Michael Severs

Hello everyone, my name is Michael Philip Severs, I'm 26 years old and I spend most of my time in Nijmegen in the Eastern part of the Netherlands. Although I was born in Woerden, which is located in the centre of the Netherlands, I have lived in different places throughout my youth.

From birth until the age of eight, I have lived in a small village near Woerden called Linschoten. After that, I moved to Germany to live there for six years with my parents and my sister Wendy. Before moving back to The Netherlands, we lived in the Southern part of Belgium for four years. All this moving around was the result of my father being in the military.

In 2000 I started studying computer engineering at the Transnational University of Limburg in Diepenbeek, Belgium. But after two years, I found out that computers weren't my piece of the pie, so I moved back to the Netherlands to Nijmegen to study Business Communications at the Radboud University. In June of last year I graduated as a Master of Arts and since then I started my own company in trend marketing, coaching and guiding people to become successful entrepreneurs in the Wellness industry. Besides that, I have been an Office Manager for Duosport Courses since September of last year. This is a commercial sports organisation that provides high quality service for recreational athletes that specialises in speed skating activities of all kinds.

As one of my main responsibilities/activities in both jobs is the training and coaching of personnel/entrepreneurs, my main vocational interest is in this area. During my time in Rio Grande do Sul, I would like to find out in what way service organisations in Brazil educate, train and coach their people in order to provide customers with the highest service possible and distinguish themselves from other companies.

I am looking forward to meeting the local people in Brazil and I am eager to get familiar with the language and the local culture. The link will show you a short movie of me and some friends having a great time speed skating on the lakes, our greatest passion.

http://hugokruk.hyves.nl/fotos/523395044/0/E5xF/

Willem Barent Wijsmuller / Team Leader

Hello to everybody reading this weblog.

Since 57 years, my name is Willem Barent Wijsmuller, a name given by my parents based on the historical Dutch Explorer - Seafarer "Willem Barentszn", who spend a full Nordic Winter on the small Island of Nova Zembla in a cottage they constructed from the wooden remains of their crippled Schooner. Regretfully Willem Barentszn passed away on their return to The Netherlands after a real Nordic Winter of 5 months. I am one of the 4 childern, all boys, born in our family my brothers as well are named after wellknown Dutch Admirals and Sailors.

After spending my happy youth in Baarn, regretfully my father passed away when I was hardly 7 years old. I joined the Military Service, which at that time was still obligatory in The Netherlands. Afterwards I studied at the Poly Technical University, Mechanical Engineering with a finallisation on Business Administration.

In the meantime I got married with Inger, my Highschool Love, with whom I am still married happily. We have 3 childern in the range of 30 Y, 27 Y and 25 Y of age (B, G, G). During my study, Inger and myself, spent half a year working in the Dominican Republic, where we were infected with the enjoyment of living abroad, which we continued after graduation.
We spend about 8 years abroad in various countries:
- Dominican Republic
- Indonesia
- Dubai

After our time abroad we returned to The Netherlands in 1985 and are now living again in the little town where I spent all of my youth. Living next to the woods enabling us to walk our dogs, 3 English Setters, easilly.

My main activities were in the Shipping Industry, working for the Royal Nedlloyd Group. Abroad I always was second or first in command. After getting back to The Netherlands, Amsterdam, I left the Nedlloyd, as I was not used working in a company of 25.000 people, where I could not get things done within a reasonable stretch of time. In 1986 I stepped over to the IT industry where I had fun, it was good to see how a fast moving indusry was getting on. After a small Dutch firm (2 years) I joined Tandem Computers (presently owned/intergrated by HP) a real US Company with all the things Dutch people don't do. It was a great time !!

But as life goes, the Maritime Industry was still in my vanes. So after 6 years in the IT it was time for me to get back into the Maritime activities, started my own company with which I am still keeping myself busy. Nowadays with a Business Partner who is keeping controle of all Operational matters. He is allowing me to be in Brazil, with the GSE Team, for a month.

Hobby's:

First of all I like to enjoy life to the utmost, having fun is where life is all about. Whether it is fun in your freetime of fun in your Job. In my scarce free time I like, next to spending time with my wife, kids and friends (when they are around): doing Sports like:

- Sailing Flying Dutchman for the competition and Ocean Going Yachts for leisure. Caribbean !, Greece !

- Running, nowadays 10K, I however did the Half-Marathon of Anchorage

- Biking

- Pilates

- Golf

- Swimming

- Field Hockey

- Horse riding

- Etc.

Next to that I like Piloting, which I had to stop a few years back but planning to get it going again when I can find the time. I keep myself rather busy as you can see, but still enjoying everything I do!

So aswell being the team Leader of the Dutch GSE Team 1570 - 4670. The Team members are all very bright youngsters, with whom I will have a great time in the region of Rio Grande Do Sul.

Regards,
Willem Barent

View on the Netherlands

Travel To The Netherlands - The best video clips are right here

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?