Interview
Chanou Peeters in Glasgow:
‘Get yourself out there’ Chanou Peeters European Studies Alumna used a VSBfonds grant to go to Glasgow to do the Global Migrations & Social Justice Master
So there I was. Totally alone, my suitcases weighed a ton, and my room was on the sixth floor. Would’ve been fine if the lift had been working. I couldn’t really have known – I was organizing everything from the Netherlands – but I hadn’t exactly ended up in the nicest part of Glasgow. Nice start. start
Chanou completed her study in January. She’s currently living back in Maastricht and is working as trainee at the Province of Limburg. 10 / voorbij zuyd
Chanou is anything but your average student: she graduated from Zuyd in European Studies at the age of nineteen (‘I skipped two years in primary school’). She was born in Korea and, after graduating in July 2018, planned to go on to migration studies. ‘I’ve never had any bad experiences myself; everybody was always super friendly. So why are Muslims treated so badly? Why are the Polish accused of stealing jobs? That’s what I wanted to understand, and that’s what I’m learning now.’ Chanou completed a Master’s in Global Migrations & Social Justice at the University of Glasgow. ‘The university has a good reputation and takes a fairly practical approach (for a research university). Plus, after my student exchange in Canada, I really wanted to stay in Europe this time.’ After the somewhat shaky start, Glasgow proved to be tremendous. ‘It’s a really international city.’ Chanou thought her English was good, but she needed time to adjust to the academic vocabulary. The shift in study culture was also a big one. ‘At Zuyd, everyone starts studying hard right before exams, but here they study hard all the time. They’re in
the library every day. So you just follow suit, and before you know it, you’re in the library every day too.’ Does she have any tips for students who want to study abroad? Yes: Start preparing early! ‘You might have a good idea of what you want to do, but there are loads of unexpected things you’ll need to organize such as enrolment, money, and accommodation. You might even need a visa, and all while you’re busy writing your final thesis. I was super stressed doing it all. I started organizing things in January, but if I had to do it again, I would start in November.’ Get yourself out there ‘Being alone in a foreign country might be scary, but you need to open yourself up and just dive in. Get yourself out there! Do stuff – play sport, even go along to things you don’t particularly like: you might meet some nice people. I met my best friend at the highland games, and bagpipes are seriously not my thing.’
