Alumni dreams #1

The first dream is of Valerie Sydry who combined her MSc Global Business & Sustainability at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University with an internship at EY. She just presented her research at the official International Integrated Reporting Council.

Well done Valerie!

Alumni dreams #6

Mercedes Abdalla has been building her profile in security and defence. In the BA, she graduated cum laude and chose to consult OPCW. Then at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) as Assistant Analyst, she contributed to strategic reports on subjects ranging from the threat posed by biological weapons to Dutch cyber security investments and conflict risk assessment.

Next was another internship at Europol and now she is completing her MSc in Crisis and Security Management!

Alumni dreams #45

Michaela Karasová graduated from the BA International Studies and did several internships during the program including one in Moscow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Straight after graduation she started her traineeship at the European Parliament Information Office in Poland to gain more experience and expand her network in the field she would like to work in. She already visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg to observe debates and voting proceedings.

Currently Michaela is finishing the Master’s program in Russian and Eurasian Studies at Leiden University and writing her thesis. She hopes she will find an exciting and demanding job soon!

Good luck Michaela!

Alumni dreams #107

After graduating Claudia Scandol moved to Tallinn, Estonia to do an internship at the International Centre for Defence and Security and decided to stay there because she liked it so much!

Claudia did a second internship at the Estonian Center of Eastern Partnership while working full time for Scandinavian Airlines on their customer support desk to earn some money. She then returned to The Hague to do an MSc Public Administration back at Leiden and she is also doing a part-time internship at the British Embassy The Hague!

In addition Claudia has been working on the communications team on a voluntary basis for Young European Leadership (YEL), a youth non-profit.

She says International Studies definitely opened up a lot of doors for her. Well done and good luck with your next moves Claudia!

Alumni dreams #158

After graduating her BA International Studies cum laude and with honours college Sabrina Valeria Ronco continued at The University of Edinburgh of where she graduated with distinction from the MSc International Political Theory programme!

Whilst writing her postgraduate dissertation on the ethics of the Anthropocene, she completed a traineeship at the International Center for Climate Governance in Venice, Italy. 

Sabrina then started working as Climate Policy Intern for the Climate and Environmental Policy Competence Center at the headquarters of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (German Society for International Cooperation). Earlier this year she started an Associate position at the Competence Centre, focusing on Climate Adaptation and Climate Risk (congratulations!)

She co-organised the launch event of a new global Community of Practice (CoP) on the theme of Climate Risk. The launch event took place as part of the bi-annual GIZ conference on Biodiversity, Forests, Climate and Environmental Policy this summer!

Super driven and impressive Sabrina! Here she is enjoying the first group picture of the new CoP Climate Risk (3rd from the right). 

Alumni dreams #206

Janine Kieftenburg graduated specialising in Russia and Eurasia. During Russian Economics class she discovered her interest in the energy sector and decided from that moment on to write her papers and thesis on this topic.

She loved the possibility to explore a part of the world due to the multidisciplinary nature of the BA, its international environment and the Introduction to Japan course. Her internship at the European Academy of Diplomacy in Warsaw was also valuable as she met Russian economists to inform her thesis on the Russian gas sector.

Janine started at Magnus Red as an intern researching the electricity sector. Now she is a senior consultant in large European electrity projects, supporting 16 Transmission System Operators, writing methodologies on capacity calculation and security analysis and implementing methodologies on a European scale.

The global crisis limited her frequent travel to clients in Europe. She has been working from home for a year now due to the pandemic, which has its perks, but she does miss meeting her colleagues and clients.

The BA has shown Janine how to be open minded to the world and provided a look into many different disciplines from which you can choose and make it your own.