistent in protecting my information.

Facebook Facebook is the social media account that I use to stay in touch with close friends, stay updated on national and international friends, briefly highlight certain accomplishments or personal information of mine such as education, relationship status, etc. I rarely post though. The posts I share are limited. This means that my past activity is only visible to Facebook friends. A possible future employer looking me up on Facebook is only able to see my last update of my Facebook wall. The personal information I share on Facebook can be seen by different groups of people depending on the content. Information I deem useful for a future employer is shown publicly, while information that is more private and not useful for a future employer is only shown to Facebook friends. The last audit of my Facebook was 3 years ago. In those three years, personal preferences about what I like to share with people I do not know have changed. Therefore I have made two important changes: 1. The first one is regarding my personal information. I have chosen to make my Facebook friend list only visible to people who have befriended me on Facebook. I also changed the privacy settings of certain personal information so that it is more private. 2. Secondly I have created a separate friends-list that excludes certain people for seeing posts. This can be set individually per post and excludes more professional connections on Facebook for the more private posts I share.

I should mention though that I rarely use Facebook (or other social media accounts) to post stuff about myself. Lastly I have done an audit of my Facebook friends to see whether I am befriended or affiliated with friends I do not know well enough. The pictures on the next page show how an external sees my Facebook profile.

Instagram: Instagram is the social media account that I use to share pictures and stories of my daily life to the world. I also use it as my main social media account to stay up to date with what others are doing in life. At the moment my Instagram is set private. This means that photos and stories are only visible people that I have approved to follow me. The photos posted on my Instagram highlight personal achievements, daily moments or just myself during my free time. Without any doubt these photos would not hinder the possibility to land a job. Just like Facebook I rarely post photos of what I do in my daily life. Therefore even if my profile would be public it would not make a big difference. I use the story functionality of Instagram more often, yet still sparingly. My stories often highlight more personal moments of my life (going for a drink, meeting with friends, doing bucket list activities, etc. As long as they cannot harm my reputation, the stories are shared. Sometimes though I may share a more personal story (moments that I’m drunk for example). For these kinds of stories I have a separate best friends list. When uploading a more private story, they are uploaded to this list so that the story can only be viewed by a select number of best friends (11 at the moment).

Twitter: My twitter account is something I rarely use. I only utilize to view certain community accounts that I think are interesting. This media account is public and visible to everyone. Having done an audit of this social media account, I found nothing noteworthy that my harm my possibilities of a future career. The last tweet I have made is from 2018, and just like all other tweets, they are related to my education.

Youtube: On youtube you can find my personal account by typing in my name. The information you can find there is limited. No personal playlists are visible, no recently watched videos or other recent behaviours on the social media channel. Only one thing is visible on Youtube is one of the videos I made. This video was a project for my education in Communication Management and I’m rather proud of it, so that’s why it is visible.

Pinterest: My Pinterest account shows a selection of artworks I find interesting. Somehow I find that aesthetic preferences are something really private, therefore, all collected artworks are kept private.

Website: Last but not least I have a personal Wix website. This site contains my resume, personal projects and achievements, and very private information such as my address. This website was created 4 years ago but has since been outdated. Needing a complete overhaul and update on latest projects and achievements, I have decided to take it down. This way I also protect my private data from prying eyes. The website might come back online somewhere in 2021, but only after an overhaul is done, and I have found a way to secure my private information.

LinkedIn: See workshop 1 part 3 (page 13)

Social media accounts I am not active on anymore: • •

SnapChat, TikTok.

Google name search To end this part I want to say that I also did a general name search on Google. On the first page Google shows me, barely any social media accounts can be found. The google search mainly shows indirect links to my Facebook profile about activities or events I was interested in. Something that stood out however is an article in HLN about me. Something I preferably do not like to see pop up but that I can’t get rid of personally.

Part 5: Networking in action Describe who you approached and how you made him/her part of your network. What difficulties did you encounter? How much time did you need to introduce yourself? With all the opportunities given by TMD, I have been able to connect with quite a few people. Most of them are former students of IBM that work abroad but some of them are current students that I have connected and participated with in some extracurricular activities. Next to this all, there are some other professional connections I made, unrelated to TMD. To start off, I want to highlight my connection with Clarissa Treyer and Laura Luyckx. These two woman are international students from IBM at Artevelde University. I became acquainted with them when attending the seminar ‘Ethical Banking’ that they organized. Clarissa and Laura were responsible for moderating the seminar, at the end of this seminar they made a call for everyone present to engage with the SDG-corner if they were interested. I immediately followed up on this and contacted them on Microsoft Teams (where the seminar took place). I was happily welcomed with a lot of other students that showed interest and got instantly added to some WhatsApp Groups. At the moment of writing I am actively engaged with the SDG corner and am also responsible for a workshop activity during the Climate Festival day that will take place on Artevelde University. Does your contact now have a clear idea of your main strength/characteristic? o How was the nonverbal behaviour? As the communication happened online (Covid), non-verbal behaviour was limited. Yet over-all what I could take from our initial conversation was that she was happy that I wanted to join SDG-corner. Perhaps it is more interesting to look at the first online group meeting, where we actually got to see one another online and introduced ourselves. What I was able to take from that was that they were very professional and remained open-minded to how we would be able to participate in the project. Of course since they met with a lot of new members, I have missed that personal touch towards me. The other way around I feel as they might have some sort of sense what my strengths are. I have never spoken them out but rather showed them during the first meeting when we had a brainstorm sessions. They wanted to have some cool concepts for workshops during the climate festival. I came up with an idea that most of them were really glad about and therein showed my strengths of knowledge sponge and source of new ideas. Was your objective clearly formulated in advance? Initially the communication was a one-way street. As they were organizing the seminar they also did a call-out for people that were interested in joining SDG. Yet I have to say that there was some miscommunication here. They mainly asked for people that were interested without specifying that this is part of the community service learning. As I already chose the mentor-program, I wasn’t sure whether that would conflict. Nonetheless when they mentioned this during the first meeting, I was a bit afraid that I jumped in too quickly and I also didn’t specify that I would be doing this as a volunteer. This way I’m putting in a lot more effort than I wanted too, but in the end I don’t really care as the objectives of the SDG-corner really interest me. What did you find the hardest during the conversation?

In general not much as I feel that I’m quite sociable and know how to formulate my needs, but I guess the most difficult part happened with the miscommunication about the SDG-corner being part of CSL. As I had to leave the meeting early to give a presentation for International Business Communication, I forgot to mention that I also would participate as a volunteer and I haven’t mentioned it since. So preferable I would have wished that the conversation was more one-on-one and I would be less in a hurry. What would your future approach at such events be? I might take some more time before jumping right into a new project and as I think that not everything that is happening at the SDG-corner is made absolute clear (they are doing an awesome job though), I would ask more questions at the initial conversation and perhaps interrupt someone (politely) to address my concerns or important questions before I forget them.

Korthagen’s reflection model Phase 1: The experience / action I wish to reflect upon

Situation During the first semester there is only one networking moment that bore fruit and actually stood out. The networking moment I’m referring to is the one described at the beginning of part 5 ‘Networking in action’, where I connected with the people in charge of the SDG corner. The actual networking happened after their organized seminar of ‘Ethical Banking’ and sort of continued in our first meeting. Therefore the first meeting is also added in the reflection, but the distinction between the actual networking moment and the first meeting will always be made clear. Task During the networking moment it was important that I would be able to connect with members of the SDG-corner. Therefore it was important for me to stay and reach out to them and make sure they acquired my contact information. Furthermore it is also important that I state my reasons for joining and emphasize what my value could be in the group. Action During the network moment, the SDG did a general call for people who were interested to join the SDGcorner. As this was a general call-out, the networking itself wasn’t one on one. My task was to linger a bit after the seminar, and reach out to one of the SDG-corner managers to join their team. Part of this was the exchange of my phone number so that we could start connecting through What’s App. The meeting was separated in a introduction part of the members, the objective of SDG-corner and a brainstorm sessions for upcoming events. Within this meeting I took the time to introduce myself and

the reasons for joining (although it had to be short as we were short on time), and I showed a bit of my worth during the brainstorm session, highlighting my talents as source of new ideas and knowledge sponge. Result During the networking moment everything went along without a single hiccup. It was quite easy to connect with the members and within 15 minutes I was added to the WhatsApp group. During the first meeting, the SDG-corner introduced themselves and here I decided that I effectively wanted to join the forces of the SDG-corner. I shortly introduced myself and showed my skills during the brainstorm session. The SDG-corner managers showed that they were very happy with the effort I put in. Since I myself was short on time though I forgot to mention that I wanted to be part of the SDGcorner as a volunteer as I was already part of the mentee-program. It wasn’t clearly stated beforehand that the SDG-corner was part of the CSL-learning project. Reflection While the networking moment went as planned, I wished I was more clear when I stated what kind of input I could bring in in the group. I should have politely interrupted someone during the meeting and mentioned I would be doing this as a volunteer, when the issue came up. Right now I feel that I might be a bit too engaged in the project. Phase 2: Looking back: what exactly happened

What did I see? During the online networking moment I saw two engaged SDG-managers that would be very happy to welcome new members. This was the same for the online meeting, however I got this slight feeling as if they were very occupied / bit stressed with all the SDG-corner had to do and the joy of having new members for the SDG-corner was smaller than during the networking moment. What did I do? I messaged Laura Luyckx (SDG-corner manager) on Teams, and she was very happy to have me as a member. When asking for my phone number, I exchanged it with her and she put me in a WhatsApp Group During the meeting I introduced myself shortly, and brought in some of my own ideas during the brainstorm session. What did I think?

During the networking moment I was quite intrigued by the mission of the SDG-corner as I am becoming increasingly interested in sustainability. Furthermore I thought that this would be a great opportunity to connect and fulfil an part of my TMD-portfolio assignments. During the meeting. I felt that everything went a bit too fast and whished that there was more time for introducing ourselves. I didn’t really want to participate in the brainstorm session as I was occupied with other stuff, but I still did. What did I feel? I felt happy during the networking moment as I got to participate in something that I’m interested in. During the meeting I felt a bit of stress because of the upcoming presentation and couldn’t really focus as well on the SDG-corner itself as I wanted to. Phase 3: Awareness of essential aspects

What does that mean to me now? Although I really back the vision of the SDG-corner, I feel as if I’m too engaged with the project and it is really becoming a trouble to fit in in my schedule. I wish that I was a bit less engaged as I feel that people that are actually being a part of SDG-corner as they took up CSL are doing way less than I am. I noticed that I have to keep pushing others to participate and in this way the entire experience of the SDG-corner is less exciting than I would have hoped for. What is the problem (or the positive discovery) The problem as stated many times before, is that I did not clearly communicate how involved I wanted to be in the project and I feel as if I have too little time for everything know. What has all that caused? What does it involve? Generally it has not helped the overall anxiety I now feel for everything school-related. I already felt as if I’m running behind on everything (mainly because I can’t relate with other students as easily)

Phase 4: Alternative methods of action 4

What alternative methods do I see (solutions or ways of making use of what I have discovered)? As the networking moment went as planned, there is little I would change. Something I would want do different though (if given the opportunity), is to connect with the SDG-corner during an actual online event that focuses on SDG itself instead of connecting after a seminar they organized. For the introduction I did during the online meeting, I feel that in this case it might have been wiser to initially let them know my intentions for SDG-corner through a text or other ways of communication. Anyway, I would definitely do it before the online meeting. That way I wouldn’t mind giving a short introduction of myself during the online meeting itself, as I would have been able to clarify everything already. Of course if the networking moment itself would lend itself more to actual networking instead of acquiring new members, than this last issue should already be resolved What are their advantages or disadvantages Alternative method: connect during a networking moment focused on SDG-corner itself. Advantages: •

Undivided attention for the topic at hand (SDG),

•

More flexibility in introductions and timing,

•

More personal approach,

•

No need to clarify my intentions and introduce myself at another moment in time,

•

Less chance of miscommunication from SDG itself.

Disadvantages: •

Not seeing SDG in action during one of their projects / organized seminars.

What will I remember for next time I will remember two things from this networking situation:

•

If I want to connect with someone, make sure that the setting lends itself towards proper networking and make time for it. If everything has to be done in a hurry than problems may occur or intentions may be misread.

•

Be very clear about your own intentions and do not be afraid to interrupt someone if you feel you have something important to say.

Phase 5: Trial 4

What do I want to achieve? As this networking moment lend itself to me becoming more invested in projects I’m interested in, I now want to look forward to these more personal networking moments with a focus on my study and internship abroad. As a short tracker I still have a semester of studying in Belgium ahead of me so the internship is still far away, but the study abroad is coming closer. At the moment I have already had some moments were I was able to connect with people in real life. However I want to include some network moments (Online if need be) that bring me more insight about the cultures where I will be residing for a semester. What should I watch out for? Do not be hasty and just attach yourself to obligations your not sure you can fulfil. Take your time. Do some research about what the networking event is about and make sure to take the time to introduce yourself properly and ask enough questions. What do I want to try out? 1. Through my step-brother I know some people that live in Italy (close to Milan), so I definitely want to reach out to them and connect. 2. Another thing I want to achieve is to connect with some more international students from NorthernItaly as I feel they know a lot of where I will be going. 3. Furthermore I still want to do some online networking events but preferably events that focus on people that actually live in Italy or went to work there, etc.

Networking reflection towards internship/future career Personally I feel that I still have much to learn and acquire in terms of networking skills. I have noticed that it is much easier to network and ask questions about Italy if you can connect in real life. On this level

I am much more comfortable with myself and notice little troubles to really connect. However I really need to adapt my strategy towards networking online. As the entire environment on online networking (through seminars and other events) is quite new to me, I can understand that I encounter some hiccups here and there. However I take heed to these mistakes an try to learn from them. My main goal at the moment is to focus on networking towards my studying abroad semester. I feel that I have already managed to connect with so great people on this level but I still have questions left. As mentioned in phase 5 of Korthagen’s model (see Phase 5: trial, page 26) I already have a few action points set up. Next to this I also have a friend who also studied abroad in Milan and I am planning to reach out to her and ask her some questions about the entire experience (see video workshop 6, page 58). For my internship, I am still doubtful about certain things. My first plan was to look for an internship in the country I wanted to work at. After experiencing the TMD talent day and international at home activities, my focus has shifted to primarily choosing a internship I’d like to do, instead of focusing on the country I want to work at. Since I have multiple interest, my plan is to do some research and scour the internet for some groups (expats for example) or events that can guide me in finding my direction. I have to add that the SDG-corner in this case has managed to ignite my interest for sustainability a bit more and after watching documentaries such as ‘Planet Earth’ and ‘Seaspiracy’, my interest for sustainability has increased even more. Of course everything is still wide open, and I will use multiple source to get the information I want. For real life networking moments focusing on my internship abroad, I will keep it limited for now by talking with other students until I have a bigger sense of what direction I want to go in.

WORKSHOP 2 TIME MANAGEMENT AND COACHING

Part A1: Planning report Report on how you make your planning and how you make sure to follow it, answering the following questions: •

How did I decide on priorities?

•

Where did I get the necessary information?

•

How did I assign the expected time to each activity, (e.g. test, task, prep, study …)?

Did you make a task breakdown list? Why (not)?

For all my professional activities I generally use three different tools. An agenda I use for all my professional activities and deadlines, my Artevelde University calendar that is synced with my outlook calendar, and a daily task planner extension on my Google Chrome web browser. These tools are further discussed in Part A2 ‘Planning Toolbox (page 31). Before continuing I want to emphasize that I only use my planning tools for professional activities. More private or past-time activities are not recorded in my agenda for example as I rarely have it on me when these plans are being made. Another reason is that social media continuously reminds me of my social commitments or its I just don’t forget as I really look forward to past-time activities.

Priorities When there are little professional activities planned, I do not concern myself with priorities. Most of the times I can get a good estimate of the time that is required for an activity and it often doesn’t conflict with other activities. That’s why I just focus on the next task ahead and tend to do this the day before the deadline. However when I have a really busy schedule or I am involved in really big projects that require multiple days of my effort, I put more time in my planning and start prioritizing certain activities above others. The main criterium on which these activities are prioritized is time necessary for completion. As long as activities can be performed the day before, it will happen the day before. The limit for this is an estimate of 6 hours a day. If the activities I need to perform would take more than 6 hours a day, I split it over two days. When splitting up these activities, I generally choose to do the smaller activities first and keep the bigger activities last as I tend to work better if I can focus all my attention on one activity instead of switching between different activities. With really big tasks I automatically plan in more days than necessary as I know that I try to get my head around the entire scope of a project on the first day, and do some research alternating with watching some movies. I also start really early with the big projects as I know that I will require some buffers for problems I can’t predict. With the really big projects or carefully plan in the subtasks in my agenda.

Time requirements To determine how long an activity will take I often lean on experience of previous activities or – with school assignments - consult assignment briefs. This helps me to make an estimate of the time required.

If however the project is really big and it is difficult to determine how long the assignment will take I often take a round estimate. This could be 3 days, 5 days or more and I divide these days over 1 or 2 weeks. This way I also have a buffer in case I made a mistake in planning my activities. For the big projects I also include smaller sub-tasks in my daily task planner extension. Sometimes however I still encounter moments where my planning really didn’t work out and I tend to stay up until a few hours past midnight to finish these activities.

Planning moments I must say though that these instances occur less and less as I take more time with activities and plan further ahead. Most of the professional activities I plan in my agenda come from school mails, Canvas notifications or are set up during online meetings. I generally don’t have a day when I plan everything, I tend to immediately put it in my agenda when the activity is made. I can make an exception here for the start of a semester. Lots of information is already provide by Artevelde University through their channels and I like to already have a feel of the weight of the semester by planning in everything I can. If an activity is planned during an online meeting, I also plan a new meeting to discuss progress and ask for clear information so that no misunderstandings arise and I can make an adequate planning.

Second semester With the second semester staring, I have looked at my planning at the first semester and looked at what worked and what not. During my reflection I noticed that while journals are useful, I find them a bit unhandy when it comes to planning over multiple weeks. For that reason I have bought myself a monthly calendar that I will use for my deadlines.

Part A2: planning toolbox Outlook For all screenshots of the 2 outlook calendars see: annexes 2-3

Sharing calendar

Mentorship planning

Personal planning toolbox The idea of being organized or to plan ahead has never really been inherent to who I am. Yet, looking back on this semester, I notice certain improvements. I can think of two reasons for this improvement. The first is that I have a lot of experience studying at universities but the most important reason is that COVID-19 has a lot of influence on how I spend my day now. A lot more time is spent focusing on school matters.

This improvement didn’t of course happen overnight. Gradually I implemented more tools to organize my daily life. The first tool I started using is a journal. Since I’m not that proficient in efficiently organizing my day, the journal tends to look quite sloppy at certain times. But it does what it is intended for and is always a trustworthy tool to consult when certain deadlines are, or what my to-do’s are for that day. (see photo’s) A second tool I used from the start is a smartphone tool. Since the beginning of this year, Apple allows you do adapt the apps on your iPhone to meet more personal preferences. I utilized this possibility instantly to show a more expanded version of my schedule. Next to that I also linked my Artevelde schedule to my personal schedule so that I’m always up to date with everything school related. (see phone screenshots) With the semester progressing however, deadlines started to increase as well. Where I weekly found some time to update my journal, this time became more and more scarce. Therefore I adjusted certain daily interfaces I use daily, so that I can quickly add to-do’s or deadlines that have a short notice. To do this I added two new tools. The first one is notes. A Microsoft extension that allows you to take notes on your PC. This extension allows for great flexibility with other programmes, allowing me to take notes during meetings, classes, or when I remember something while watching a series. This however didn’t prove to be enough, as the information would get lost between all the notes. Therefore I added a second tool; A dashboard extension that overhauls my search browser giving me inspirational quotes, a shortlist of links to websites I use the most and a to-do list. Since the to-do list is easily adjusted an pops up whenever I open my search browser, I’m always reminded of all the things I have planned. The only downside to this is that the To-do’s more feel like deadlines, since space is limited and subtasks cannot be separated from the main tasks. (see screenshots) In addition to all previously used tool, I’ve added two new tools and expanded another as demanded for this project. These tools weren’t used before this because I had already adapted my working space to my personal preferences and needs. The two new tools added are the outlook to-do list combined with it’s schedule and a word calendar created on word giving an easy overview of all deadlines per month (see annexes).

Second semester During the second semester I changed up my digital monthly calendar to a physical one that I use to indicate my deadlines, meetings and workshops. This gives me a quick and easy overview to plan over multiple weeks.

Deciding priorities. Deciding my priorities has always been a mental trade-off between the pros and cons of all things I had to do. Rarely have I used other tools to help me decide what should come first and what comes next. It is very important to know that when doing these trade-offs, important school stuff always has a disadvantage, and tends to be delayed to the very last moment. Yet here again COVID-19 made a, for now, temporary shift in how I weight these issues off. Matters related to school and work have gained more importance now. My procrastination issues also have a smaller effect now on my decisions. This results in a situation where I weigh off school matters against more personal things considering school matters more important than other stuff. The only other parameter left to help me decide my priorities is timing. The closer the deadline the more important the issue becomes.

Getting the information Being a rather independent student that rather supports on himself than on others I’m more inclined to go look for information myself. The primary sources to get the information are Canvas (both the app and the browser version), the Mijn Dinar portal and my Artevelde mail. These three sources often are enough to get me the information I require to complete my journal or other planning tools. In some cases though, doubt creeps in or the information given, is confusing to me. In those cases I ask a fellow student during a meeting or in one of my WhatsApp groups.

TOOL

UTILIZATION

Journal

Deadlines, plans and to-do’s

Synchronized school schedule with smartphone

Quick overview deadlines and plans

Microsoft Notes extension

Quick addition of important information / dates

Web browser dashboard extension

Shortcut links to important sources of information and simple todo list

Outlook calendar

Expanded version of calendar and to-do lists

Calendar (second semester)

Handy overview of deadlines and plans per month

Part A3: Task and assignment progress Generally all the important things I planned during this semester worked out. Some personal plans have not been seen through but that has more to do with the entire Covid situation. These personal plans include: •

Meeting with friends

•

Visiting Light Festival in Bruges

•

Celebrating my Birthday

For the more professional activities everything went as I planned with the exception of two things: •

Missed the deadline for the first assignment of ICS

•

Mismanaged my planning regarding the entire project for TMD

I also want to note that some subtask I set out to complete certain assignments weren’t always completed in time according to the planning. But since I take these smaller subtasks with me in the general flow of my day / week, I always managed to complete them.

Time wasters Time wasters

How can I avoid this or how can I deal with it?

Social media

Install a lock application on my phone and a lockdown browser or extension on my laptop that denies access to social media (extension is already installed).

Postponing tasks

Do some mindfulness activities in the morning and focus on achievement. Also plan other things to do if the urge to postpone arises.

Focusing on to many priorities

Create a to-do list or a weekly Eisenhower box to realise what is truly a priority. (I already have an online to-do list, and after this workshop also an Eisenhower box).

Short breaks that turn into non-ending breaks

Decide before your break what you will do during the break and don’t make it longer than 1 hour (Set goals for the break). This makes it easier to get back into work.

Tendency to perfectionism

Only start finetuning at the end of the assignment when everything has been decently worked out. This way I know

how much time I have left for perfecting things if I truly want to.

Eisenhower box

Reflection Looking back on the semester and everything I have planned, I have to say I’m happy with the result. Having to adapt to an online school environment went a bit easier than I expected. Most of the plans I set succeeded and I rarely drifted away my planning. Overall I’m even very proud of the quality of most my assignments as I freed up more time to work on them. However, this doesn’t everything went to plan. At the beginning of the semester, I had already missed a week of school before I was enrolled and although I had plenty of time, I mismanaged my planning for the first assignment of Intercultural Communication Skills, which made me miss the deadline. Another thing that could definitely have been better is my planning for TMD. With TMD being one of the most loaded courses I have had so far, I properly mismanaged my timing for the assignments. While every deadline throughout the semester was met, I planned too little time for the actual portfolio of TMD and will have to do most work during the deadline week of this semester. I feel that I missed the true magnitude of this assignment. I must add though that - being a short-tracker - my semester so far was a bit more loaded than most and I properly managed it until now, not minding TMD of course. For the next semester I have already bought a physical calendar (see personal planning toolbox) as I will be more likely to consult a physical one than a digital one. I surely feel more prepared to tackle the difficulties of planning ahead.

Part B1 Not included

Part B2 Not included

WORKSHOP 3 CRITICAL THINKING, READING AND REFLECTION SKILLS

Part 1: Self-delusion A situation in which I suffered intellectual blindness: I’ve once read somewhere on social media that the consumption of meat is not more destructive than the consumption of vegetables. The reasoning was that in the end crops would need as much as surface space as livestock would need. Because at that time I still consumed a lot of meat, I took this text / opinion, as the truth. This was one of the few instances where I presumed something as right, without having the information come from a scientific journal, scientific show, scientific source, etc. Afterwards I learned that what I read online was completely fabricated or just a false assumption of someone else. The first person that tried to tell me that that wasn’t true was a friend of mine; Lien Vincent. She is a vegetarian herself and is quite busy with the topic, but I didn’t instantly believe her as I didn’t know where she got her information from. It is only from the moment that I read opinions from the other side of the narrative that I began to question what I believed to be the truth. I began to do some more research on the topic. This research I did partly on my own behalf but often it was instigated by someone else (university). By doing more research about the topic I started seeing the full picture. Recently I have been watching more and more documentaries about not only meat consumption itself but overall sustainability. Take for example ‘Planet Earth’ and ‘Seaspiracy’. Two amazing documentaries on Netflix. Next to that I became – by a streak of luck – engaged in the SDG-corner that focuses on sustainability. Now I know of course that consuming meat I way more harmful for the earth than consuming plantbased food items. I believe this to be part of the implicit bias and the false consensus bias (part of the meat eaters group). On my part I have not only become more interested in sustainability but I have been gradually scaling down my meat and fish consumption. Since a week or two I have become mostly vegetarian and am focused on shifting this focus of sustainability over to other daily tasks: •

•

Less plastic: o

No more plastic bottles,

No plastic use while shopping ,

Less electricity use: o

•

Heating at a minimum: o

•

No more television running in the background,

When slightly cold I put on a pullover,

Less paper use: o

With the shift towards online (thanks to Covid), I have focused on doing more and more things online instead of on paper (for example an online agenda instead of a physical one).

Part 2: Fallacies With daily news reporting on Covid situations, it is kind of hard to miss fallacies if you now what you are looking for. The biggest fallacy that keeps on returning is the composition/division fallacy, whereby a part of the group represents the entire group and therefore they all behave that way. A example of April is youth partying on Sint-Pieters square or in Ter Kamerenbos in Brussels. These young people neglect the rules and go partying without safety measures witch aggravates a lot of other people. In return it becomes impossible to miss comments of people that criticize the entire youth of Flanders. To them the few students that ran amok represent all the students. This of course is a fallacy as there are still many students who do follow the rules. The comments I read online are often a lot of nonsense and have a mixture of emotion-based arguments and logic-based arguments. But it is hard to say that anyone of these people is capable of seeing the full picture. My biggest issue however is that my stepdad and brother also have the same reaction on these people as the people who are commenting online. Also their reaction feel more severe and shocking than those I read online. While I do understand their reactions, I can completely understand how the rebelling youth must be feeling as I myself am feeling the heaviness of Covid and I have to keep nuancing their reaction and tell them that they shouldn’t be as short-sighted. I have to add though that I do not always rationalize the way I described and often find myself getting angry at my brother and stepdad for their reaction. At the moment of writing I have decided to ignore these fallacies of my family as I have noticed that rationalizing and nuancing with them doesn’t work. They are quite stubborn to stick with their view of how things are and as I feel that paying attention to them puts more stress on me, I have decided to just let them be as they are and find other like-minded people who I can properly discuss this issue with. There are of course a lot more fallacies that have become apparent during Covid times. •

The black and white fallacy: you only have decent, caring people that follow the rules and the selfish people that neglect the rules.

•

Personal incredulity: simple open the online news article comments section.

•

Appeal to nature: people saying that Covid-19 is all natural, we should just get rid of the measurements and let things happen as they are.

•

Burden of proof: people claiming that catering, supermarkets, youth, etc. are the problem of the increasing spread of Covid-19.

•

Genetic: the media being unreliable and framing Covid-related issues.

•

Etc.

Part 3: Critical reading report – When cultures collide My culture is Belgium and while I was reading the chapter about my country, there were some sentences that stuck with me, to get a sort of structure, I will list the extracts out of the chapter and give my opinion about them, together with the source that confirms or counters this statement.

Extract one: In Brussels rival linguistic groups occasionally take down street signs in the offending language in the middle of the night. (D. Lewis, 2006)

I actually thought this as something funny to read as I wasn’t aware this happened but doing a little bit of research showed me it is still a common thing. Although today this form of vandalism happens more often in other cities and villages on the edge of the language barrier. Activist will paint part of the street signs over with graffiti so that the undesired part of the street sign is not readable anymore. In Brussels this is still the case of course with the majority speaking French. (Van de Poel, 2016) HTTPS://THECULTURETRIP.COM/ EUROPE / BELGIUM/ ARTICLES/ AN-INTRODUCTION-TO -THE -FLEMISH-WALLOONDIVIDE /

Extract two Parochial squabbles are numerous (D. Lewis, 2006)

This is perhaps one extract I will not use a source for as you basically just have to open a newspaper, watch the news or some political debate to know that there are always discussions between the parties and they always point at one another when a problem occurs.

Extract three Brussels has also been appointed the effective capital of Europe; 25 percent of its residents are well-paid bureaucrats from other countries. (D. Lewis, 2006)

While I know that Brussels is very diverse, I never am able to put a number of the amount of expats. I also assumed that most expats came and went because of political work, but that 25% of Brussels is actually a resident of Brussels seemed a lot. After doing some research however I must conclude that that number actually may not be far-fetched at all. It may even be too little as the number of expats in Belgium on its whole has risen with 50% if we compare it with 2000 (this book was revised in 2006). Brussels is even the most attractive city in Europe for expats and Even Ghent and Antwerp have seen a rise. (as someone who’s lived his entire life in Ghent, I can acknowledge that). (flanders investment and trade, 2017) HTTPS:// WWW.FLANDERSINVESTMENTANDTRADE .COM/ INVEST/ EN/ NEWS/ NEW-REPORT -SHOWSBELGIUM%E2%80%99S-EXPAT -NUMBERS-REACH-RECORD-HIGH

Extract four Yet Belgium, in spite of her smallness, has the 19th biggest economy in the world, ahead of such countries as Sweden, Austria, Turkey, Denmark and South Africa, not to mention Asian tigers such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Belgium’s output almost equals that of exporting powerhouse Taiwan, which has twice her population. In GDP per capita, Belgium also ranks 21st in the world (D. Lewis, 2006)

This is a rather simple one, the data is obviously outdated as this book was written in 2006. Since then Belgium has sunk 6 places to the 24 biggest economy in the world. Which let’s be honest, I still an amazing spot for this little country. Taiwan having double the population is still correct and GDP per capita we are on the 22nd place, so not that big of a difference. (worldometer, 2017) HTTPS:// WWW.WORLDOMETERS.INFO / GDP/ GDP-BY -COUNTRY /

Extract five There is no such thing as a single Belgian national cultural profile (D. Lewis, 2006)

I think this is bit easy to say. While there is indeed a distinction between the Flemish and the Walloon and we’re able to identify certain cultural values independently from one another, there are cultural values that transcend the language border and gives us a national identity. After all, Belgium’s cultural profile has been described by many different sources and if we didn’t have a national cultural profile, they wouldn’t have been able to. (Hofstede Insights, 2020) HTTPS:// WWW.HOFSTEDE -INSIGHTS.COM/ COUNTRY / BELGIUM/

Extract six The most important taboo is speaking French. Others are arrogance, overassertiveness and pulling rank. They resent having been the lower classes in the past and are still rather annoyed at Brussels being a French-speaking enclave in the middle of Flanders. (D. Lewis, 2006)

I never really felt that speaking French is a taboo. Instead I’ve always learned that the more languages you speak the better. What I know though is that the education in Wallonia doesn’t really endorse their students to study Dutch. Speaking French also feels more endorsed than Dutch in Brussels. I rather think we Flemish people find it disrespectful when a Walloon comes to Flanders and expects us to speak in French as well. However if the author means that in Flanders you speak Dutch and in Wallonia you speak Dutch than I can highly agree with that. We have fought hard to make Dutch an official language equal to French and we will maintain that as the official first language spoken in those parts (including government communication, etc. with the exclusion of facility municipals around brussels). However does that mean we won’t speak French? No, not at all. (Vanderstappen, 2018) HTTPS:// WWW.BRUSSELSTIMES.COM/ NEWS/MAGAZINE /49791/ THE -FLEMISH-MOVEMENT -HOW-LANGUAGE SHAPED-BELGIUM/

What information is missing Obviously a part about the German part of Belgium. Often Belgium is only looked at as a Flemish part and a Wallonia part, while Belgium is actually a bit more diverse than that. Also if you want to properly describe where the differences in cultural values come from, there should be a short part included that talks about Belgian history and a part that ties Flanders to the Netherlands and Wallonia to France.

All in all Belgium is a difficult country and can’t be truly discussed in a few pages. Another big distinction that is missing is Wallonia’s inclination to be more socialistic and Flanders inclination to be more nationalistic (in certain parts).

Was the author biased? Yes, at some points I feel like the author did his research but not always too in-depth. Certain parts that were described feel generalized to keep this chapter from not being too long and than there is this extract form the book:

An industrial Mighty Mouse, Belgium is hard to evaluate in terms of its cultural influence on Europe and the rest of the world. The impact of its biculturalism is diminished by the fact that the intense rivalry tends to neutralize the effect of both sides. There is no such thing as a single Belgian national cultural profile. (D. Lewis, 2006) I feel like the other was shaving off corners here and didn’t feel like doing further research. To say that Belgium (the capital of Europe) has no national cultural profile just seems rude. While I understand that a lot of expats and immigrants live in Belgium, Belgian still have a cultural identity. In addition if don’t feel that the intense rivalry neutralizes our biculturalism, it increases it. Bicultural societies will always find issues to collide over. That’s what you get when cultures collide, it’s proof of our biculturalism.

WORKSHOP 4 PROFESSIONAL TALENTS AND LEVER SKILLS

Part 1: reflection report talents and lever skills While already having written a lot about this topic, I still feel as if there is more to discuss. But before heading in I want to summarize my talents and in which situation they come to fruition. My top 5 talents are; visual organizer, mood reader, knowledge sponge, source of new ideas, and bridge builder. Three of these talents are frequently utilized by myself and I find myself enjoying the activities where I can use these talents. For source of new ideas and knowledge sponge a situation that immediately comes to mind are simple brainstorm session. I have noticed of myself that I bring a lot of input to the table and am able to get brainstorm sessions going forward when others are stuck in a slack. The most notable moment where these talents were uses was were my group and me worked out an event for an actual third party. While my talents require a lot of creativity and fantasy, the one skill that facilitated us delivering an amazing concept was to remain realistic. We divided our days into moments where we could have our creativity run wild and days where we started to have a more realistic view on the situation. I had a lot of help from my group members with this skill as they monitored the realistic part and it was truly the first time where I didn’t go to far with being creative and such. It also made it a lot easier to go along with ideas of other people. Furthermore during the realistic part I really focused on remaining open-minded for every opinion and looking into how it might help us without critiquing everything which really levered my talent as knowledge sponge. A third talent is visual organizer. I find myself attracted to the beauty of graphic design (emphasis on posters and infographics) and prefer to do a creative job above a more analytical job such as research. If given the proper time, this talent helps me to create some beautiful and clear artworks, yet when time is short, I tend to cut corners and not everything is as I want it to be (I tend to be a bit perfectionistic). While I do not like to cut corners I have had to accept it and realized that information can be visualized in much simpler ways as I sometimes tend to overdo it. I also noticed that sometimes certain information does not have to be visualized but I often do it as I find it gives a better aesthetic. to the assignment. This has somehow really helped me forward as I had more time to focus on other parts of my assignments. The other two talents are mood reader and bridge builder. As I’m naturally a sociable person and enjoy good team vibes, these talents perfectly lend themselves in teamwork. Yet again, just like my talent of visual organizer, I have noticed that this talent comes best to fruition when there is room and time to utilize these talents. If time is short and the group is getting nervous, I tend to try to lighten the mood, but it is not always appreciated. At those moments I often decide to go along with the group and remain serious (which used to be something I really didn’t like to do) and focus on the task ahead instead of the group. Somehow with the busy schedule that this education brings (and not being able to go out as much), I feel that I’ve become too serious though. Something I have noticed in regard to these talents is that when I’m very busy, I have to focus on so many things that my talents do not come out as well as the normally do. I especially want to refer to the month of March, and the Easter break that followed where I kept working for school. I noticed that when I have a really busy schedule for more than I week, I start having more and more days I feel down where I do not have time. This puts more pressure on my schedule which after while really starts giving me anxiety. In this case (month march) it has really started to affect me and I noticed that I start to put less time in the things I love to do (Imagining great concepts, creating visually appealing artworks, …)

Part 2: Core quadrant model The first Talent that I will describe is source of new ideas. I feel most connected with this talent as I have concretely used it multiple times, and most people have given me feedback on this talent. Source of new ideas in my case means that for example during brainstorm session my mind can’t sit still. I often have an amazing ideas while the problem is being situated (For later references I want to state that this is the moment I often encounter my pitfall). During the brainstorm sessions itself I find it quite easy to explain my ideas and inspire the others as to why they are so good. For most of the time, even if I really believe in my first idea, I often have a few smaller back-up ideas ready and otherwise the ideas of others inspires me to imagine even better concepts. The core quadrant of this talent is not too difficult to explain as I have been through it a few times already. I have often noticed that when I have an idea (reference to the previous paragraph), I quickly see the entire package. However imagination has no boundaries and so do my ideas. Of course for an idea to be practical, there are a lot of other factors to consider that limit my imagination. A few years ago, I rarely took heed of these factors and came up with ideas that were too idealistic. If the assignment did not explain to remain realistic, than idealism was an easy mistake I would make. However, as explained in the previous part ‘reflection report talents and lever skills’, I have made clear as to how a focus on realism can counter this and how to do it properly. Dividing my time into moments where I can have my fantasy run wild and moments where I take a realistic approach on my ideas helps me to challenge my pitfall. This way of challenging it has to this day always proved successful. Lastly, being too realistic will have its problems as well. I could become the people I dislike and start being pragmatical. With no imagination and staying on the safe route, I can imagine that no idea would really be appealing. Luckily for now I haven’t really encountered moments where I was too pragmatical. I have had moments though that I had wild imaginative ideas, but looking it at a more realistic way, started noticing that what I had planned would not be able to look as I imagined.

The second talent I want to discuss is mood reader. I have less actual references to this talent as it is less critiqued by others and thus must lean on what I feel the pitfall, challenge and allergy of this talent would be. To do so, I have looked up some words to best explain what I mean. As a mood reader, it is quite easy to read the room and feel the vibes that are going on. It is important though to state that I often only read the room when with people I care for. In other instances I find myself being rather unfazed. It could be of course that being unfazed is my talent but that seems a bit strange. This talent of mood reading shows itself the best when the mood is down. I find it rather easy to make the people I know happy again and put some energy in the group. I feel that the pitfall of this talent is to be a bleeding heart, where I start caring more about how others feel than the actual progress of the projects we’re engaged in. This pitfall could really halt the progress as more emphasis would be put on emotional security withing the group. This could in the end always be abused by people saying that they can’t work right now because of tit or tat. Knowing myself, I would start doing their parts and thus the pitfall would hit me double as heart. The challenge to counter the pitfall is to be unfazed. By giving less attention to how people feel and being more focused on the task ahead I can find an easy balance between reading the mood of people and making some actual progress. Of course utilizing this challenge would depend on the people I’m working with as most people can manage themselves. Being too unfazed is not good of course. It would turn into my allergy; being insensitive. At the moment I must say that I feel more unfazed / insensitive when doing group works. I feel the main reason for this is that most group projects are happening online and I can’t really connect with the people I’m working with. This makes me more distant and less caring from them. There might also be other reasons for this. It’s possible that because I’m a few years older and have more experience at universities that I feel the level of quality of our group projects is too low or my team members are a bit too childish but I can’t tell for sure. What I do now is that I have become more intolerant for slacking off during meetings.

Part 3: Reworked CV

Part 4: Updated Linked-In For the updates in my Linked-In profile see: Workshop 1, Part 3 (page 15) As my internship is more than a year away, I’m not sure that it is wise to already update it and indicate I’m looking for an internship. However as I do plan to make this change, I will set up a system that will remind me to take a look at my Linked-In profile next semester and make it up-to-date for my internship.

E-mail to future me

WORKSHOP 5 INTERNATIONAL @HOME ACTIVITIES

Part 1: alumni panel When choosing between the multiple INT@home activities organized by IBM, I immediately knew I want to focus on expats and listen to their experience of living abroad. The alumni panel featuring graduates of IBM was a great start to kick-off that week. I had a few expectations of what to expect of this activity and these expectation were completely in line with what I’ve learned and discovered. As the online panel with the alumni began, I was introduced to 5 different graduates of IBM, all of them very young but also expatriated to completely different countries. The ones that really stood out to me were Jai Goeminne (expat the Netherlands) and Rémi Cappelaere (expat Vietnam). They were really positive and brought a positive energy to the table. Katreen Alnassar (expat Sweden) and Olivier ‘t Kint (expat China) were also very interesting to hear as they often brought their own different perspectives towards the experience providing a bit more variety into what it really is to live and work abroad. The panel was completed by Eugenie (expat Spain), by I feel that her goals in live are too different from mine and found it more difficult to relate to her. While each and every one of them told about their lives while working abroad, the most important part came during the Q&A. Many concern that we student may have were addressed and it was most surprising yet sensible how almost all of them ensured us that there is not so much to be afraid of as I’d initially think. They also learned us great strategies to make it easier to cope with living abroad; A topic that continued in another INT@home activity ‘Kickstarting your career w/ Mathieu Menten. Mathieu went more in-depth in emotional security and stability and what you can do if you really need some help. Overall I was really satisfied with the quality of the alumni panel. Personal experiences always shed a new light on things you thought you understood and makes the idea of living abroad more approachable.

Part 2: student conversation rooms The student conversation rooms were a last-minute decision I made. As my focus of the INT@home activities became clear, this student conversation felt like a great addition to all the activities I already enrolled for. For the student conversation rooms I was accompanied by Cassandra Nieuwenhuizen (Netherlands), Yu-Jen Tsai 蔡雨臻 (Vietnam) and Emamba Awanyah Oburi (Cameroon), who is also an IBM student. While it was interesting to meet actual students from different cultures and the experience was definitely unique, I think that the entire online aspect hindered my experience a bit. Chatting with Cassandra went very easy for example and etiquette was followed. The same thing went with Yu-Tsen Tsai. However as she had a bit more difficulty speaking English and was a bit shy about it, we let her take her time and made sure we didn’t pressure her which required a lot of time from the 1 hour that was preserved. Lastly there was Emamba whose connection was not good which made him inaudible most of the time and he also went outside and didn’t really show his face. Neglecting the little hiccups I mentioned though, I found that the conversation room went quite well. We utilized the ice-breaker sheet that was handed to us and selected some of the more interesting questions. By asking these question I was most amazed / shocked by the answers form Yu-Tsen and Emamba as their way of living is very different from mine. I also was very amazed by Yu-Tsen for having the courage to join a conversation room with her level of proficiency in English. It was really cool to see something like that. The ice-breakers were a nice way to actually have the conversation open and hear the more personal stories of people.

Part 3: reflection When I saw what kind of activities were organized during the INT@home activities I immediately decided to solely focus on expat experiences and try to develop my cultural sensitivity a bit better. This is mainly the reason why I didn’t opt for activities like the quiz. Nonetheless I really want to learn through real experiences. Added to this planned to work on some of my soft skills through the student conversation rooms as to me IBM can not teach me a lot of new things regarding hard skills (previous educations). My soft skills however can use some work. I feel that every activity talked about a different topic entirely. The alumni panel focused on personal experienced living abroad (surface level), While kickstarting your career w/ Mathieu Menten did the same but looked at it on a deeper level (including mental security). Entrepreneurship took a different perspective and focused on starting a business abroad and the difficulties. Lastly Student Conversation Rooms focused on my soft skills. I feel that I have seen a big complementing package but for the future would like to dive deeper in personal experiences of people actually native to their culture.

WORKSHOP 6 STUDYING ABROAD

Part 1: Interview with Charlotte Godefroidt HTTPS://YOUTU .BE /XHK OH3J ZJPE

Part 2: Critical analysis the interviews Critical analysis of my interview with Charlotte Godefroidt The cultural image Certain interesting insights were acquired from this interview. Private setting: •

•

Housing unit:

Lots of sharing of space going on. Reason for this is the expensive housing prices. Most utilities (kitchen, toilet, bathroom, etc. are shared).

Clothes are hung up to dry all over the housing unit, which also is an indication to the sharing of space.

Italians also tend to eat much later than Belgians.

Payment of rent happened in cash. This felt really sketchy at first, but that’s is the way Italians do it (they want to avoid taxes), and they trust each other in that aspect.

Public space:

Very kind people towards foreigners (shows acceptance to other cultures).

Not good at speaking English and not fond of adopting the second language. They rather have other people speak their language.

Very outgoing people that know how to enjoy life. Charlotte never felt unsafe.

Educational setting •

Always interactive big classes. System felt the same as in Belgium. There was a lot of respect for the lecturers.

•

Less satisfied with grades. A border pass is not liked and Italians will retake their exams.

•

Less pressure during the exam period. There is more time between exams, and exams can be retaken as much as they want.

Overall I feel that the Italians are very open and kind people that like to get to know you first before moving on to other things (more relationship-oriented). It makes me perceive Italians more as part of a being-culture than a doing-culture. While they rather have foreigners try to speak some Italian (because they don’t speak English) they accept tourist with open arms. For Italians Space is more shared than private. Because of expensive rates utilities are shared more and they also hang out their clothes to dry everywhere. There is also a trust between people when settling payments. Payments often happen in cash as they want to avoid taxes.

The interviewees attitude Private setting There is very positive attitude towards her experiences. While living with other Italians introduced some cultural aspects that were different to her, she didn’t really mind as most of the time she was out anyways. She had a little trouble with the fact that one of her Italian roommates didn’t speak English which made communication very hard. She also had to adapt to the fact that she had to hang up her clothes to dry all over the housing unit. A last thing that actually gave her quite a shock was the settlement of payment. They rather have it in cash, no matter how expensive it is as Italians try to avoid taxes. While she found this sketchy at first, she quickly understood that that was how things were done Educational setting Very similar to the educational setting in Belgium, although every class was in a big group. She felt way more relaxed during the exam periods as there was way more time between exams and she was allowed to retake an exam multiple times during the same period. What message the interviewee is sending about his or her cultural identity, and about the cultural identity of his/her hosts; The cultural identities could be considered very similar. She was more aware of her own cultural identity however, as Charlotte could be considered to live in the suburbs in Belgium and suddenly she was living in the city centre. She really loved the city environment and the mood that was tied to it. She also mentioned that she lived abroad in California and Shanghai, so to her it wasn’t that difficult living somewhere else. One point were the cultural identity of Charlotte may have clashed with the one of the Italians was when it came to payments. They were required in cash, but Charlotte finds this super sketchy as in Belgium, you can always risk that something illegal is going on. Italians however are more trusting towards each other Ways in which the interviewers or interviewees may have questioned or made explicit the way these cultural identities were constructed; For the sharing of space, I feel that that part of their cultural identity comes from the high renting prices. These high costs in the city may also explain why Italians rather have rent paid in cash and tells us why they are more trusting about that stuff in those terms. How interviewees construct Erasmus students’ communities and people they have met or tried to avoid meeting. What do these stories/constructions tell us about their attitudes to diversity? There was a famous Erasmus community present, through which she was able to connect with a lot of students. There were also 4 other students form her education in Milan, so she had no trouble making friends. Her Erasmus community friends at least consisted of a German guy and two Spanish girls. As she was constantly going out and had a lot of ties to Belgium, she could deal with other Erasmus very easily. I feel like she was very open to Italians but she might have avoided the ones that don’t speak English as it is very hard to communicate to them.

What I take from this interview is that while Italians are open to diversity, students studying abroad will still rather hang out with each other, than with Italians as it’s difficult to communicate with them.

Critical analysis interview Elena Geers and Manon Mattelaer The cultural image that is projected of each setting—considering which phenomena, traits, rules, norms and values are cited; Professional setting: •

Very communicative but in a caring way. Always asking about your family and stuff.

•

Not very good at speaking English and they prefer if you spoke Italian instead

•

Very direct. If they don’t like you or you supposed to be somewhere you’ll instantly know.

•

E-mailing -> send every message separately.

•

Very extravagant when they speak

Private setting: •

Housing unit:

o •

Housing is very cheap if you’re not living in the city. In the city however it is very expensive

Public space:

Not a lot was mentioned. She lived at less populated cities, so she just feels as if it was more secluded but still very nice.

The attitude the interviewee holds towards each setting; Professional setting Bit annoyed about certain work stuff, but in general very happy about her experience abroad. She was very amazed by how much focus is put on the person itself before they go over to action. For her there were some things that she thought to be a bit odd, but as she is planning to study in Italy, she has already perfectly adopted some of the business etiquette and their values. Private setting

She has a bit of trouble with most of the older Italians as they don’t speak English very well. In order to adopt, she is planning to take an Italian course in the future. However she was really amazed by the beauty of the city and the scenery What message the interviewee is sending about his or her cultural identity, and about the cultural identity of his/her hosts; She is less direct and more action-oriented, whereas Italians are very direct and more relationshiporiented. I feel an unwillingness with Italians to adopt another language as they prefer people to just speak Italian. On a private life though, the cultural identities match nicely and there is little conflict to be found as the relationship oriented ways of Italians match with the Belgian ways. How interviewees construct Erasmus students’ communities and people they have met or tried to avoid meeting. What do these stories/constructions tell us about their attitudes to diversity? She lives outside of the city and choose a place with some schools so that there would be young people to befriend. Making friends at work is very easy. Italians are very communicative and like to get to know you. However you should talk their language as they don’t want to adopt another language

Part 3 – self-assessment Listening to my interview again, I’m quite proud with the result. I felt that the interview was quite fluent and I actively listened to what she had to say and continued with follow-up questions. I managed to acquire a lot of insights about what life in Italy might like, both on a private setting (house, public space) as on an education setting. Charlotte told me about certain customs the Italians have, that might have scare me off, but now I am more prepared for them. Where the interview is lacking though, is more in-depth insights in how their identity is formed. Asking Charlotte like values she experienced Italians to be thought at high schools, universities may have brought me more insights. Although I still to say that that is something that is quite difficult to deduce. Outcomes after watching the videos and analyzing them

I have learnt…

1. Recognize and explain the variety and complexity that exist among individuals in social groups.

There are certain cultural values that create the common thread among people, but there are some differences between the older generations and the younger generations. Older generations most likely have no English proficiency and like you to at least try to speak English to them. For the younger generation it depends on who you’re talking to but most of them speak English.

I still have to learn… because…

I have learnt it thanks to…

About Italians at a more individual level as I feel I have learnt some general common threads for their culture. What I learnt from these interviews has little to do with the complexity of an individual itself.

For the rest I wouldn’t consider the individuals super complex. Especially in smaller communities the focus in on getting to know each other well. However what is a bit difficult is dealing with their sometimes too direct approach. 3. Describe ways in which people (re)construct and/or (re)negotiate their own and others’ multiple identities depending on experiences, encounters, contexts, and interlocutors.

For Charlotte the biggest reconstruction of her own identity came when she experienced what it was to live in a big city. As a suburban girl everything was suddenly much more accessible and closer than

I think I have heard a lot of personal experiences, both on private level and professional level. I don’t immediately see a certain thing I still have to learn. If I would learn new things it

before. Also the sharing of space was a little different but something she could adopt easily to. The biggest confrontation with her own identity happened during payment of rent, when she was asked to trust her landlord and pay in Cash. In Belgium that would not have happened as it appears sketchy.

would happen by experiencing them myself. One point of focus here would be to experience Italian culture more in a private level, as I feel I got more insights about this on a professional level.

For Manon her biggest confrontation with her identity happened at work. Manon describes herself as more action-oriented, while Italians are more relationship-oriented. This was also very odd as Italians can be very direct when you’re somewhere that you’re not supposed to be. Being flexible in the way Italians communicate at work was definitely a big working point. (same example with the mails). 4. Recognize and explain the problematic nature of using certain terms (e.g. ethnicity, race, nation) to frame identity.

I can’t say this topic was really touched upon. What I did deduce from the interviews is that the older generation might sometimes not like tourists when they are speaking English again as they can’t speak English themselves. They rather have you speak Italian

A lot. There is much to be learned about their stances towards other culture, however from a personal friend I have learned that a lot of young Italians are moving to other countries because of the bad economic situation. Most Italians are also rather openminded, but again, that’s what I’ve heard from only one Italian. So there’s lot to experience on this level.

5. Interpret what people say about their culture as a personal observation, and possibly as evidence of what they wish others to see

Italians are more outgoing than Belgians to Charlotte and enjoy life more as a Being-culture. For her that was something that

It’s a difficult culture to compare as I feel there are a lot of similarities. Personally I feel like I would fit in myself but I’m wary about the people that

about themselves.

truly fitted her own identity ands she really enjoyed it. Manon saw herself more as someone who as actionoriented while the Italians are relation-ship oriented. While she found this a bit troubling at first, she decided to adopt their values and norms and now is able to fit in the company she worked at.

6. Recognize when misunderstandings may be the result of stereotyping, ethnocentrism, essentializing and prejudice.

For Charlotte there was this misunderstanding when she had to pay rent. She was asked to pay cash but found this sketch, and I believe the cause that her own identity, culture has learned to not pay big sums, settle big contracts without proof of payment or other things. And as the Italians wanted cash so they could avoid taxes this felt a bit sketchy. I feel like she stereotyped her own culture and expanded it to other Western countries. There was one misunderstanding because of a communication error and Manon’s Italian colleague was quite rude and direct to her, but Manon was able to deal with this and kind of understood it as the colleague was very friendly with her afterwards.

want me to speak English as I don’t see myself willing to learn that language.

I feel like the interviewees were very open-minded and little prejudice happened. There were a few misunderstanding but both of them said they could easily understand the situation. For myself I already met a few Italians and I can very easily socialize with them as they seem very open-minded themselves.

WORKSHOP 7 INTERNATIONAL DAYS

Part 1: The 2030 Agenda: a commitment to sustainable development Content Esther Poveda Pareja and Javier Martinez Falcó of the management department of the University of Alicante gave an online lecture about sustainable development goals (SDG’s) of 2030 and how they have committed themselves into achieving this. Esther took the lead and first wanted to inform us about several layers of collapse, where Covid19 is just a small one followed by recession, climate change and then the biodiversity collapse. Giving us this insight was a perfect set-of for Esther to explain why what they do is so important. Esther told us that in her department they check environments for forest deforestation, plastic pollution as these are big contributors to the collapse of biodiversity. Furthermore they try to tie this together with the SDG’s set forward by multiple nations. With this short introduction done, the actual lecture was set off by giving us a proper explanation of what sustainability was and where the origins of the SDG’s come from. In short the SDG’s originate from an initiative set out by the U.N. and the basic pillars of this agenda constitute a set of global goals that integrate the three classic dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental). There are 17 that aim to improve on what was not achieved through the Millennium Development Goals (8). It is also important to understand that the appeal for sustainability is different depending on the level (action by individuals, local level, global action). Focusing on the first level, we were introduced to the different actions we can undertake as an individual. The actions were divided in: •

Things we can do from the couch,

•

Things we can do from home,

•

Things we do in the neighbourhood,

•

Things we can do at work.

Next Esther also talked about what Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is, by tying it to Carrol’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility and the stakeholder theory and how it can be used as a strategic approach for sustainability. She suggests that companies follow a five-step action process: 1. Understand the SDG’s, 2. Analyse their potential and define priorities, 3. Set an action agenda, establish indicators and publicly announce the commitment made to the SDGS, 4. Embed the agenda in the business, 5. Report and communicate achievements.

Lastly she also discusses the three dimensions of CSR, which are the Economic-functional area, Quality of life area and investment or social action area and ends her part with underscoring the importance of management education for sustainable development. The last part of the lecture was for Javier who looked at all 17 SDG’s separately and discussed what a company could do to achieve this SDG and gave a lot of insightful examples. One of the many examples is for a company to develop a climate change strategy or reduce consumption of fossil fuels in order to minimize the impact on climate change (SDG 13 – climate change).

Reflection on why I chose this topic: This topic is aligned with the learning outcomes I set out for this year (see Grow Story). Many of the projects I have undertaken are related to sustainability (Beyond Meats as company choice for International Strategy, my participation in the SDG-corner, Research on AI and sustainability for E-Skills, etc.). It was only natural that out of the many topics I chose one that I already learned a lot from this year but of which I still was able to learn a lot depending on the point of view. This lecture was able to go in-depth about how companies’ CSR can be perfectly adjusted to attain the SDG’s and as I still have possession of the PowerPoint that was used during the lecture, I will always be able to use it as a reference point in the future.

What I learned: I remember that this lecture was the first touchpoint where I really became aware of the fact that biodiversity collapse is way worse than climate change. Therefore the most important things from the lecture that I want to remember is the 5-steps action process for implementing proper CSR in a company and the so many examples I have been shown during this seminar (half of the lecture was reserved for looking at the SDG’s separately). Through this I can also say I am more aware about the actual distinction between all the SDG’s.

Critical reading/listening skills: Personally I thought Esther a better speaker than Javier. Although their Spanish accent was still very apparent. The topics Esther talked about made more sense as they flowed into each other with a lot of ease. There was also way more conviction and passion in her voice as she spoke about sustainability. In contrast Javier was at many times difficult to understand because his Spanish accent weighed to heavy on his English pronunciation. About the content I have to say that I didn’t necessarily have to listen to the lecturers as all the information was present on the PowerPoint. Keeping in mind that this is a heavily informative lecture I can understand all the text being present, but I feel that especially Javier could have done more his best to not just read out the slides. I also wan to mention that I liked the little thought experiment from Esther about the different layers of Collapse at the beginning of the lecture. Overall I can’t say I would have retained most of the information without having the PowerPoint.

Questions: When asked what the real trigger is for creating an action plan and embedding it in the business, Esther replied by giving an example of a company that is doing this SDG action plan very well (Ecoalf). She explained the embedded the action plan from their most basic activity to their most complex operation and that’s why it works well (not really what was asked for).

Another question was how their university brought awareness of this topic to their students. Javier replied on this by saying that they have a research group at their university and they include relationship between the units where they explain CSR and sustainability and try to include this in all course contents (different phases). What can a company do in this phase regarding CSR. A third question askes was how companies can impact their employees, when the employees cultural background is based on individualism? Esther replied on this by saying it’s important to include all stakeholders. Starbucks did this very well. They have lots of educational programs for their employees and try to transform values and ethics in their activities through annual meetings where they ask themselves what they can do on a daily base to impact their values. Basically the most important thing is to integrate certain values into your employees but only integrate the things that tier employees want to do. After this their was a final round of question from one student that asked; how they could say that Unilever still doesn’t act In the way of Greenwashing with their big investments and if they can do more? Javier replied by saying that Unilever is quite a controversial topic. they don’t know if Unilever does it to do greenwashing. They know though that Unilever believes in what they are doing and they have the money for it. Of course the main goal is to alleviate their image. The student further replied on this by saying that finding critical information on Unilever is very hard and it’s time that they start making a change. On which a final response from Esther came that the clue is to focus on three examples (yes they can do a lot more).

1. We must always mind that they will always look to added value through these green activities. 2. Worldwide they carry out a lot of activities and to say that they have to link all their activities to their sustainability goals is difficult as these plans are still being developed in certain countries. 3. You must also look at the evolution of the company. An old company will have difficulties integrating these new values in their company and Unilever is an old company. Ecoalf on the contrary is a young company.

Part 2: Born to win – knowing one’s roots & finding oneself Content The second lecture I followed during the international days was the lecture of Neethi Swamy, an expat from India that has been living in Ghent for a few years. Currently she is working as a business change manager for DSV in the Luxembourg office. During the lecture we were introduced to the journey to Neethi and how she actually became an expat. Her journey starts of fairly simply by giving us some information about when and where she was born and what her early you looked like. What we learn is that her parents played a big role in Neethi’s journey. She was from a middle-class family in a community-based society and they always taught her the importance of education and that’s her starting point as to say. Something interesting here is that she call everyone auntie or uncle, I didn’t this was the case in India but I loved to here that. It’s clearly part of their community-based society. To bring some fun in het story, she tells us about the naughty things she did as a kid and how basic life was for her: home-cooked meals and handcrafted things for gifts in the community, lots of playing on the streets (less traffic back then), how she was called coyote because she was real fast and about their religion (one god) and dana (charity). After this nice look into her life, she ends telling about her background by talking about three very nice stories she remember from her youth: 1. The story about how she learned to ride a bike. 2. The story about how she learned to save through her uncle. 3. The story about the guy driving her in the rickshaw everyday to school and back.

It’s from this point she starts kicking of with the education she followed and how she rolled into the international journey. In short she went to catholic private school and met her best friend Ananya there. It was she that pushed her to take a leap of faith and go to Romania through AIESEC to give do an internship in financing. This led her to work for Goldman Sachs and later for Société Générale. However eventually she finds out she doesn’t like working in finance and goes on an Europe trip. The trip is basically just Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Here she really accepts that she want to go fully international but she’s confronted with 4 dilemmas namely about marriage, being an only child, her family and friends and financing. Although these dilemmas are there she decides to move to Paris as a student. While she is studying Logistics over there, she has a complete culture shock and realizes she doesn’t like living there because it’s so black and grey. In a move to get away she does two important internships related to supply chain management in the Netherlands and finds herself moving to Ghent after her graduation. She ends her lecture with some helpful tips, where she explains that family and friends are forever and future expats should hold next values very high to themselves.

1. Courage over comfort, 2. Compassion over shame, 3. Curiosity over judgment.

Reflection on why I chose this topic: I have to say the title was very catchy and I felt myself being very interested in what Neethi had to say. Looking at the other stuff I followed during TMD, this was something unique but also in line with for example the alumni panel I did. As one of my learning outcomes is self-direction, I always find it very interesting to hear about other people’s stories and what they learned along the way. I have to say this was such a well-structured lectured and so amazing to follow.

What I learned: Primarily I gained some more insight into Indian life. Some thing I could have expected, but others came as a nice surprise such as Neethi calling everyone auntie and uncle. For me this personal view of Neethi alters my view on India as a whole (I also watched ‘Period. End of sentence on Netflix’). Furthermore I think the things I’ve learned are quite unique as they relate to a unique individual but there are some overarching lessons that can be learned from the stories of others. I will also remember the tips she gave at the end as that is in the end what she has actually learned during her journeys.

Critical reading/ listening skills I found that this was one of the best lectures I have followed in terms of structure and how it was presented. Neethi immediately felt as a warm and overjoyed person when it came to telling her story. Never did I feel my attention getting drawn merely because she knowns how to tell a story. To give an hour presentation about you road to being an expat in Ghent would feel like you’d have to be detailed about certain but she didn’t and everything was so fluent about the presentation. Her proficiency in English was amazing and here there she got us to engage by asked a question, such as what word pop up when I say… or by just throwing something different or personal in the mix.

Questions Most questions asked were about her personal life of course. People asked whether she felt like she had achieved her dream of traveling and Neethi confirmed that for now she had achieved it (international education, living in Europe). She also told us that another milestone of hers was to tell her story to an audience which she achieved today, but of course many dreams can still pop up for her. An interesting question asked was whether she would return to India eventually but as she is dating someone and is looking to have a long-term partnership (marriage), she doesn’t think it likely to return to India, although she is conflicted as she wouldn’t mind living in Hong Kong or Singapore and she also wants to return to her family as they are growing older A last question was what the biggest adjustment was between living in Belgium and living in India. For Neethi this was the fact that Belgians are very individualistic (she comes from a community-based

society). At first she found it odd to sit alone at a restaurant but as other did it, she eventually took the step herself and now she can really enjoy having this sort of alone time.

WORKSHOP 8 SEMINAR SLIDECAST

Link HTTPS://YOUTU .BE /UMUHUAMR6PG

WORKSHOP 9 MENTORSHIP PROJECT

WORKSHOP 10 MY GROW STORY

Part 1: learning outcomes Chosen learning outcomes: 1. LO 5 – Sustainability and international focus, 2. LO 11 – Self-direction and professional development, 3. LO 18 – Intercultural sensitivity. Additional learning outcomes: 4. LO 1 – Management, 5. LO 10 Collaboration.

Concrete actions LO 5 – sustainability and international focus For the AY 20-21 I have chosen to put the most attention on this learning outcome. Whenever I have the possibility to tie one of my courses to sustainable development, business that focus on sustainable development, etc. I will do so. In choosing seminars to follow this year, I will also focus on sustainability as the arching narrative of this course. How my talents tie in Currently I do not yet know how I will tie in my talents, but for now I want to learn as much about sustainability as possible. This will expand my talent as knowledge sponge, and perhaps add a new layer of creativity to the things, concepts, ideas I imagine. Which of course ties in with my talent as source of new ideas. For now I think it is very important to build on these two talents as sustainability is a hot topic and therefore understanding the topic is quite important. How my talents of mood reader and visual designer will tie in, I can’t say yet. It al depends on the actual actions I will undertake this year. For my last talent of bridge builder, I hope to gain some interesting connections throughout this year. LO 11 – Self-direction and professional development As I have studied a few courses before this already, I consider this entire education as a form of selfdirection towards the future I want to achieve. However I’d like see how I can express myself in the work I do and the quality of what I deliver. I consider it a sort of self-branding, and although I have done this in previous educations, in the end I was not happy with the direction. For now though, I realize I really want to something that helps others, or even bigger, the planet (so this kind of ties in with LO 5). As for professional development, I’m aiming to build an international network of people of whom I know that they can deliver qualitative work. How I will build this network is through attending events, joining communities, helping out in projects I support, etc. and most importantly meet new people. Lastly I’m looking to revisit my online website (resumé) and rebuild it, update my Linked-In from time to time and use the Portfolium tool to create I nice place were I can collect all my works

How my talents tie in. For LO 5 I consider bridge builder a very important talent. It will necessary for me to expand my network with interesting people. To reach a certain quality for my network, I hope to be of help to some people in my network. That way I position myself as a valuable person. Next, I feel that visual designer is also an important skill. As I’m talking about kind of rebranding myself, I will have to rely on my design skills to create an appeal to my personage. Website building, interactive resumés, etc. these are all things I currently am thinking of. Knowledge sponge is a last talent that can fit in with this learning outcome as during my self-direction, I will have to acquire new knowledge that fits the journey I want to go on. LO 18 – Intercultural sensitivity Lastly I would really like to work on my soft-skills. While my hard-skills have been well-developed in previous educations, I actually feel that this is a learning outcome where I have a lot to learn in. The way I will try to develop in this learning outcome doesn’t seem truly obvious at start. I hope first of all that the many groupworks that are ahead of me will help me out with this. Furthermore the seminars, workshop, etc. that I can follow this year might prove an interesting way to develop this. Lastly I feel that this skill is best developed by just meeting people from different cultures so, even though Covid is not making it easy on my, I will try to meet some people from other cultures How my talents tie in For LO 18 I can only think of one talent that truly fits here and that is mood reader. It only makes sense to me that if I want to develop intercultural sensitivity it is important to not only listen to the people around me, but furthermore to truly understand them, and eventually be able to read the room. LO 1- management and LO 10 – collaboration Additionally to the previous two learning outcomes I also wanted to work on LO 1 and LO 10. However as I found that this entire year required me to manage myself properly (Covid) and almost every assignment was a collaborative one, I thought it unnecessary to reserve a special for these learning outcomes as they are integrated with a lot of the other learning outcomes.

Part 2: Portfolium (not finished) All the actions undertaken to reach the learning goals set out in semester 1 are properly documented in an online tool called Portfolium. To reach my page on this online tool click here or copy the link down below. HTTPS:// PORTFOLIUM.COM/ KEITHLINTHOUT 1/ PORTFOLIO

Create PDF in Portfolium once finished

Part 3: My grow story Slides

Link HTTPS://YOUTU .BE / LDHHO GJ 1T -G

BIBLIOGRAPHY Artevelde University of Applied Sciences. (2018). LOmatrix IBM_AY18-19_Def Eng. Ghent: Artevelde University of Applied Sciences. Retrieved from https://studentarteveldehsbe.sharepoint.com/sites/PBAIBM/Shared%20Documents/Students%2 0and%20education/Learning%20outcomes/LO%20matrix%20IBM_AJ1819_DEF.pdf?csf=1&e=tJpwOJ&cid=26b0b15b-989e-4913-9f87-92e74584d3de Arteveldehogeschool. (2011, Mei 5). spotlight on assessment. Retrieved from arteveldehogeschool: https://www.arteveldehogeschool.be/spotlight/node/95/ D. Lewis, R. (2006). When Cultures Collide. Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Facebook. (s.d.). keithlinthout. Retrieved from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keith.linthout/ flanders investment and trade. (2017, november 30). news. Retrieved from flandersinvestmentandtrade: https://www.flandersinvestmentandtrade.com/invest/en/news/new-report-showsbelgium%E2%80%99s-expat-numbers-reach-record-high Hofstede Insights. (2020). belgium. Retrieved from hofstede-insights: https://www.hofstedeinsights.com/country/belgium/ Instagram. (s.d.). keith_linthout. Retrieved from instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keith_linthout/ Linked-In. (s.d.). keith-linthout. Retrieved from linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-linthouta34121b2/ Neely, J. (2017, November 14). elevator-pitch-examples. Retrieved from toggl: https://toggl.com/blog/elevator-pitch-examples Pinterest. (s.d.). wolfwhohowledboy. Retrieved from pinterest: https://nl.pinterest.com/wolfwhohowledboy/_saved/ Portfolium. (s.d.). keithlinthout1. Retrieved from porfolium: https://portfolium.com/keithlinthout1 Van de Poel, N. (2016, november 24). belgium. Retrieved from theculturetrim: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/belgium/articles/an-introduction-to-the-flemish-walloondivide/ Vanderstappen, T. (2018, July 23). the flemish movement how language shaped belgium. Retrieved from Brusselstimes: https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/magazine/49791/the-flemish-movementhow-language-shaped-belgium/ worldometer. (2017). gdp by country. Retrieved from worldofmeters: https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/ youtube. (s.d.). channel. Retrieved from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcLbP2ANB81JPKqpXgII1sQ

ANNEXES

Annex 1: SDG-corner Concept description

Posters

Annex 2: Outlook calendar – weekly activities October

November

December

January

Annex 3: Outlook calendar – monthly deadlines

Annex 4: Interview with charlotte Hey Charlotte! Could you tell us a bit about who you are, what country you visited and when you visited it? Yes, so I went to Italy during my previous education of communication management in my last year. So that's about two years ago and I went to Italy because at school we had a lot of sessions about studying abroad and two girls came talking about Italy and it seemed really interesting. OK so you had two sessions at school. Where there any other ways that you prepared for going to Milan. Either mentally or for example by doing research? Yes so I did a lot of online research but I also went to Italy ahead of time for three days with my mom. Where we looked at where I would be living, how public transport was best dealt with, how I would be getting to school and back and that kind of stuff. OK so you already got a feeling of the culture of Italy. Can I ask if you also visited other cities just to get a sense of what you've done in Italy. Yes I didn't do that ahead of time. that's we had a community group for Erasmus students and once a month they organised day trips to certain parts in Italy which were very affordable for students such as Turino and Verona. At the end of this semester I had made a certain group of friends with whom we made our own plans to visit three other cities in Italy. Alrights sounds amazing. To continue on that Erasmus community; those day trips were they organised by the University or did you guys organise them yourselves? Well it was initiated by the University but the Erasmus community group is actually a very famous community group known around the world. Actually the community group would partly do it themselves but the university was definitely attached to the famous community group. Right thank you for that introduction. So how will we continue this interview; we will look at how are you prepared before going to Italy we will see how you developed your mentality about Italian culture and we will have a look at what happened when you came back to Belgium after leaving Italy. so First off; Italy, was that your first time living abroad? No when I was 11 years old I moved to California with my parents for two years and after that I lived in Shanghai for three years. After that we moved back to Belgium and five years later I started my Erasmus project. Alright, so definitely already some experience in living abroad. So when you arrived in Italy the first thing you did was looking for your housing unit; where it was, how big it was, am I right? And do you remember what you first thought when you entered your housing unit? Yes it's very different than what we used to over here. First off it's more like apartments that you live in instead of real houses. Another thing is that prices are really expensive. for 500 euro's you couldn't get a proper room. I paid with 700 euro's and I had one room in an apartment and had to share my kitchen an all of the utility's. It's also a big city that's very populated so everything is much more tightly built together.

I take it that there is a lot of sharing going on in general then? Yes that's right okay weather any other oddities with the housing unit, things that were different our similar to what we have in Belgium? Not really the housing itself, but rather in the way you settled it. Italians prefer it that you pay rent in cash even if it's two months in advance. that might really shock someone who isn't used to that, and it might seem as sketchy. however it's very normal to do so in Italy as they to do this to avoid taxes. so to continue on the sharing stuff. You were living with other people so I assume those other people were Erasmus students? No we're actually 2 Italian girls from Florence who were studying in Milan. one of the girls for English was nearly perfect, but the other one could barely talk any English which makes communicating very difficult. And if I look at my other friends who lived in Italy then I can say that they also were living with Italians. What is it difficult living with Italians? it was OK as I had my own room and I had a lot of stuff to do which means I wasn't home a lot. But that way of living was indeed different in certain aspects. for example; here in Belgium we have a washing machine and a dryer. in Italy they just have a washing machine as they always hang their clothes out on clothing lines all over the apartment. Other than that we also had our different eating patterns. I would eat a bit earlier than the Italian girls. Furthermore there weren't too many differences. Okay about the city itself then what struck you as interesting or strange about Milan? I thought it was really amazing to live in the city; there is so much to do at every single moment of the day and there are so many people walking around that you always feel safe. I really live in the city centre. What was different for me though (someone who's not a city girl) was that it was really easy to catch public transport. There is also so much to do. Italy has a lot of clubs, pubs another thing to do for students although it was a bit expensive but so much fun and so different than in Belgium. How did you experience the educational system? what were the differences and how did the students act toward the lecturers? Well classes were always in big groups and students were really respectful towards their lecturers. if there was need for interaction then we could give it and we could always ask questions. The biggest difference however is the way they look at grades. if here in Belgium you fail an exam, you have to retake it in August. In Italy however if you fail an exam, you can immediately retake it. Actually students get a lot of chances. Another difference is that in Belgium students are happy with a 10/20. in Italy however if students have a 15/30, they will retake it as they consider that not a good grade. I've also had there's a lot more time between exams? yes that's right, it's not like one exam after the other. You sometimes have like two weeks between exams. So eventually you came back to Belgium. Did you experience a culture shock in Italy or a re-entry shock coming back to Belgium?

No I wouldn't say so. I had my group of Erasmus friends in Italy plus four Belgian friends from my same school, so I really felt at ease in Italy. there was also this German guy we really came along with, some Spanish girls, etc. I experienced a lot of cultures but thanks to my Belgian friends I always had that connection to home and as Italy is not that far away I had visitors over every single weekend. Okay then, search and some short questions, short answers; what will you miss most about Italian culture? The food! It’s so good and cheap What did you like about the people and what would you change about them? People were really nice, but the locals didn’t speak English, which caused some language problems What was good and what was bad about their lifestyle? It was so expensive but the city is so amazing at the same time; there's so much to do. (closing interview)

Annex 5: Interview Elena Geers with Manon Mattelaer And how were the first weeks in Italy did you experience a culture shock? She didn't have a culture shock from the Italian culture itself but from the company she worked at. The reason for this is that during a meeting she noticed that there's a lot of chit chat going on during a 2 hour meeting one hour and a half was reserved for chit chatting. In Belgium they work, work, work but in Italy they make sure that you are comfortable first Also emailing is different. If in Italy you send an email with 10 questions you will get one email back with one answer so if you want 10 answers to the 10 questions you asked, you have to send 10 separate emails. They don’t read the full email so that is annoying. Do you think it's important to know a little bit about language over there? Yes, I do think it's very important as the Italians barely speak any English and if things get too technical (for example launching a new Department) then it's very important that we can understand each other. right now I’m working with a colleague who only speaks Italian and I can barely understand. Vice versa she can't understand me either. Which is very annoying. I also recommend following an Italian course say that I or you can understand the language better. So then it's also important in general like for example when you go to store or when you order something? Yes Because Italians barely know any English. It is better for example that you try at least to speak Italian and they will appreciate it a lot that you try because they won't try it in English. Showing your interest in their culture is very important. Is it expensive to live there? Well not where I live because I live in Cremona where housing is really cheap and you get a really nice apartment for what you're paying. In the cities however everything is way more expensive. The rent for a dorm you’re used to here in Ghent, will likely cost 1000 euros in Italy. It is only housing though the cost of just living such as going to supermarkets or getting drinks is not that expensive at all. At what school will you be studying next year? Well it's something completely unrelated to Artevelde University. What I did was look for a Business School that I really liked and I did my admission exams and my interviews and I got selected. Is it easy to make new friends where you work and do you think it will easy to make new friends in Rome too? Well the places I work at or very small so you're quite socially secluded. That’s why I chose a city with a lot of students where I am able to indeed make some friends. What are the most different habits Italians have compared to Belgians? Well they're quite alike but the one thing that struck me as different was the way they communicate they are very focused on you as a person and they will always ask how you are or how your family is

doing before actually talking about what they want from you. It is to say communication is much more personal in Italy than it is in Belgium. What do you do during the weekends when you don't have to work anymore? I wasn't there for a super long time but I went on strolls by myself discovering the city. Also all the pubs and restaurants were open, so I’d go drink a coffee by myself on the terrace and look at people pass by. Are the people friendly in Italy? Oh yes definitely but you can also immediately tell when they don't like you they are not afraid to show that and at first it might be a bit weird but they're just very direct people. I was invited to a meeting that I wasn't supposed to attend and they were like; what are you doing here, you're not supposed to be here! I thought that was rude at first and then next Thursday we had our normal meeting and he was very sweet again like nothing happened And do you genuinely believe that they're happy to see you after being so impolite? Yes I just think it was a small mistake they made then and they didn't know how to handle it properly and I think the happiness seemed more genuine to me than the impolite response I got.

Annex 6 – links to Portfolium and videos Portfolium https://portfolium.com/keithlinthout1/portfolio

Elevator pitch: https://youtu.be/kVl6daCYBXM

Interview for study abroad: https://youtu.be/xHkOh3jZjpE

Seminar Slidecast: https://youtu.be/UMuhuaMr6pg

My Grow Story: https://youtu.be/lDhhoGj1t-g