{"id":81520,"date":"2017-11-03T15:37:30","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T14:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=81520"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:53","slug":"de-internationale-bubbel-van-iss-studenten-succesvol-doorgeprikt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/11\/03\/de-internationale-bubbel-van-iss-studenten-succesvol-doorgeprikt\/","title":{"rendered":"Pop the international bubble of the ISS students"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To pop the bubble of ISS students, assistant professor, Georgina Gomez, has launched a collaboration with The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Against all expectations, the project was a huge success.<\/p>\n

A disaster. Doomed to failure. Forget it. These are just a few of the reactions thrown at Georgina Gomez when she mentioned her plans to pop the bubble surrounding ISS students by entering into a collaboration with The Hague University of Applied Sciences. \u201cThe fact of the matter is that it\u2019s been tried in the past and has never succeeded,\u201d Gomez recounts. \u201cOur students mainly socialise with one another and have no ties with The Hague as a city or other students there, never mind them being interested in Rotterdam and Erasmus. I wanted to change that by setting up a project that focused on the power of local connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole world<\/h3>

And so Gomez got in touch with The Hague University of Applied Sciences. She joined forces with Albert Kraaij, a lecturer at The Hague university, and together they came up with a project that focuses on local entrepreneurship. \u201cOur students come from all four corners of the world and so they tend to think big. But I wanted to show them how important the local aspect is. After all, most of the interactions that you have as a person are local, and our students sometimes forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\tOur students have no ties with The Hague or other students there, never mind them being interested in Rotterdam and Erasmus\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t–<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGeorgina Gomez\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

The approach caught on. Twenty students from the ISS and The Hague took on the challenge together. But it wasn\u2019t only the international participants that learnt something from the project. \u201cVice versa, the HHS students also learnt a whole lot from our participants. They used to cycle past our building and wonder: what\u2019s in there? Now they\u2019ve came into contact with international students from completely different cultures for the first time. Which proved to be very valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bubble<\/h3>

ISS students Suthida Chawla from Thailand and Daniel Zea Vallejo from Ecuador participated in the first edition of the project. They, too, are very enthusiastic about the link with students from The Hague. \u201cThe ISS is very international, which is not only its greatest strength, but also a weakness,\u201d Zea Vallejo explains. \u201cYou\u2019re in a bubble there, and you have hardly any contact with Dutch people or Dutch culture. The lectures that we attended during the project were really the first contact that we had had. It was very worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\tThe ISS is very international, which is not only its greatest strength, but also a weakness\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t–<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDaniel Zea Vallejo\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Chawla agrees with her fellow student. \u201cI had been studying in the Netherlands for six months already, but I had not had any contact with Dutch people. Not only did you get to know people, you also discovered how they would try to solve problems, for instance.\u201d She highly recommends enrolling with the second edition of the project. \u201cIt pops the bubble you\u2019re in, which is a good thing and great fun too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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