Dreams
Dreams
Timea
PhD in biophysics
It’s easy to get caught up in my PhD and work all day without pausing for a second. I had to think really hard about what my dreams are. I hadn’t asked myself that for a while. What do I really want? I know now that my dream comes down to eradicating animal testing from scientific research as soon as possible, and that I want to increase patient safety. Animal testing is harmful for animals, but animal models can also be poor predictors of drug safety in humans. There are major developments to replace animal studies, one of them being the organ-on-a-chip device. This is a micro-scale system used for mimicking the human body environment. We should focus more on developing this innovation. It would be far more ethical than inducing human diseases in animals and it would substantially contribute to drug safety in humans.
Emma
International relations
& international organisation
My passion for human rights led me to UNICEF’s student team. I’m in my second year as a board member there. It means a lot to me to work with and meet people who have similar interests. When I was a child, I experienced what it was like to have to make grown-up decisions at a young age. What must it be like to be in a similar situation while living in a war zone? My ambition is to work on projects around the world that protect children’s rights. In the end, I hope that I can be meaningful to kids, and support them when they need it, with my acquired knowledge and personal experiences.
Julianne
International relations
& international organisation
I want to tell stories, probably through film or photos. Maybe I even want to present television programmes like Ruben Terlouw, Floortje Dessing or Geraldine Kemper do. Hearing people’s stories and experiences can provide us with new perspectives or inspire us to do things differently. I specifically hope to provide a platform to those who are often overlooked. At the moment, I’m super interested in China. I’m taking Chinese lessons and I just heard that I’ve been approved to study in Beijing. It would be amazing to make a documentary in China. I still have to see in what form, but my wish is to discover and share new perspectives with a focus on important social subjects.
Wendy
Pre-MSc
economic development
and globalisation
A while ago, I asked myself what really made me happy. When I was younger, I used to be very creative. I wrote poems, stories, I read books, and I painted. It may sound cliché, but by creating my own world I got to escape reality. During my first three years of studying, I kind of drifted away from my creative side and my wish is to get back to it. I’ve already started reading again and I hope to get back into writing. Even though I was not raised in a musical family, music has always been important to me. I could listen to electrical guitar solos for hours. I would love to play an instrument myself, so I signed up for guitar lessons. I guess I just dream about doing the things that make me feel happy.
Jeljer
Law
My dream is to complete a triathlon. It all started a year ago when my friend and I signed up for a one-eighth marathon, just for fun. It was obviously much harder than we had expected. When I was running, I could feel my lungs burning and I felt like I had to throw up. But when I crossed the finish line, it gave me such a rush. That’s when I decided that it would be my goal to one day complete a full triathlon: swimming 3.8 kilometres, cycling 180 kilometres and running 42.4 kilometres. I’m really curious and excited to find out what I can achieve by pushing my body to its limits.