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YOU on campus – Social butterfly

While most students on campus are revising hard for their resits, Jolijn Miedema (21) has other things on her mind. The MSc student of Forest and Nature Conservation is working with other students and a couple of professionals on Getekend, a theatrical performance about students during World War II. ‘I thoroughly enjoy working behind the…
Liza van Kapel

Miedema had already gained some theatrical experience at secondary school. When she saw the appeal for members of the production team for Getekend, she did not hesitate for a moment.‘You won’t get many chances to create something like this in a team.’ She describes herself as a ‘social butterfly’ who loves meeting new people. ‘Very nice to work towards something with great people, and to really see results.’ This is not the first time Miedema has organized an event, either. For the third time, on 5 May, she and others will be running the show at the Kabaal am Gemaal podium at the Liberation Festival. So May will be a very busy month for her, as Getekend is being staged just after Liberation Day, from 6 to 9 May. ‘And I’m going away straight after that,’ she laughs.

I thoroughly enjoy working behind the scenes on something big

She leaves for an internship in Peru at the end of May, to help save the Brazil nut from extinction. ‘That seems like a noble cause to me. My choice of internship was not so much about the country, though it’s a nice bonus to go to Peru, as about contributing to creating knowledge we don’t have yet.’

Miedema sees communication as an important component of her degree course, which was something she realized after starting her Master’s in Earth and Environment. ‘I chose that because in my BSc programme in Forest and Nature Management, I missed the links between the soil and what’s on it. I soon realized that I liked the subject but that I didn’t want to focus on it.’ So after a few months she switched to the MSc in Forest and Nature Conservation. Her first choice of Master’s was not a bad one though. ‘I only noticed how much I liked ecology when I was so relieved to go back to it. If you just go on doing the same thing all the time, you never learn where your heart lies.’

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