Jo-Anne Groefsema

I am Jo-Anne Groefsema and living in Utrecht since 2001. Before that, I have lived with my parents in the east of The Netherlands. I have a brother (Anton) and sister (Martine), who are also living on their own.

In 2001 I started studying International Development Studies at the University of Utrecht. It was a nice time and I enjoyed it to meet new people. The second half year of 2004 I went to Mali, Western-Africa to do a research on irrigation systems. With three Dutch friends I was living in the middle of the Malian society and that was an once in a lifetime experience. It is so special to meet people with different cultural backgrounds and believes.

In 2006 I finished my studies and started the Teacher Training College. I did different internships and in 2007 I started to work at a school in Breukelen, where I am still working.

Since my stay in Mali I have travelled in my holidays. Mali has become my second home country and I will always go back there, but I am also curious about other cultures. That’s why I did spend my last holidays in Indonesia and why I have applied for GSE 2009. As a Geography Teacher I think it is very important to know a lot about the world and experience everything from inside the society. Latin America is a part of the world I don’t know yet, so I really like to go to Brazil. During leisure I prefer to meet friends, to make and listen to music (piano, guitar), go dancing (salsa, African dance) and a lot of other things.

At this moment I am working as a teacher Geography at a school in Breukelen. I am teaching students from the age of 11 to 15 year. Apart from that I am also a mentor of a class. I help them if they have problems and teach them how to learn best. It is a very responsible job, but I like it. You bond with your students at another level than with normal students. I am also the coordinator of a project concerning education in development countries. One student of our school had visited Malawi in February to see how Stichting Edukans (an organization that is building and helping schools) works. The girl is coming back to The Netherlands with a lot of stories and tries to reach other students with her experience. After that we are going to raise money for Stichting Edukans.

In Brazil I really like to visit schools and see how they are teaching Geography in a country different than The Netherlands. If it is possible I would like to start a small-scale exchange between my students and some Brazilian students. For example a letter or e-mail project in which the students are exchanging contemporary problems which they are facing in their country or city. I also like to visit some schools (primary or secondary) in villages or slumps around Porto Allegre. With my Master International Development Studies in mind I also am curious about development projects in the region and specially development projects concerning education, culture (dance and music) and agriculture.

Kathleen Baecke

I am Kathleen Baecke, born 27 years ago in a southern part of the Netherlands called Zeeland Flanders, near Antwerp (Belgium). I have lived there for 18 years with my parents and older brother, who will be the third generation of family successors on the agricultural farm. Since the year 2007 I live in Utrecht with my boyfriend Fabian. During leisure I prefer to meet friends, do jogging or skating, go on holidays or help my parents during the harvest season.

I started studying Management and Economics at Wageningen University in the year 2000. After finishing my Bachelor degree I continued my Masters in the field of Human Resource Management. During my study I have actively participated in the international student association AIESEC, which aims at exchanging people globally, the exchange of cultures and (work) experiences. Since the year 2007 I work at the headquarters of the Rabobank in the Human Resources department. The Rabobank Group is a full-range international financial services provider founded on cooperative principles. It employs over 60,000 staff and is represented in 43 countries. The total number of employees in the Netherlands is about 42,000 people.

I am looking forward to experience the knowledge and cultural exchange with all of you; to discover Brazil and to learn from and interchange professional and inter-relational knowledge. Therefore I am interested in the answers to questions like: How do enterprises deal with HR issues like an ageing employee population or extensive increase of youngsters within their company? How do they attract, keep and develop employees to meet the business objectives now and in the future? Is there a transparent compensation and benefit policy within companies and (how) does this differ between profit and non-profit organisations?