The Awesomeness

“I came back as a professional city tripper (25 cities in 7 countries in 9 month!), an experienced team worker, initiated in the broad notion of ‘European Urban Cultures’, capable of adapting to a new European city in a minimum of time and rich of valueable experiences. Thank you all for this unforgettable year.”
Céline Oosterlynck, 1 september 2008

“Not to over dramatise, but I think Polis is one of the best experiences I have ever had. Due to the concept – taking classes, working on projects in different countries and comparing how things are organised – I learnt a lot. And it was good fun.”

“Polis is one of the most interesting things, in terms of studies and gaining experience of different cultures, that has ever happened to me.”

“I never once regretted taking this course – it was an experience of a lifetime! I wish I could do it again.”

The Challenges

The past years have not been without their problems. Former students told us what did not work for them and the things they would like us to improve.

“Readjusting every three months to a new city was probably the most difficult despite also being the most exciting thing.”

“What was the worst thing? Complications caused for every student by the written English.”

“There wasn’t a major difficulty, but of course living in a group is never easy and can be hard at moments. However, I’ll always treasure the memory of the communal events and late night talks.”

“The worst thing about Polis? The cultural clash.”

Polis graduates in numbers

“What was the worst thing about Polis? I was the first and only student in 1997!”

“Learning such a lot in such a personal, small group in such different cities was the best thing about Polis.”

Where are you now?

Cultural Sector

• Dutch Consulate-general in Antwerp to help initiate a ‘cultural wing’ to intensify the cultural infrastructure between Holland and Flanders and to boost the image of Holland as a city of art and culture
• Internship at Urbis, Manchester: Organisation of two multidisciplinary exhibitions featuring emerging British talent in contemporary art and design.
• Project Coordinator, Galerie, Germany, Running of small art gallery dedicated to supporting local artists
• Project manager, Iko Poran, Rio de Janerio, Brazil, Development of urban research project for children
• Museum and cultural centre: Felix-Nussbaum-Haus Osnabrueck, Germany
• voluntary at a cultural house in progress
• Freelancer and photographer
• Job trainee at Futuresonic Festival, Manchester
• Founder and Coordinator of Brussels Kunstenoverleg Platform

Urban Policy/Cultural policy

• Leading projects and making/writing policies in the tourism/recreation sector
• Housing Support Officer for Bolton Council, UK
• German Federal Minsitry of Development Cooperation
• UNESCO, Paris, France
• Research and Advice, Amsterdams Steunpunt Wonen (ASW) Housing Advisory Centre Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Governance Public Space, research, planning and process management, City of Amsterdam
• Traineeship city of Amsterdam, trainee, City of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Academic Research/Teaching

• Teaching a course on methods of environmental psychology (with quite some methods from

different fields)

• Research Assistant, Institute of Physics, Wroclaw University of Technology
• Lecturer Leisure Studies, Tilburg University
• Lecturer Leisure Management
• researcher department creative industries, project leader COLIN (network organisation for the creative industries), Breda University of Applied Science
• 2 Academic researchers at Urban Research Centre COSMOPOLIS/Free University of Brussels
• Research Assistant at Centre for Research on Educational Evaluation and Development/National Taiwan Normal University
• Director of Alumni Services Division/Soochow University, Taiwan
• Researcher. The Foreign Affairs. Mexico-Finland. 2006.
• Researcher/writer for New Orleans Nine Ward Design Competition for Global Green
• Researcher/writer for “What happens after design?” installation for the Poster Biennale, Mexico

Commercial Research

• Research Analyst for Consumer Goods & Retail
• Real Estate Researcher: research on housing developments in Amsterdam and consulting investors, housing corporations, property developers and governmental institutions during specific projects or about policy in general
• Monterrey, Mexico: project on implementing e-commerce in an American-Mexican printing company

Planning & Architecture

• Hotel Planning, Grupo Posadas. Oaxaca, Mexico: supervise design, mediate between design agency and stock holders, permit negotiations

Business/Commercial Sector

• Own company providing tools for sustainability management in terms of ecological footprinting, material and resource flow analysis and carbon accounting in Helsinki
• Marketing, brand strategy development group, SUNSTAR, Tokyo/Japan
• Call Centre job via job agency
• Financial controller at the national association for practitioners
• Information Technology, System Engineering, Mexico

Studying

• 2 PhD’s in Sociology
• PhD in Arts
• PhD program in social psychology
• Further Studies: Mediterranean cultural studies
• Further Studies: Art Master: Image analysis and decodification (MBA)
• Further Studies: culture pilot, similar to polis to maintain knowledge. (Hive.no)
• Internet study on social exclusion in European cities