22/03 New Elective I-deal4Change: Managing international Projects
Windesheim Honours College proudly presents their new elective, I-Deal4Change!. This exciting elective, starting in September 2012, is also offered as a minor to other students from all over the world. It’s for students who would like to contribute to solving issues such as the scourge of HIV/Aids, binge drinking in Europe and famine in Africa, and who want to make a positive change.
I-Deal4Change! Managing International Projects is an actual project management bureau, with a strong international network in Uganda, Kenya, Indonesia, Brazil and Ethiopia among others. It has its own office and facilities, and will be managed and run by the Windesheim Honours College students. The elective or minor is organized in a flexible way, which enables students to choose parts of the minor that suit their learning objectives best. It is also possible to follow the whole minor.
The minor offers 6 course units of 5 European Credits (EC) each:
Courses in Advanced project management
- From idea to realization of international projects: What does it take? (5 EC)
- Managing international projects: Methods and skills (5 EC)
Courses in Advanced research
- Qualitative research: situation and stakeholder analysis (5 EC)
- Quantitative research: Monitoring and evaluating projects (5 EC)
The practical projects (10EC)*
Assessing the health needs of HIV/AIDS orphans in Uganda
- Developing a project proposal for distance learning on Media Access and Democracy
- Creating a business plan for a sport school for people with a handicap in Indonesia.
So after doing the theoretical courses in Project Management, you can choose to practice what you’ve learned either by doing a research project or a practical project. What is most exciting is that students starting this September will be able to help in setting up the I-Deal4Change! bureau from the start. Students wanting to apply must have a good command of English and be in their third or fourth year of studying.
*These are examples
12/02 WHC lecturer speaks at EU Youth Parliament event
Public Health lecturer, Priya Satalkar shared some inspiring words at the EU Youth Parliament National Selection Conference in Amsterdam on Sunday, 12 February 2012.
About 100 students representing various schools in the Netherlands and selected from various regional selection participated in various team building activities, discussed the topic of their choice in respective committees and the event culminated in the General Assembly held at De Balie in Amsterdam. This was the 12th Annual Selection Conference for the organization.
Priya said that the agenda for the conference and the general assembly addressed a number of socio-political and economic issues concerning EU but surprisingly there was no mention of public health. In preparing her speech, Priya says she focused on explaining why Public Health is an essential element of European society. She believes that this is an element that greatly affects many in EU.
“I connected my previous work and successes in India to problems in Europe,” she explains, “by exploring these issues in my own country, I highlighted how this could help address the issues Europe’s growing population do and may face.”
The school pupils were inspired by Priya’s words of encouragement for them to keep on the path towards greater things. She reminded them that by being part of EYP, they were already learning important skills like being a team player, thinking critically, building an argument, willingness to listen to and respect the opinions of others and generating consensus among various stake holders and need to aim for a career that would allow to make a difference in whatever field they might chose.
She did however have some words of advice, “Always stay close to reality, aiming for a high position in the United Nations or EU does not mean that you do not have to listen to the people on the ground. The best solutions are often found in collaboration with those who hold the power and those affected”
01/ 02 Honours College and Honours programme students shine at the Zwolle City Battle
A team of seven students from the Windesheim Honours College and two students from the Windesheim Honours programme were named as one of the winning teams at the Zwolle City Battle on 1 February 2012.
The Battle presented by Het Zuiderlicht & Hollandse Nieuwe, aimed to bring people together to come up with ideas to make the better the quality of life of people living in Zwolle. Team Windesheim Honours was approached by the organizers to take part in the day. 16 teams battled it out for the winning three spots, each team choosing from one of 4 “movements” they would like to see started in Zwolle. All teams took part in the first round, where they had 30 minutes to come up a with a pitch to sell their idea to the group. Each person then voted for 6 teams to go through to the second round. Those teams who didn’t make it through to the second round joined the team of their choice as external advisors. 
Christel van Eck, a second year student at Windesheim Honours College says this was the most thrilling part of event, “ It was so exciting to see if you had made it into the next round, to see if your idea was supported by the bigger group. I felt good knowing our first pitch was so successful.”
Team Windesheim Honours refined their idea to help bring people together in Zwolle after making it through to the second round. With the external advisors the team came up with an idea to host a Neighbourhood week where neighbourhoods compete against one another encouraging people to work together, get to know each other and eventually develop projects and ideas that can be executed.
Henk Lok, a first year Windesheim Honours College student enjoyed the “pressure cooker” atmosphere, “It was organized chaos, we only had 30 minutes and time was running out. We had to work as a team.”
After an exciting second round, team Windesheim Honours were named one of the three winning teams. A communication company then helped to create a presentation in stop motion which was part of the final pitch.
“Getting input from our students, older , more experienced citizens and the communication company made the idea come to life. It really shows you that working together is definitely the best way,” says Ilse Roos, admissions assistant at Windesheim Honours College and a fellow team member.
All team members not only take the energy that was present on that day with them, but also the experience of coming up with a powerful pitch, refining an idea into action and making it relevant.
Four members of the team will now meet with the ‘Design Team’on 16 February 2012 to discuss how the three winning ideas can be implemented in the city. As so nicely said in the Team Windesheim pitch at the battle, “Zwolle is me, Zwolle is you. Ask not what Zwolle can do for you, but what you can do for Zwolle.
25/01 Move to the Windesheim Campus
Windesheim Honours College staff and students are ready to start the new semester next week (on 30 January) at the Windesheim Campus. The Honours College has moved to ground floor of the D-building (D0) that was and still is refurbished to accommodate the new residents.
The College is happy with the move as it allows the College to be more visible to not only potential students but to those working in Windesheim itself. Staff and students do leave the building in the city centre with a bitter sweet feeling, however all are committed to maintaining the intimate learning atmosphere created at the Koestraat. It’s a priority for the College to make sure the international group of students is at home and comfortable in their new building. While in the midst of an essentially Dutch spoken campus, all interaction with the students in the D-building is in English. With a commitment to keeping this close knit group of 45 students connected and to become more visible on the campus, Windesheim Honours College is looking forward to a good year in 2012.
18/01 The second year students are preparing and getting excited for their trip to Uganda this year.
On the 18th of January, managing director of the Windesheim Honours College, Ans Netjes met with representatives of the connect2Uganda partners to sign the Declaration of Intent, marking the official start of a hopefully long and prosperous collaboration. Other partners in the project include, the municipality of Deventer, UP4S another Ugandan NGO and school AOC Oost Twello.
During June of this year, the Honours College will help to start up a project in collaboration with connect2uganda. This trip will consist of a three-week stay in which the students will meet with important officials, local citizens, and other important stakeholders, after which they will finalize their project proposal and present it to their client.
The main focus of the project will be to set up a secondary education program for Ugandan youth, in which they can learn how to do practical tasks in everyday life, such as bicycle repairs, carpentry, and farming. Right now Uganda is facing a major shortage of trained professionals.
The second year students are also very excited themselves. Annemarie Voorsluys, 2nd year Public Health student, mentioned that she is very eager to put the project into practice: “I am very curious to see if such the project can work out in real life over there. I would love to see the results and gain some experience”.
Seth de Vlieger, also a 2nd year Public Health student, is also ready to get on the plane: “It is a very special experience for us to go to Uganda and going to Africa in general will be too. For some of us this is the first time we will travel to another continent. We hear a lot about African countries in our courses, so for us to actually go there is a unique opportunity.”
13/12/11 Windesheim Honours College student meets Jan Kees de Jager
After an exciting competition on Facebook, Gerben Hiemstra won a meet & greet with the Dutch Minister of Finance, Jan Kees de Jager. Everyone could ask Mr. De Jager a question on VU Connected’s Facebook page, and the question with the most likes could have been chosen to be addressed by the minister. Gerben came up with the question: Do you think that Europe should save itself from this financial crisis?. After reading a newspaper article in which the Russian president, Medvedev stated that Europe has so many flourishing countries and a good banking system that they could save themselves, this question came to mind.
The event was split up in several parts. There was a question and answer session of almost one and a half hour for all students of Economic study fields, which was well prepared beforehand with a brainstorm session. In the debate all kind of questions were asked, not only about the economy in general but also personal questions.
Gerben finally had his meet & greet with Mr. De Jager after these activities. Gerben enjoyed the relaxed, but formal atmosphere at the event. The questions that Gerben asked were not about finances and the economical status of The Netherlands, but more personal related to the Minister. “During the meet & greet there was no press, so Mr. De Jager did not mind any personal questions or whatsoever”, says Gerbin.
When Gerben asked why the Minister was at Windesheim University, he answered that it is important to make time for such events. Furthermore the Minister mentioned that he also likes such events and contact with students; and it is of course important that he is well known by the public.
About what kind of person Mr. De Jager is, Gerben mentioned the following: “The Minister is very formal, but his strongest point is definitely that he can explain things very well. His answers were sometimes long, as it is with most politicians, but he makes everything very clear and understandable. What was also impressive is that the Minister knows so many facts about the current status of the economy, all off the top of his head.”
For more information on this event and more, please check the website of VU Connected, www.vuconnected.nl
13/12/11 WHC lecturer attends conference in China
From Friday 2nd December to Sunday 4th December, Liesbeth Rijsdijk, Lecturer Communication and Media and Coordinator year 3 and 4, visited the South China University in Guanzhou, China.This university hosted the fifth international conference of the Global Communication Research Association on Communication, Education, Development and Innovation. Liesbeth presented a paper entitled: How to educate undergraduate students in participatory approaches?
In her paper she took the International Sustainable Business Management project as an example, in which second year WHC students facilitated a participatory needs assessment with a rural community in Kenya. Based on the results of the needs assessment, the students wrote a project proposal which will be implemented by the rural community themselves with assistance from a local Kenyan NGO. The project proposal will be put forward for funding.
Apart from the paper presentation, valuable contacts for future cooperation and student exchanges were made with the South China Normal University in Guanzhou and with the Communication University of China in Beijing.
7/11/11 Co-creation day at WHC
In the past few years, debates have been rising about transparency within non-profit organizations. People are starting to distrust more and more what these so-called NGO’s are actually spending their donations on. Several NGO’s have therefore published their complete budget and spending in order to show that the money is well spent. Still lots of donors feel that there is still a major gap between the donors and the actual project. The 1%club has a solution for all of these problems; they created an online platform to directly connect donors and projects. Project leaders all over the world post their projects on the 1%club website, after which anyone can look at the plans and directly donate the money you want to give to these projects.
But the 1%club does not want the audience just to be able to donate money to these projects, but to also actively involve in the process of these project developments. In order to do so, they decided to use an approach called co-creation. Co-creation is the latest in innovative approaches to project development. Instead of donating to a project that looks really good on paper but would never work out in real life, you are actually able to be involved in the whole process of creating the project your money goes to. People from all areas of expertise are asked to come together and work on different cases during these co-creation events.
On November 7th, the first year students at the Windesheim Honours College were able to experience an actual co-creation day. Communication and Media lecturer at the Windesheim Honours College Kersti Wissenbach had already worked with the 1%club before and felt that an event such as this would be a great and useful experience for the future project managers in her course. Together with Bart Lacroix, Co-founder of the 1%Club, several other 1%club enthusiasts joined the group to introduce the concept of the 1%club and co-creation, and discuss some cases. One of the cases included in the discussion was raising 5000 euros to build a library in Cameroon. Raymond Mlilo, first year student, explained that although it was a hard task, it was definitely worth the time and effort they had put into it. The event lasted the entire day and at the end of the day all groups had created great plans to raise money for the cases they were given. “It was really inspiring and motivating, I would love to do it again”, said Elza Herrlich, Student Communication and Media.
07/11/11 Brain X-change winners more determined after trip to Cape Town
“What a great experience to change roles from student to potential entrepreneur.” This was the response from Sebastian Borchers, a second year student at Windesheim Honours College to the recent trip to Cape Town, South Africa for the Brains X change project. Sebastian and fellow student, Thorsten Lohmann, were announced one of the 3 winning teams in the project in Rotterdam on July 27th this year. These students, first years at the time competed with teams from all over the Netherlands. 
Sebastian and Thorsten headed to South Africa on 16 October to share their idea and test the feasibility with local communities, other students and experts from companies and organisations working with bamboo about their idea for their project to help solve the problem of lack of proper housing in the townships in the country.
In the project proposal for Bambooha, the students proposed locals use bamboo to build their homes as an alternative to the current shacks that many people live in now. When they travelled to the townships Thorsten says, “I was shocked at the living conditions some people live in.” Sebastian confirmed saying the need was clearly communicated by the locals.
During their stay the two students stayed with a host family which Thorsten says is the best way to travel, “It is best to be in a real South African home, you really experience the culture and people. We were introduced to many people in our area and invited to many braais (bbq ‘s)”
As well as visiting townships and local communities, Sebastian and Thorsten connected to South African students from the University of Cape Town and the Tertiary School in Business Administration (TSiBA). At TSiBA, Thorston says they encountered many young people who gave good feedback based on their personal experiences.
Through all these interactions they say they have grown, “While most of the feedback has been positive, we did get constructive criticism that we have used to look at our plan again and make changes. ”
At the moment Sebastian and Thorsten are refining their idea into a business plan that they will use to ultimately realise it in South Africa. Enviu the organisers of the Brains X Change project also want to see this happen.
Sebastian says he found it empowering to be treated as a potential future business partner instead of only a student. Thorston agrees and feels it was a good way to see the theory learnt in class translated into practical work.
They learnt valuable lessons and were inspired by the people they met. “Everyone we met was doing such great work and the young people we met are all contributing is such a good way. This has motivated us to continue until we see our plan realised, ” says Sebastian.
20/10/11 WHC number one in selection guide for higher education
Windesheim Honours College has reached the number one spot in the Selection guide for higher education (Keuzegids HBO) in the Business Administration and Management category. WHC scored 98 out of 100 points, which places the programme first in the rankings. In the previous year’s edition, WHC was labeled as an ‘excellent’ study programme by the same guide. The high scores can be attributed to the high level of education, the expertise of the lecturers and a close working relationship with (professionals from) the work field.
The selection guide compares the student satisfaction and quality of study programmes and ranks them according to scores. It is an important and independent source of information for future students, as it is composed under the authority of the Dutch government.
11/11/11 WHC proudly presents: our new website
We are very proud to be able to present our new website! With all kinds of nifty functions, such as integrated Facebook updates, possibilities to like news articles and Blogs and many more. We’ve been working hard on it during the summer and we hope you like it just as much as we do!
We especially recommend you have a look at our students’ Blog [http://prodwww.windesheimhonourscollege.nl/student-life/student-blog/] and our ‘This month at the College’ section [http://prodwww.windesheimhonourscollege.nl/student-life/this-month-at-the-college/]; an overview of everything that’s going on at the College.
Enjoy!
PS: Want to let us know what you think of our new website? Like us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Windesheim-Honours-College/124213107655697) and share your thoughts on our Wall.
04/9/11 Peace of Minds Summer Academy @WHC
Between 2 and 4 September, the peace of Minds Summer Academy took place at the College. Thirty selected students gained in-depth knowledge about development cooperation and peace building. The programme was very diverse: there were several work shops, as part of their introductory week, all of our new, first year students participated as well.
Peace of Minds
Peace of Minds is a programme that offers participants the possibility of using their talents for peers in developing countries. The selected students try to solve real life challenges of youth organizations from Argentina, DR Congo, Bangladesh and Palestine.
Lecturers
During the summer course (part of a series of Peace of Minds activities), several experts came to Zwolle to give a lecture about the topics of the challenges. For instance in the area of water management, the intercultural dialogue, the fight against youth unemployment in rural areas and the rehabilitation of former child soldiers.
27/7/11 Windesheim Honours College students win Brains-X-Change competition
Summer holiday in the Netherlands - for many students that means partying in Salou or Ibiza. But this was not the case for Sebastian Borchers and Thorsten Lohmann, first year students of Windesheim Honours College and participants of the Brains-X-Change competition. According to these hardworking students, you can make luxurious houses out of bamboo, as a solution for a cleaner, safer and a more sustainable life in the townships of Cape Town.
On July 27th, the winners of the Brains-X-Change competition were announced during an exciting finale in Rotterdam. Based on the plans and pitches of 15 students, the jury members of Enviu, Projects Abroad and Rabobank announced the 3 winning teams. These students will travel to South Africa this October, to assess how their plans can be executed. They will further develop their concept with a team of South African students.
Bamboo houses
The two students of Windesheim Honours College won with their ‘Do It Yourself house’ made out of bamboo, as an affordable alternative for the present houses in the town ships. The jury especially appreciated the level of dedication with which the students developed their plan.
The competition
Brains-X-Change is a competition that challenges students to use their brains for a better world. During the past academic year, as much as 6000 students were working on smart solutions aimed at improving the life of their peers in the townships of Cape Town. Clean water, garbage collection and a daily clean shower are taken for granted in the Netherlands, but in South Africa they are paired with big problems.
Over 90 students submitted an idea through an online platform. With this idea, they could win a ticket to Cape Town, to implement their idea in collaboration with local students.