Happy Birthday LUC The Hague!
Exactly 5 years ago LUC The Hague officially opened its doors with a ceremony in Theater Diligentia. This year we will celebrate our first lustrum in the same theatre on the 10th of October but we shouldn’t forget that today, the 29th of September, is LUC’s official birthday. Our Educational Director, Lieke Schreel, who joined LUC even before it had officially started, shares her memories of the last couple of years.
Message from our Educational Director
At the risk of sounding like an aunt who at every birthday tells you how she still remembers how cute you were when you were born and how she remembers where she was when she heard you had arrived, today I do want to share some memories with you.
Because I do still remember how exactly six years ago today I was sitting in my attic office at Lange Houtstraat, where Campus The Hague was then situated, working on something like the admissions process, when the phone rang at around 11: the secretary of the Rector Magnificus asked if we, the project team, could be at Rapenburg at 12 because the Board of the University had just decided that LUC The Hague was going to happen! Needless to say we made it and with a glass of bubbles we drank to the start of LUC.
Exactly one year after that, on September 29 th 2010, I was at Lange Voorhout, where the first classes had started, where the first staff had joined the college, where the first cohort of just over 100 students had arrived. This time the Board of the University, the Mayor of The Hague, and all the countless people who had worked so incredibly hard on getting LUC started and often remain unseen, were there to join the LUC community to officially open the college. Like today it was a beautiful Autumn day, and yes, I was wearing a hat because this was definitely a Hat Occasion. Again we raised a glass to the future of LUC.
Today I am sitting in my light and lovely office at Anna van Buerenplein, again a sunny day. The students who were there five years ago have graduated and are taking their first steps onto the labour market. The Board of the University has new members, Campus The Hague has become the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, the Mayor is still the Mayor, five other cohorts of students have joined LUC and two have already graduated as well, the staff has expanded, many students and colleagues have been part or are still part of LUC for a longer or shorter time. All because they believe in the programme that we are running here, all contributing their own ideas and expertise, all living their own challenge at LUC and in doing that, making LUC what it is today.
On October 10 th we will celebrate LUC’s birthday officially, but tonight, I might just open a bottle, and again toast LUC: to what it has become and to the great future that lies ahead.
Happy Birthday LUC!
Lieke Schreel
Educational Director
Lustrum Year
If you would like to learn more about LUC The Hague’s first lustrum, please visit our lustrum website.