{"id":6028,"date":"2015-11-20T13:30:32","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T12:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2015\/11\/20\/volgens-mij-werk-ik-aan-dingen-die-er-toe-doen-maar-wanneer-ben-je-een-wereldverbeteraar\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:20","slug":"volgens-mij-werk-ik-aan-dingen-die-er-toe-doen-maar-wanneer-ben-je-een-wereldverbeteraar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2015\/11\/20\/volgens-mij-werk-ik-aan-dingen-die-er-toe-doen-maar-wanneer-ben-je-een-wereldverbeteraar\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I think I\u2019m working on things that matter, but when do you become a world improver?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cOn the evening of the awards, I was actually cooking in our new house in Amsterdam North\u201d, Li An Phoa tells us on the phone. \u201cI suddenly got a call from the VIVA asking whether I was planning to attend the award ceremony. By chance, it was just round the corner from us. So forty-five minutes later, I was on stage holding an award! It was quite bizarre.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RSM tutor won an award, a framed jury report and an \u2018extra large\u2019 goody bag. \u201cI was very impressed at how much work the jury had put into it. They knew all about my work.\u201d Phoa was also overwhelmed about how many people had taken part in the VIVA vote. \u201cThere\u2019d been 34,000 votes. And I received lots of reactions from people around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

No flashy website<\/h3>

She is \u2018totally amazed\u2019 to have won the award. \u201cI don\u2019t have a flashy website like some of the other nominees, and I don\u2019t do much on social media either.\u201d Phoa won the VIVA award in the \u2018world improvers\u2019 category. She feels that\u2019s \u2018a big word\u2019. Just before the presentation, Barry Atsma, who presented the award, said that you could describe inviting your lonely neighbour for dinner as \u2018improving the world\u2019. \u201cI try to work on things that matter, but when is something really better? That\u2019s a difficult question\u201d, says Phoa.<\/p>\n

Phoa was nominated by a freelance journalist. \u201cShe sent me an e-mail one day asking me if I\u2019d mind if she nominated me. I\u2019d never heard of the award. To be honest, I\u2019m not an average VIVA reader.\u201d That\u2019s an understatement: for ten years Phoa lived a nomadic life in the \u2018wilderness\u2019 without a home. \u201cI lived with innovative farmers, for example, and I did a lot of walking through the wilderness.\u201d<\/p>\n

On her annual return to the Netherlands, she taught at Rotterdam School of Management, among others. Last year, the Companies in Ecologies <\/em>elective attracted fifty RSM students. And these are students renowned for considering their wallet first and then Planet Earth. \u201cI teach a whole range of different types of students. There are always some who are rather materialistic. And they go through a whole transition during this subject. I always ask them the important question: what makes your heart sing? Followed by: what are you good at? And that\u2019s when you find that they start thinking about other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drinkable rivers<\/h3>

In January, she will be starting a second subject at RSM: Sustainability Grand Challenges<\/em>. \u201cThat will be about big sustainability problems, which I will make very tangible and bring close to home. I\u2019ll then cycle with students along the River Meuse and to the Kralingse Bos. Ultimately they will have to present a plan about how we can clean polluted water.\u201d Besides teaching at RSM, Phoa also gives classes at Nyenrode and she is the founder of Spring College. Phoa is also starting work on her first book: about \u2018drinkable rivers as a guide for a regenerative economy\u2019. \u201cThe book will be partly about my personal experiences in the wilderness and partly non-fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also read<\/h2>