Alumni dreams #4

After the BA, and an internship at Renault in Paris within the Public Affairs sector, Charlotte Jurus did a Msc in International Public Management and Policy.

Afterwards she started an internship at the French Prime Minister and now she is a Junior Public Affairs consultancy intern at Gplus Europe - an influent lobbying cabinet where she discovers the behind-the-scenes of politics while developing creative strategies to further the interests of international clients.

Great path and specialization!

Alumni dreams #23

Zac Baljeu interned at the Wildlife Justice Commission, an NGO that investigates wildlife crime and trafficking in endangered animal species. He then got to stay on full-time as Investigations Assistant!

It's been eye-opening and he developed a strong passion for environmental and conservation work. He also started an MSc in Political Science (IR track) at UVA.

His goal is to leverage international relations for innovative ways in countering wildlife crime and the transnational criminal networks facilitating it.

Looks like your true calling, go for it Zac!

Alumni dreams #28

After graduation Andrea Atanasovska got a job at Fanack (an NGO platform on the MENA region)! As an energy & water analyst, her knowledge and experience from consultancy for Shell in the course PRINS was a driving force.

Afterwards she pursued a Master in Energy Transition and Governance Centre international de formation européenne - CIFE in Nice and Berlin. This was a dual program where she got a master and a professional degree of European Policy Officer!

Now she is negotiating a job in several national institutions for energy and European affairs. 

Next target: a second master or a PhD. 

Go Andrea!

Alumni dreams #48

After International Studies, Christina Henke started a Master in Management at HEC Paris - one of the world's leading business schools. In the 2nd year, she will specialize in finance.

Christina is taking a gap year between two masters to pursue different internships. This summer she worked in the West Africa department at the German development bank KfW including management of microfinance projects.

She is now in the government & public affairs team at Deutsche Bank in Berlin and highly enjoys experiencing the German post-election process of government formation.

In the spring, she will intern for an audit of financial services companies at PwC!

Alumni dreams #167

After completing his BA in International Studies, Mohamed Osman stayed at Leiden University to do a Master’s in International Relations. After graduation followed a 5-month internship with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Abu Dhabi working on the coordination of humanitarian aid coming from the Gulf !

Mohamed then moved to New York, where he has been based for the last 7 months, to intern with the International Organization for Migration IOM - UN Migration. He is part of the Humanitarian, Peace, and Security team here working on humanitarian crises around the world and the consequent migration issues that arise!

Mohamed says that the internship at Synovetics in Abu Dhabi during his elective credits, gave a good basis to learn from and accustomed him to the work culture well.

Enjoy (work) life Mohamed and your achievements! Here he is at the UN headquarters at the start of the 73rd General Assembly!

Alumni dreams #70

Blažka Felicijan took a gap year for an internship at the Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC)  in Sarajevo delving further into peacebuilding, reconciliation and democratization in the Balkans.

She also interned at the UNHCR in Slovenia to research UNHCR policies and national refugee policies of European states for determining best practices in asylum processes! In conjunction with staff, she wrote reports on hate crimes, sexual and gender based violence and unaccompanied minors' access to the asylum system in Slovenia.

The research skills gained in the BA (especially in PRINS) prepared her for analytical work, how to execute a research project from picking the topic all the way to successfully presenting findings. She also grew more comfortable working in large groups.

Blažka is now doing an MA in Political Science at the The University of British Columbia and leading tutorials as a Teaching Assistant in the Introduction to Global Politics course!

Enjoy your career Blažka!

Alumni dreams #145

After his BA with leadership of his OPCW consultancy team for PRINS Jacco-Pepijn Baljet was admitted to the MA in International Security at Sciences Po. In the second year he moved to Vienna to intern at the Dutch Permanent Representation to the UN, focusing on nuclear issues. He used his gap year to prolong his stay to be a Visiting Master student at the University of Vienna.

Taking courses in international development, EU law and intercultural negotiation, he all passed cum laude, whilst in the meantime writing many many internship applications.

The good news is that in the next half year he will be in Strasbourg for a traineeship at the EU Delegation to the Council of Europe! After Jacco-Pepijn will finish the last semester of his MA in Paris.

His BA in The Hague has helped a lot in gaining experience in teamwork and cooperation, building up independent research skills and a building up a sound knowledge of many fields of international cooperation, like economics, politics and history.

This has very much been of value in his professional and academic life where he has met a lot of international peers.

Impressive and always professional Jacco-Pepijn, very well done!

Alumni dreams #155

Vido Chandra Panduwinata completed his BA with an internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia doing policy research under the Department of Policy Analysis and Development Agency (BPPK) for the region AMEROP (America and Europe).

He went on to do traineeship for Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations firm primarily known for its crisis management services and political lobbying!

Vido is now working as a research assistant to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Indonesia. In CSIS there are few departments of research: politics, economics and international relations. He chose to specialize in Indonesian politics and publishes a quarterly journal with his colleagues!

He considers the theories and insights from his BA course International Politics as very useful for his current work. In the fall he will continue his studies in the United Kingdom following a MA in Intelligence and Security Studies. 

Well done Vido! Here he is, shining brightly as usual, at the Indonesia International Defense Science Seminar in Jakarta!

Alumni dreams #160

Almost immediately after graduation, Manon van Dijk started a financial traineeship at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. She would never have guessed that she ended up liking it so much! The traineeship ended after 1.5 years which is why she applied at ABN AMRO MeesPierson, the Private Banking department. Manon got the job and is now working as an Assistant Private Banker, managing the finances of a specific client group, all of whom are active entrepreneurs! 

While no specific BA courses prepared her for this job, she says that the great and unique aspect of International Studies is that it allows you to study fields of your interest whilst gaining a lot of general knowledge of international political and economical issues. This will be useful and relevant in so many different companies and organizations, that after the bachelor, there will be a lot of different jobs that will suit you.  

Her employer also offers a great variety of studies in order to develop oneself in the fields of their interest, which means that she continues to learn a lot every day.

Congratulations Manon, enjoy your (work) life! Here she is smiling it up outside her office building!

Alumni dreams #210

Choosing what to study is one of the most important decisions one can make as a student. International Studies appealed to Dave Chadwick because it kept lots of paths open while allowing to explore lots of disciplines at the same time.

On the one hand, David has always been very interested in the intersection between business and politics. On the other hand, he has always wanted to live abroad and experience other cultures. International Studies enabled him to do all of those things!

The PRINS course was a very useful introduction to work. As student consultants, he reflects, we learned to diagnose organisational problems and offer solutions, in his case he learned about topics such “employment security”.
This meant that focusing on building skills within in-demand sectors ensured that he would be able to find employment. Consequently, David identified Data Protection as a “growth area” and has built a career path there for himself. The PRINS course helped prepare him for a life of meaningful work he says, for which he is very grateful.

Currently David works for IBM as a Data Privacy consultant. Many of the colleagues and clients he works with have international backgrounds. Learning to jump between different disciplines, cultures and languages made the BA International Studies a perfect training ground!