Issuu

VOLUME 34

OCTOBER 2013

NUMBER 01

ECLAIRE Lost Generation of Southern Europe

ROUTE

SUMMER PERFECT HOLIDAY DESTINATIONS OR CRISIS AREAS?

POLITICAL CRISIS OF EGYPT AND ITS IMPACT ON TOURISM EVENT REPORTS

EFR/Shell Research Project Career?

world

Official ESE bachelor 3 elective (4 ECTS)

Earn a letter of recommendation from ESE and Shell

www.werkenbijpwc.nl

Soms werk je alleen aan je scriptie

Soms wil je sparren met professionals

Je bent bijna klaar met je studie. Nu je scriptie nog. Geen inspirerender omgeving om die te schrijven dan bij ons. Eén van onze vaste professionals staat je met raad en daad bij. Je krijgt een goede stagevergoeding. En je kunt onbeperkt gebruikmaken van onze informatiebronnen en van de kennis van onze collega’s. Die overigens waarschijnlijk snel na de uitreiking van je bul ook jouw collega’s zullen zijn. Kijk voor meer informatie op www.werkenbijpwc.nl/afstudeerstage

Kom verder met een afstudeerstage bij PwC

The Sky is the Limit! efr shell research advo

EFR/Shell Research Project

Capital projects selection Intergrating non-technical risk Application deadline: 10th of October Start of the course:Internship block 2 Database

go to efr.nl/shell

The EFR helps you find the best internships! Visit www.efr.nl/internships

Neem voor meer informatie contact op met een recruiter: 088 792 87 77 werkenbijpwc@nl.pwc.com www.werkenbijpwc.nl/afstudeerstage Volg werkenbijpwc op Facebook en Twitter

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04 08

Index world

Foreword world

Summer

EUREKAWEEK REPORT

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

Challenge accepted!

A summer report

16 62,5%

42,5% 40,5%

56,4%

bron: Eurostat

Trade

HOLIDAY DESTINATION OR CRISIS AREA? While some have holidays, others are fighting the despair of being unemployed

Else-Mare Visser 2nd year IBEB After our first year of IBEB, my friend Anne and I decided we needed a well-deserved holiday to reload for our next year, Destination: Barcelona! We booked a flight with Ryanair and found a cheap hostel in Barceloneta, near the beach. We started off with a day at the beach of Barceloneta, because we were craving for vitamin D. The following days we visited the neighbourhoods of El Born, The Rambla and Gracia and we had a glimpse at most tourist places like the Gaudi Park, Segrada Familia, Casa Batllo and Casa Mila. We especially liked El Born with all its cute little cafés and colourful boutiques. Then we managed to fit in a bike tour through Barcelona with a Dutch bike company who showed us some cool places we would’ve never found alone. Another highlight was our trip outside Barcelona, to this little place called Tarragona. Of course we couldn’t leave without properly filling our suitcases since -good to know for the Zara lovers- some stores charge way lower prices in Barcelona compared to the Netherlands. Throughout the week we enjoyed so many terraces, drank substantial amounts of Sangria, listened to amazing street musicians, had the best paella ever, and had breakfast outdoors like real Spaniards. If you haven’t been there already, Barcelona is definitely a must see!

ACTIVITIES OVERVIEW

Political crisis of Egypt and its impact on tourism

06/07

The 50th EFR-Board Photopage

08/09 10/11

EFR- Introduction Weekend report

12/13

Interview with Eveline Wintraecken of Shell

Summer Holidays

14/15 16/17 18/19 20/21

Perfect holiday destinations and crisis areas

22/23

Eurekaweek report EFR-Involve report

COLOFON

OCTOBER 05

ESE-Ouderdag (Dutch)

Deadline EFR/Shell Research Project

28 - 01

Booksale Block 2

NOVEMBER 22

Get In The Ring, The investment battle

29 - 01

EFR-City Trip

DECEMBER 04

EFR-Drink

Sinterklaas

Editorial Address Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, HB-108 3062 PA Rotterdam tel: 010 - 408 11 46 email: reporters@efr.nl Visual Styling Buro NCP

Printing OCC De Hoog

Editor in Chief Agnieszka Wietrzyk

Commercial officer Edwin van Vliet

Marketing Officer Marjolein Volkers Writers Anastasia Mirkina Elaha Abhar Michelle de Nie Philip Luckmann Agnieszka Wietrzyk

Photography Ka-chun Lo Jeroen Huisman EFR-Board

If you no longer wish to receive the EFR-Eclaire, please send an e-mail to info@efr.nl

05 09

WORD OF PRESIDENT WORD OF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DEAR READERS, A new academic year has started, which means that new and exciting experiences lie ahead of us. With our goals and ambitions in mind, we all start this year enthusiastically and try to make the most out of it. This story is true for all students, and especially so for the new EFR-Board. With the ambition to have a completely new experience, learn many new skills and make friends for life, the members of the 50th Board were announced on the 31st of May. From that moment onwards life has been a rollercoaster of exciting experiences for us. In the first weeks we spend most of our time on getting to know each other and our positions. At the moment of writing this Presidential, we have already had our first successful events. Many new students have joined our association and learned about all that the EFR offers them. Our new Active Members have started with the organisation of our wide range of events with much enthusiasm and new ideas. The upcoming year is promising to be an amazing year, since we will also be celebrating the Centennial of the Erasmus University and Erasmus School of Economics. I hope that you are looking forward to the new academic year as much as I am. The opportunities are endless, and I hope to see all of you at our events this year. Whether you have just started as a student in Rotterdam or are close to finishing your studies and looking for a job, the EFR will suit your needs. According to me, the biggest strength of the EFR is that you can create your own path of development from within the range of activities and services that we offer you. I encourage you to make those choices and create a student life that meets your wants and ambitions.

While writing this piece I am sitting on one of the benches across the newly built Erasmus Paviljoen and resembling passed holidays with unhidden sadness caused of their short duration. Around me I can see a lot of enthusiastic freshmen and older students who, like me, are calmly saying goodbye to idyllic time of travel adventures and getting ready for another year full of challenges. The memory of elapsing summer had to be also reflected in the first issue of Eclaire this academic year. To see holiday destinations chosen by your fellow Erasmus students I invite you to read the results of the survey conducted by our reporters on the campus. We hope this gives you the time to summarize your holidays and inspires you to plan your next travels. As our EFR Involve project team has just arrived from Ghana, we could not resist to ask about their experiences. In order to see how Erasmus University welcomed their new students you can find our reportage about Eurekaweek and Start Weekend. As a team of inquisitive reporters, we also could not forget about the current economic issues. Addressing the current situation in Egypt we connected it to somewhat closer topic of travels and showed the impact of the events on tourism. We also checked how the popular holiday destinations are coping with economic crisis and conducted an interview with the an employee of Shell.

Kind Regards, Jolien Paalman President of the 50th EFR-Board

Enjoy! Agnieszka Wietrzyk Editor in Chief

DEAR READERS,

08 06

world EGYPT

EGYPT world

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Political Crisis in Egypt and its impact on tourism Egypt’s tourism industry was slowly recovering from the blow suffered from the 2011 uprising against President Hosni Mubarak, but another shock has occurred recently. This time it has to do with the riots and killings that nailed up after the August 14 crackdown against followers of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. While in 2011 the biggest outflow and keeping away of tourists were U.S. visitors, this time it also has affected the resilient European tourist market. Arrivals at Egyptian airports have dropped by more than 40 percent in three days from August 18, 2013 through August 20, 2013 compared to the same time the previous week, according to the chairman of the Egyptian Airports Company, Gad el-Karim Nasr. In the same time-frame, 13,000 tourists from Germany and Italy, have left the Red Sea resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada - with only 3,000 new arrivals.

(including the Dutch government) to avoid Egypt and the televised scenes of chaos. Currently there are 5,500 Dutch tourists in Egypt, according to a letter of Minister Frans Timmermans (Foreign Affairs) to the Lower House. He relies

Bookings have been cancelled by major European travel companies such as TUI (one of Germany’s biggest travel operators), Costa Crociere SpA (one of Italy’s main cruise operators) and the France Association of Tour Operators after European governments’ warnings

All together the impact of the political crisis on Egypt’s tourism industry, which until recently accounted for more than 11 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and nearly 20 percent of its foreign currency revenues, is huge. On the other hand according to a news

Even though the situation is strained, this is the time to invest. on information on numbers of travel companies. The Dutch travel company Corendon even flew two empty units to the Egyptian resorts Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. The tour took over 600 Dutch passengers back to The Netherlands.

report on Bloomberg Businessweek of August 22, 2013 investors in Egypt are taking the Rothschildian dictum seriously that the time to buy (or at least hold) is when there’s blood in the streets. While lamenting the violence that has taken about 1,000 lives, they appear to be betting that the militarybacked government will consolidate power and run the Egyptian economy better than the Islamist government that it overthrew in July. Whether their tentative optimism is justified is hard to say. The bottom line, however, seems to be that bloodshed and despair don’t deter investors who see economic opportunities in Egypt after the army’s coup.

Text: Elaha Abhar

EFR world

Jasper Huurman

Information and Strategy Officer

Jolien Paalman President

My name is Jolien Paalman and I have been studying International Bachelor Economics and Business Economics (IBEB) for the past three years. I have always loved to participate in committees and activities next to my studies, for which the EFR proved to be a perfect organisation. Favourite EFR-Moment: One of my favourite moments with the EFR was on the Skitrip in 2012 when I celebrated my birthday on the slopes of Les Menuires surrounded by many friends. Average day: On an average day I spend a great deal of my time meeting with my fellow Board-members to discuss what they are working on. I’ll have to answer my emails, prepare a speech or meet with representatives of the university and other associations. At the beginning of the day you never know what it will bring you! Weirdest Characteristic: In order to relax, I love to go shopping in the weekends. They say money does not make you happy, but as any girl knows, a new pair of shoes certainly does!

Marloek Hoogewoud Vice-president and Secretary

My name is Marloek Hoogewoud and I will be the Vice-President & Secretary of the 50th EFR-Board. In 2010 I started my studies Economics & Business economics and Dutch Law. I did several committees at Laurentius, In Duplo and EFR. After my exchange in Singapore I was up for a new challenge. That is how I ended up applying for the EFR-Board. Favourite EFR-Moment: My best EFR-memory so far this year is the Champagnedrink. At this drink we were announced as the board for the Academic Year 2013-2014. To realise that you can fulfill a fulltime position at such a big association is simply amazing! Average day: As Vice-President & Secretary I am responsible for all the non-commercial contacts of the EFR. On an average day I start with answering all the mail we received with questions from students or other parties. I probably have a meeting with the ESE or a study association, the External Affairs committee and my fellow board members. Weirdest characteristic: I really love to watch football at Sunday evening.

Kees Mackenbach Treasurer

My name is Kees Mackenbach and I will be the Treasurer of the 50th EFR-Board. For the last three years, I have studied Econometrics and Operations Research at the Erasmus School of Economics. After being active at the international study association ‘AIESEC’ for more than a year, I joined the EFR to organise the EFR-Study Trip to the magnificent country of Jordan. Average day: On an average day I pay all the bills of the EFR and I plan meetings with the treasurers of the different committees to discuss their budgets. Favourite EFR moment: My favourite EFR moment is the visit to Petra, one of the world’s wonders, on the EFR-Study Trip. Weirdest characteristic: I never laugh! But when I do, I do it right.

Marjolein Volkers Marketing Officer

My name is Marjolein Volkers and I am proud to be the Marketing Officer of the 50th EFR-Board. I’m one of the few Friesian people in Rotterdam. I came here to study Economics and Law in 2010 and I plunged right into student life: committees at EFR, Laurentius and an exchange to Stockholm. Favourite EFR-Moment: The very first Involve project to Cameroon! The experience changed my life for sure. It’s really bizarre to see how other people get by in such a different environment. Average day: My day consists of designing flyers, posters, website visuals and other promotional activities, together with the Marketing Committee. I keep in touch with different organisations to get EFR-Members informed about everything we organise. The rest of the day is filled with emails, the EFR-Eclaire and brainstorming. Weirdest Characteristic: I love everything in the colour orange! (Especially if it is PMS021)

Hi, my name is Jasper Huurman and I am the Information & Strategy Officer of the 50th EFR-Board. In my first year after high school I went to Spain, Costa Rica and Nicaragua which taught me a lot about being independent, responsible and of course about the language. Now, I’m a third year Business Administration student, and a member of the RSC. I enjoy playing all kind of sports so if you are ever up for a challenge hit me up! Favourite EFR-Moment: Definitely the first start weekend for Dutch Economics students. I really enjoyed the tour through Rotterdam and all the assignments that came with. Average day: 8.00: Get up,8:10 Get up,8.20: Get up,8.30: Get up… finally got up. Hurry to the EFR office and get there early! Make small tweaks to the site, support others with jobs, manage current IT project and think about new ones, answer mails. And the day is gone… Weirdest characteristic: Apparently I have loads….

Niels Tigges

Activities Officer

My name is Niels Tigges and I will be the Activities Officer for the academic year of 2013-2014. Born and raised in Apeldoorn, I came to Rotterdam roughly three years ago to do IBEB. In my first year as a student, I joined Laurentius as well as my dispuut Cala Banys. Last year, I spent four months studying in London on exchange. Favourite EFR-Moment: The Committee Announcement Dinner at the Stoep was one of the highlights of the past few months. Average day: On an average day, I combine the tasks I have for my specific position as Activities Officer with the tasks I have as a member of the EFR-Board in general. This holds going from meeting to meeting all the while making sure the committees can do their tasks and learn from what they do. Weirdest characteristic: I eat a lot of peanut butter, ‘a lot’ being an understatement. Of course, this holds for the crunchy peanut butter with the yellow lid, not the regular one.

Bob Lemmens Career Officer

My name is Bob Lemmens and I will be the Career Officer of the 50th EFRBoard. Currently, I have almost finished my bachelor Economics and Business Economics at the Erasmus University. In the past three years, I have been an Active Member at the EFR and after these three amazing years, I decided to apply for the board. Favourite EFR-moment: The presidential debate on the 6th of September 2012 in the Aula of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, which was broadcasted live on Dutch television. Average day: My average day consists of meeting up with de Erasmus Recruitment Days committee, having a chat with the EFR-Board and talking with Shell about the EFR/ Shell Research Project. Weirdest characteristic: I can fluently speak ‘Mestreechs’ (Maastrichts)

Edwin van Vliet Commercial Officer

My name is Edwin van Vliet and I will be the Commercial Officer of the 50th EFRBoard. I have almost finished my bachelor Econometrics & Operations Research. The past few years I was active at several study associations and the Young Advisory Group, a student consultancy company. For now I look forward to a challenging and enjoyable year at the EFR. Favourite EFR-Moment: The day our Board was announced: from being called by the 49th Board till halfway the Champagne Drink. Average day: My average day consists of having close contact with recruiters of companies and sponsors. In practice this comes down to visiting a broad range of different companies, managing relationships and negotiating contracts. Weirdest characteristic: As a stereotype econometrician, I can name the first 50 decimals of Pi.

Text: The 50th EFR-Board

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EFR

EFR world

EFR-Introduction Weekend

09 13

THE CIRCUIT

This year, from 16th till 18th of August, the legendary Startweekend took place. This is the weekend that the Start Committee of the Economic Faculty association organises every year for new Dutch economic students. This year, 68 new economic students participated. The event started with a meeting at the university. Jolien, the president of the EFR, and Rik, the chairman of the Start Committee, both held a speech. They informed the new students about the EFR and about the program of the weekend. Thereafter the new students went on a tour trough Rotterdam, called the crazy 50. This was a fun way to meet the city. Because it is the 50th anniversary of the EFR board this year, the students had to do 50 crazy assignments at different places in Rotterdam. For example they were supposed to dance at Beursplein, eat a banana in front of the cubic houses, and yell the slogan of the Start Committee through the EFR office. In the afternoon the new students went to Lierop (Noord-Brabant) by buss. The accommodation of this year called Brabants Bos was situated there. After the bus arrived, the new students could go to their rooms to fresh up. For dinner, the active members made delicious wraps for them. The winners of the crazy 50 were announced at the beginning of dinner, they were the ones who did the most assignments. They received a great price: a Pi単ata! After the announcement, there was a good party, with a Fiesta Mexicana theme. Everybody was dressed up, most people wore a sombrero but, as original as they are, the Board had donkey outfits.

The Saturday started well, as almost all the students were awake before the wakeup call. Breakfast started around half past ten and after that there was enough time for the students to recover from the night before. At 1pm the activity for the afternoon started. The Start Committee had arranged a circuit which included aircushions and a waterslide which the students had to complete as fast as they could with their group in order to be the winners. But as soon as the lunch was ready (sausages with bread) everybody quitted the game and went to eat. After lunch a bunch of Active Members and new students found a new challenge; they tried to run to the top of

the water slide from the wrong side. It was really funny to look at. In the end everybody was dirty, because of the big quagmire that arised at the bottom of the slide, but everybody had a good time and the sun was shining so it was a great success. For dinner, the students had to sit at two very long tables. French fries where baked at a special stand and all the fries where dumped in the middle of the tables so everybody could just get their own fries. There were also nice sausages from the BBQ for everybody. After dinner the party room was prepared for the beer cantus; everybody

Fiesta Mexicana was invited to sit at long tables, drink beer and sing great sing along songs with each other. The Start Committee was dressed up in German beer outfits and all students joined this great activity. With all the great songs and the Start Committee walking over the tables singing and giving everybody beer with watering cans the Beer Cantus became a big success and is an absolute must for future weekends. The party that followed was pretty epic, as most of the participants enjoyed the unlimited beer

a lot... A party proved to be great end of the Introduction Weekend. The next morning everybody got a wakeup call at 10am and had breakfast. Afterwards, everybody had to pack their bags. The active members had to clean the place and the last preparations where done to go home. After putting the bags in the busses, we left for Rotterdam where we arrived around half past three. Everybody was exhausted which means it must have been a great weekend!

FRENCH FRIES Text: Michelle de Nie

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EFR world

09 15

Interview with Eveline Wintraecken

Financial Analyst P&T Upstream Development & Wells at Shell conducted by Agnieszka Wietrzyk Eveline Wintraecken MSc. Bachelor; Economics and Business Economics @ EUR - graduated Master; Financial Economics @ EUR - graduated International Diploma Program; Management & Leadership @ UC Berkeley Extension - graduated Post-Master; Register Controller / Executive Master in Finance & Control @ EUR - started September 2013 Jobdescription: Financial analyst Projects & Technology Finance Upstream Development & Wells; providing direct finance support to technical (Wells) business units, handling budgets, operating plans, latest costs estimates, monthly management information, quarterly appraisal information, and coordination of risk management. Treasurer on the board of Young Shell Rijswijk, handling the budget for several social and professional activities. Name: Title: Education:

1) What are career possibilities at Shell for the graduates? Joining Shell via the graduate program gives you a wide range of career possibilities. You can determine your own path that matches your preferences and skills. When you start your graduate program as a commercial graduate, you can choose between different skill pools: Finance, IT, Marketing, HR, Supply & Distribution and Contracting & Procurement. During your time as a graduate you get the chance to do two different roles in three years. This allows you to see different parts of Shell in a short period of time. From the Finance grads it is expected that they do these two roles in a different segment of the business. This ensures that you see different parts of the company very quickly. For some of the graduate programs (e.g. Finance) there is also the possibility to do your second role abroad. This is of course a great opportunity to get an early taste of the international career you might have within Shell. Next to your actual job, you have many courses, conferences and network and social events for grads.

2) Why would someone interested in finance work at a multinational instead of in the financial services industry? When you work for a multinational like Shell it gives you the opportunity to see many different sides of Finance, and it exposes you to not only Finance itself but also to other parts of the business. This interface with ‘the business’ as we call it, broadens your views and learnings as you work with the various aspects of the company: commercial, technical, supply chain, legal, contracting, and other stakeholders. In my role as Financial Analyst for the Wells business, the numbers I work with while making cost estimates, budgets, and handling daily financials, actually reflect the Wells that are being drilled to get the oil and gas out of the ground. When you see a new capital project of Shell in the news, it is quite exciting knowing that you handled part of the budget for that project.

3) What determines the most who will be employed at Shell? To what extent do you pay attention to grades, extracurricular activities and personal qualities of a candidate? Shell looks at three main criteria: Capacity, Achievement, and Relationship skills (CAR). Evidence of these criteria include grades, extracurricular activities, intercultural awareness and team play. A graduate has to meet all these criteria in order to be employed by Shell.

4) What do you recommend to the students thinking of pursuing a career for Shell? Try to meet up with a Shell employee, ideally with a person within the business unit you would like to pursue your career in. In general, Shell employees can give you good advice which can be valuable during your application process. Also, it is good if you familiarize yourself with the culture and people with whom you will work, as this is an important part of your job that you should feel a ‘click’ with. There are two ways to be hired as a graduate within Shell, through the Shell Recruitment Day or through an assessed internship. The latter of course giving you on the one hand a very good taste of what the company and its people are like, and on the other hand it gives you the opportunity to broadcast your skills and competences over a broader period of time. For both processes, you will be selected based on the CAR-criteria mentioned above.

5) Shell is often depicting itself as a company supporting a sustainable development and addressing social concerns. There are, however, a lot of controvercies associated with your activities such as in Nigeria and in the Arctic. Do such allegations interfere with your activities when working for Shell? That really depends on your role of course. Not everyone in Shell deals with Nigeria or the Arctic on a daily basis. However, everyone in Shell is aware of these cases and

during the graduate courses you talk about sustainability and social concerns a lot. You also get many questions or comments about this subject when you talk to people at social events when they hear that you work for Shell. I usually will explain to them that there are many different perspectives to sensitive subjects like this. While working for Shell you get a better understanding of the complex stakeholder landscape that the company has to cope with. You also see that safety and (environmental) sustainability are core company values, which highly weigh into every single decision that the company makes.

6) Shell with the cooperation of the EFR is starting an EFR/Shell Research Project which is an official ESE course on the subject of Capital projects selection and the integration of non-technical risks in the valuation to create the highest value for Shell. What are the advantages of this course for a student? This project is unique since it offers students a specific insight in real-life challenges that finance professionals at Shell face. In a changing world in which intangible assets like non-technical risks are becoming more and more important, it is crucial to have the knowledge on how those assets have to be valued. The conclusions and recommendations that the students make will actually be used by Shell to optimize its valuation and selection process for capital projects. Personally, I participated in the EFR/Shell Research Project two years ago and never regretted it. It gave me the chance to see what the company was like. I especially liked the fact that every group was mentored by its own Business Finance Manager and Finance Analyst. Mentors really took the time to go through the challenges of your case with you and your team. The positive atmosphere and senior guidance is what really drew me to Shell, and and that is why I ended up doing an internship at Shell. I felt that this company would really take the time to help me develop my skills and competences. I was right, got a job at Shell, and have been in my first role as Financial Analyst for half a year now. For Bachelor 3 students it is of course a bonus that you will receive 4 ECTS as well. Text: Text:Jasper Agnieszka de Ruijsscher Wietrzyk

16 08

EFR world

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At 10 o’clock on Monday morning, the Opening Ceremony took place in theatre De Doelen. This was a spectacular show. Principal Magnificus of the Erasmus University gave a speech together with prof. Dr. H.G. Schmidt and a representative of the municipality of Rotterdam. Besides, new students could meet different associations and organizations that were part of the program during the Eurekaweek. Also, the whole program of the Eurekaweek was presented during the opening ceremony and there were some great performances. After the opening ceremony the students were brought to the campus by their guides where the “meet the campus” event took place. At the campus, faculty programs were arranged in order to enable the new students to learn about the faculty, study and study association. The EFR was also there to provide information for all new economic students, with a special guest - Jan Peter Balkenende. Furthermore, there were activities at the Erasmus Pavilion and the new students could get a tour around the campus. In the evening the “Party of the Century” took place at the Cruise Terminal, with artists like Rigby and Gers Pardoel. After the Party of the Century the students could go to the students’ societies as every night of the Eurekaweek to continue the party there.

On Wednesday the students could get breakfast at the Excelsior stadium. Right after that there was the information market, which also was at the stadium. Different companyies and associations were represented here, as well as the EFR. The information market is a great opportunity for the new students to learn a lot about the things they have to know when they start their study in Rotterdam. Also, there was the Erasmus Sport Challenge where students could meet the different sport associations. For dinner there was a City barbeque at the different locations of Sfeerhoreca. After dinner there was an event called “Rotterdam by Night”. There were activities at the different locations of Sfeerhoreca like a musical pubquiz, cocktail workshops, the I love Holland game and a casino. Also there was a drinking event at the Laurenskerk. The students could sing and drink beer together. From 9pm till 12pm there were the traditional evenings at the students’ societies. Thursday was the last day of the Eurekaweek. This day the Pepperminds Festival at the Vroesenpark took place. There was a main stage with performers but besides that there were activities from different associations and companies. Also the students could get a special wok lunch. In the evening there was a party to close the Eurekaweek: Mission Accomplished!

Challenge Accepted

Eurekaweek 2013 This year the Eurekaweek took place from the 19th till the 22nd of August. The theme of this year was “Challenge Accepted”.

Text: Michelle de Nie

On Tuesday there was a breakfast arranged at the Museumpark. From there, groups could start the City & Port Tour through Rotterdam. Every group got a different route, some visited the cubic houses and others took a ride on a water taxi. After the tour the students could get a free lunch at the Bram Ladage or Brood Express. The students’ societies were represented well, as the groups could get tours through the different unions to meet them. Furthermore, there was an event called “Eureka Speakers” at Pathé Schouwburgplein with different people talking about their student life and how they became successful. Besides that, there was a guide challenge at café Beurs. In the evening the most famous event of the Eurekaweek took place: The night of the songs. The cover band “Boundless” played famous sing along hits in the Maassilo.

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18 08

Involve world

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EFR-Involve 2013: Ghana Twenty ambitious students from Eramus University, four teams, two research topics, a Dutch NGO with a request (LiveBuild) and a consultancy research partner (SeederDeBoer). This was EFR-Involve 2013. On the 13th of April 2013 our project started. However before the official start, a selection procedure to acquire the most ambitious and motivated students for the project took place. At the kick-off meeting the Dutch NGO LiveBuild presented their question: ‘How to enter Ghana with sustainable energy and drinking water projects?’. The request to research this

followed up on the research of last year’s EFR-Involve project where a group of students researched the operations of LiveBuild in Cameroon, the country where currently its projects are based. With this year’s request we are entering a new world for the researchers as well as LiveBuild, since neither had ever been to Ghana before! Luckily the Dutch consultancy firm SeederDeBoer, helping us in structuring our research proposal and start of the research, provided some valuable assistance in the preparations. After three months of desk-research in the Netherlands it was finally time to check our findings in the country itself. On the

24th of July 2013 our journey started. After a long day of travelling from Rotterdam to Brussels to Istanbul we finally arrived in Accra (Ghana’s capital city). The 3,5 weeks of field-research took the different teams through the whole of Ghana. These weeks provided us with a lot of insight in our research topics as well as in Ghanaian culture in general. Our western standards of hygiene had to be dropped almost instantly on arrival as the rooms in the first accommodation were quite dirty and there was almost no running water. We travelled in vehicles that were probably declared a total-loss in the western world five years ago. Because of all the surprises that struck our paths, we learned to live

by the day instead of always strictly planning everything. Although we were occasionally ripped off and always had to negotiate about prices, we also found that people we met for our research were very helpful and friendly. In which western country can you just walk into the head office of a company or a ministry and speak with one of the mangers without any appointment? Well in Ghana that is possible!

it is dark and before this time children are expected to help in the household. Although we also saw bad practises of western help, the above also makes very clear that help in a sustainable form is still very necessary. Therefore we hope our research will provide a solid base for LiveBuild to enter Ghana and set up sustainable projects!

Well, all of us have also seen the poverty of the people and seeing this with your own eyes makes a huge impact. Going into the villages you see people drinking dirty rainwater. Speaking to the villagers you find out students are not able to study as they do not have electricity and thus no light. This is a problem as at 18:30

Text: Jeroen Huisman

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Pim Steutel - 2nD year IBEB Holiday

Our holidays The summer holidays: by many considered the best two months of the year. A period of complete relaxation or a time of intensive professional endeavor. Students tend to fill their days of joy in different ways. Where one might choose for ultimate rest, another prefers the all-active sports vacation. Well what about the summer of 2013, Where did we go? What did we do? And, most importantly, did we enjoy doing it? Just a few questions that spring to mind when we think back of our holidays. I myself for instance took the chance to combine the delightful beers and beaches of the Caribbean with an internship at a Curacao trust company. To get a grasp of your fellow students’ vacation activities, feel free to read some of their stories below!

I spent most of this summer in Friesland to sail. We own a “Fjouwer-acht”, a traditional Friesian open yacht named “De Twa Sisters”. It has been in my family ever since it was built in 1888. It was designed for leisure and for sailing contests. It is delicately built from oak-wood and beautifully decorated with woodcarvings and copper plating. From 1890 onwards there were several of these types of boats in Friesland, already actively participating in contests. These yachts were and still are heavily loaded with sail for speed, which makes sailing them spectacular, but also rather rough. There is no modern comfort and a lot muscle power is needed, especially with strong winds. Sailing “De Twa Sisters” is something I love to do together with my dad. Every year throughout the season there are three main weekends of sailing contests we compete in. The club of owners of these yachts is very close and we all look forward to these events, not only to sail and to compete, but also to see one another again, to do some typically Dutch ‘borrelen’ and to attend some great after-parties.

Carolin Dahms 3rd year IBEB In the beginning of summer I took a resit for which I had been preparing myself at my parents place in Germany. Luckily most of my friends had exams at their university as well, so it was easier to study without much distraction and jealousy of other people having their free time already. After the resit I went to London for two days with my mother and a friend to walk around this awesome city and to do some shopping. One week later I went to Mallorca with a big group of friends where we enjoyed the sun, beach and some nice parties of course. Summarizing, my summer was full of exciting moments and unforgettable experiences. Now I am ready for the coming academic year and I am looking forward to the next summer holidays.

This year, my summer was once again a truly amazing experience. My family and I had been talking for quite some time about possible locations to go to this year. Eventually one of my brothers brought up the West Coast of the United States combined with a fly-out to the never sleeping city of Las Vegas. My parents agreed and on the 24th of July we were on our way to San Francisco. We initially stayed here for 3 days. Of course watching a game of baseball in the ATT Park, home to the San Francisco Giants, could not be missed. After these days we rented a truck to drive by the west coast, which was astonishingly beautiful. Route 1 is a road taking you all the way by the west coast of the U.S. through cities such as Santa Cruz, Monterey, Pismo Beach and Carmel. After having visited some old friends from Munich in Newport Beach we went on to Los Angeles. An incredibly huge city with so many different places to visit. From the Universal Studios to the Hollywood hills and from LAX to Venice Beach, we saw it all. We finished the trip with 3 days of relaxing in Las Vegas! The city that never sleeps really amazed every single one of us, and to me personally, definitely a place to be revisited after my 21th birthday. All in all, a great holiday!

Rik PostHuma 2nd year Economics and Law

I started planning this holiday back in December when I decided to do a mini-Euro trip, together with three friends from my home town Apeldoorn. We planned to go to Prague, Berlin and finish our trip on the wonderful Solar Weekend Festival near Roermond in Holland. Our first intention was to go to Tomorrowland for the second time in a row but luck wasn’t on our side this time. No tickets. And so our alternative was a mini Eurotrip by train, using the amazing interrail ticket (only 181 euro’s!). We left for Prague on the 24th of July, stayed there for 3 nights in an amazing hostel full of international interrailers. After 3 days of cheap beer, amazing views, perfect weather and party hardy in Prague we decided to leave for Berlin. Berlin is famous for its underground techno-scene and amazing clubs. We were so excited to see for ourselves of course! We had 5 days in Berlin which is enough time to see everything this amazing city has to offer. During the day we decided to check out the wall, historic sites and the underground areas full of graffiti and street art. But most of the time we spent chilling at this amazing pool in the Spree (the river running through Berlin) called Badeschiff. After 5 amazing days full of techno and street art impressions we left for Apeldoorn to pick up our festival stuff (tents, beer, vodka, and other energizers). On Friday the 2nd of August we arrived at Solar Weekend Festival. 3 last days of total madness. The venue was smaller compared to Tomorrowland or Lowlands but that allowed the festival to be more personal and intimate. I would definitely go again! In short our trip was perfect, full of variety and absolutely better than 10 days of binge-drinking in Blanes!

Holiday

Paul van Ooik 2nd year Economics and Law

When planning this holiday, my girlfriend and I made a checklist of things that we wanted for our vacation. Because we’ve had a grey rainy winter, sun was one of the things we wanted for sure. Going to the beach was the second thing we added to our checklist and cultural sightseeing was the third, because we still wanted to actually see and do something during our vacation. With today’s extensive offer of places to visit, we had a hard time choosing our destination. However, when Barcelona popped up on our screen we knew we had to go there. Famous for its cultural sightseeing like the Segrada Familia, Mont Juic, Park Guell and of course the famous football stadium Camp Nou; altogether this made us choose for Barcelona. Once we were there we visited most of the touristic sightseeing places like the ones mentioned above. But because we wanted to do something different than only visiting the traditional places we also rented a scooter. Being on that scooter was a great way to discover Barcelona, because we were free to go anywhere within and outside of the city, into the mountains or alongside the beach line of the Costa Brava. If someone would ask me if I wanted to go to Barcelona again, I would answer that question with an enthusiastic yes. Barcelona is the city that has the perfect mix of sun, beach and cultural sightseeing. The city is a great place to spend a short vacation and is very inviting to different people of different age and interests.

Text: Philip Luckman

08 22

Greece

Crisis world

world Crisis

23 09

Spain

Italy

Perfect holiday destinations or crisis areas? 2007

Lost Generation of Southern Europe: While some have holidays, others are fighting the despair of being unemployed. What’s going on? The Lost Generation. The name was introduced by Hemingway for a generation that entered the World War I at a very young age. After the war, a major part of former soldiers struggled to adapt to the society. They were disillusioned and bittered and many times ended their lives in poverty, or worse, in social exclusion. In the context of the recent Eurozone crisis, the term lost generation is commonly used referring to the group of young unemployed people from 15 to 24 years. After the years of the booming economic growth, this group has experienced to the full degree what it is like to be in the way of the Great Depression. Youth unemployment has been increasing in the Euro area and the European Union since 2008, at a faster pace than the overall unemployment rate. Countries with the highest unemployment rates among youngsters Text: Anastasia Mirkina

in 2013 are those of southern Europe, the favourite holidays destinations: Greece (62,5%), Spain (56,4%), Italy (40,5 %) and Portugal (42,5 %). It seems, that the limit has not been reached yet. During the summer 2013, 26 million were looking for the job in order to support themselves and their family. Moreover, those who are considered employed, do not necessarily work in accordance to their qualifications. If you were on holidays in Greece,it is very well possible that the young man serving you at a local restaurant is also a university graduate. It is necessary to mention that students are included in the labour force. Thus, the numbers mentioned above do not reflect the number of NEETs (the subset of unemployed, thus not in employment, in education or training). Nevertheless, there is a huge gap in the unemployment rates in 2013 between the states in the Southern region and Germany (7,5%),

Austria (9,3%) and the Netherlands (11,0%). The unemployment is connected with all kinds of problems on the social and personal level: the political unrest, higher crime rate, mental health problems and simply years and years of unproductive life. The opportunity cost of the youngsters being unemployed during one year is estimated to be € 150 billion. Also frightening is the observation that after a period of long unemployment, industries change, causing the earlier gained knowledge and skills of students to become useless in the future.

Why is it going on? So what are the factors which led to the unprecedented high unemployment rates in the Southern Europe? Why are Germany, Austria and the Netherlands doing better and how can the situation be improved to avoid the grim predictions? How is it possible that the neoclassical principles do not work and why - despite the increasing age of population and the demographic decrease - are there less and less working opportunities? Those are important questions to which the European Union has found the right answers. One of the reasons of the unemployment is obvious: the global economic crisis and the euro crisis caused the immense downturn in GDP. However, the crisis only emphasized the problem which has existed in the Southern regions long before: the rigidity of the regulations and the mismatch between the education and the labour market. The crisis has shown that markets, deeply affected by the crisis but with more flexible policies like in the US, are able to cope better with unemployment in the long run (youth unemployment peaked at 16,3% in 2013 in the US).Considering the labour market regulations in the Southern Europe before the crisis, for instance in Italy, a worker had to be guaranteed full time employment and protection from dismissal. This

measure was of course great for the individual, but not for the society, as in order to create new jobs it is also necessary to sometimes dismiss workers during the recession. Thus, those who were affected the most were the youngsters who had just entered the labour market. The situation was similar across all Southern Europe. Any attempts to make the labour market more flexible faced the aggressive resistance from the public and the instant spread of demonstrations. The other reason is that there is a huge mismatch between what education provides and what the labour market demands. Countries with the lowest unemployment rate also have the closest relationship and a smooth transition between the education and work (as for example Germany). What the European Union is trying to do now is to introduce Youth Employment Initiative program with a budget of €6 billion from the European funds in order to reduce the existing mismatch. The support will be concentrated on the regions where the rates of unemployment among NEETs reach more than 25%. One of the goals is improve mobility by providing language courses and improving the EURES portal which “gives access to over 1.4 million job vacancies and nearly 31,000 registered employers to find talented mobile job-seekers“. However, the European Union funding will not help to eliminate the structural problems of education and labour markets of the particular member states. So what is necessary to do in order to not be a part of the lost generation and instead, be a leader of the change? As one of the CEOs of the Shell said, it is necessary to remember that the world is moving forward every day and if you stay on the spot, it can leave you behind very quickly.

European youth unemployment percentages

20,2% 11,0%

7,5%

European Average 9,3%

23%

62,5%

42,5% 40,5%

56,4% source: Eurostat

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