By Ben Kiem
Emma Taselaar
Emma Taselaar, member of the inaugural AUC graduating class of 2012, is looking ahead to a snowy winter break away from home. The Amsterdam native will spend most of her break doing winter sports, an annual tradition that involves skiing and hiking with her father, brother, and friends. While this tradition is a cherished one, it has occasionally been interrupted by meaningful visits to friends from AUC during the holiday season.
Two years ago, Taselaar spent her winter break in India for a wedding of one of her best friends from AUC. Although it is not possible to stay in touch with all old friends, her closest group of friends stems from AUC, even if most of them have left the Netherlands. Despite there being long periods of no contact, Taselaar describes a unique bond that enables conversations to resume effortlessly.
Taselaar describes her time at AUC as “some of the best years of my life, very gezellig, very warm”. Even if the content Taselaar studied at AUC does not directly play a big role in her current job, she highlights that AUC’s interdisciplinary thinking continues to prove pivotal. “Looking at things from different perspectives is something I still really apply,” she explains.
After AUC, Taselaar pursued a Master’s in international relations and diplomacy in Leiden. She has since ventured into a diverse career, transitioning from corporate marketing at Samsung to freelancing as a project manager with a focus on social enterprises and startups. Currently, Taselaar engages in a variety of activities as a freelancer. “I am like a spider in a net; more a generalist than a specialist,” she laughs.
One of her favourite memories of her time as a student is ice skating on the canals in front of AUC’s former academic building on Roeterseiland, which was only replaced by the current one after the first class of AUC had graduated. On one particularly cold day, she went with a friend to ice skate around the entire area of the academic building. “It was incredibly fun,” Taselaar recalls.
Cas Smulders
The winter break for Cas Smulders, who graduated from AUC in the spring of 2015, overlaps exactly with the break of its current students. Six years after graduating, the alumnus returned to his alma mater, taking up a lecturer position. He soon realised this profession is what he “really wants to be doing with [his] life”.
Due to his teaching position, Smulders will spend a major chunk of his break grading submissions from the 16-week period. While he describes it as a “sad reality” of teaching, he will still make the best out of it, enjoying his time “with a couple cups of chocolate milk,” Smulders smiles. Other than grading, he looks forward to spending a cosy Christmas with his partner’s family, and to later celebrate with his own in Utrecht.
Just before Christmas, Smulders will receive a visit from an old friend travelling from Australia, who also graduated in 2015. Although staying connected with the majority of his friends has proven challenging, given that “70 to 80 per cent went abroad.” Still, Smulders maintains regular contact with around six friends from his core friend group.
In general, Smulders looks back at his time as a student at AUC very fondly. “The social life is something that you’ll never experience again in your life,” he emphasises, but the appreciation of his university days is not limited to the social aspect.
It was only at AUC that Smulders developed a passion for academia. While he had travelled Europe as a semi-professional fencer in the past, it was at AUC that he grew enthusiastic about psychology and completed nearly all the courses in the cognition track. After graduating, he continued pursuing his interest further through a Master’s in brain and cognitive science at the UvA, right across from the Academic Building.
During his master’s, his rather unconventional degree from a university like AUC did not pose an obstacle. While he lacked some specific knowledge compared to his peers, Smulders had one leg up in terms of the “ability to come up with innovative and useful research ideas,” he believes.
After finishing a research project in Finland and concluding his master’s, Smulders was applying to various positions when a last-minute opportunity to teach a course at AUC emerged. Not believing he had a strong chance of acceptance without a PhD, he still gave it a shot and eventually returned to AUC six years after his own graduation. “I was especially lucky,” Smulders admits, smiling.
Daphne Voorips
Alumna Daphne Voorips, who graduated from AUC in 2012, is set to enjoy a delightful ‘winter’ break in the warm embrace of Mexico City. Prior to celebrating Christmas, she will travel to Dubai to help organise meetings around the global climate conference. Upon her return, she looks forward to hosting her family, which is visiting from the Netherlands. They plan to explore Mexico together.
Originating from the Netherlands, Voorips’ journey from AUC brought her to a role as a Governance Advisor at CGIAR, a global partnership of research organisation, where she works with the board of trustees.
While her work does not directly relate to her studies in Liberal Arts and Sciences, it was during an exchange from AUC that she first visited Mexico. “I liked it very much and did an internship here,” she explains. Later she moved permanently to Mexico together with her Mexican partner, whom she met during her internship.
Living in Mexico, it has been difficult to stay in touch with a lot of friends from AUC. “Some I still see and speak to, but always when I see people I haven’t for a couple of years, it’s like old times,” Voorips says. She emphasises how living in the dorms forms very close bonds between the students.
To encapsulate her experience, Voorips shares that she very much enjoyed her time at AUC: “I loved it, AUC was a very fun period. You probably don’t realise it when you are in the middle of it, but it is very special,” she recalls.
Despite the warm weather during her break, Voorips and her family plan to celebrate Christmas with some classic traditions: there will be a Christmas tree, and a Christmas Eve dinner with gifts on the cards. And while it may be an unconventional setting for the Voorips family, Daphne looks forward to celebrating the festive season in her adapted home. “It’s a little different Christmas, but still really fun,” Voorips explains.
The Herring 