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Mignon Kroon (right)

‘Gaining experience abroad appealed to me’, says Mignon Kroon, one of the students who flew to the Caribbean island in November as part of the ‘Community Service Learning Project: Curacao’ elective. You get to tackle real problems in the real world. She travelled to the island with 16 other UvA students. The group was divided into 4 working groups and each group was given a different assignment. ‘The client was interested in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the strategies businesses used to survive, and the stimulating role the government could play in this situation. We used the McKinsey Way approach to conduct our research. We interviewed a lot of people living on the island and used that input to come up with recommendations.’

Judith Jorg (right) at the Curaçao Central Bank

Free elective

The UvA organised this elective for the first time during the second period of this academic year’s first semester. UvA student Judith Jorg saw it as a great opportunity to travel while working on an interesting project at the same time. ’My group’s research question was about the transition to renewable energy and the impact this would have on the stability of the monetary economy. We were able to discover which approaches work and which ones don’t by interviewing many people working at various businesses.’

Mignon and Judith were both well-acquainted with the island after spending 2 weeks there. ‘We spoke with the Prime Minister and attended a lecture at the Central Bank. It was a unique experience, people took the time to meet with us’, says Mignon. ‘The companies we visited were enthusiastic about sharing their own experiences and their ideas for solutions. This gives you a full picture of how things work on the island. Look at how contracts are arranged, for example. As soon as you have a permanent contract, it’s almost impossible for your employer to dismiss you. Businesses are very unwilling to take the risk of hiring someone on such a contract.’

Mixing business with pleasure

Judith’s research group learned about various solutions for generating renewable energy. ‘We provided recommendations based on 4 different scenarios. These ranged from maintaining the status quo to a scenario where 100% of Curaçao’s energy would be generated by renewables such as windmills and solar panels.’ She encourages other students to take this course. ‘If you’re considering becoming a consultant, then this course is definitely a good way of finding out if that career is for you.’ Mignon wholeheartedly agrees: ‘I can’t think of any other course where you solve problems this way from start to finish. And the island itself is fantastic. You have enough leisure time to enjoy what it has to offer and we made plans for some fun activities. When they saw the photos we placed on Instagram, our friends in the Netherlands thought we spent the entire time partying!’