NMU
My time at NMU was incredible. Not only do I have new skills to be grateful for, but also new friendships and rolemodels. Among the many projects I have had the opportunity to contribute to, the one to encompass these three aspects the most has to be the campagne for 'Heel Nederland Repareert!'.
During my interview for the internship they listened to me very patiently, very kindly, but it wasn’t until I brought up how much I love interviewing people that their eyes lit up. So my second day began with me being briefed on repair cafes and what they mean - volunteer organisations that gather at a cafe once or twice a month, usually, to join hands to repair anything that visitors bring through the doors for free. The day ended with me going home with a schedule of five interviews with repair cafe organisers. In the upcoming weeks I would find myself in the - to me, a utrecht newbie - most obscure corners of the province.
In regards to newly acquired skills, I certainly learned a lot when it comes to interviewing different people. Doing my Msc research interviews I’d had the luxury of leaning back on the knowledge I had acquired being a part of the community for the past seven years. In this case I had only a week of researching repair cafes to fall back on. Where I feared this would make me so nervous that I would stumble through my first few questions, I actually found the adrenaline helped me stay sharp. I ended up in hours-long conversations about their youth, how they became interested in sustainability and community. One person in particular told me how at three years old they had already discovered their passion for reparation, by breaking down and putting together a little toy radio they’d gotten from their family. Another interview resulted in me and the interviewee, Soenita Bhaggoe, bonding over the broad concept of sustainability and its role in current politics, to the extent that she invited me to be a part of the editorial team of her radioshow Duurzaam Dichtbij.
This brings me to my new role models. I think I have a bias towards enthusiastically socially involved people - I blame my mothers. In becoming a part of Soenita’s editorial team, I also became a standard part of her journey to the studio in which she recorded the interviews. During our travels together I got to know an incredibly inspiring person who expertly navigates being community focused, a hard worker, a networker, a mother, a genius interviewer, and a genius full stop.
Not only was I endlessly inspired by Soenita, I was also surprised by the amount of positivity and enthusiasm a person can contain in the shape of Pauline van Norden. After conducting the five interviews with repair cafe organisers, I joined Pauline in her car to tour across Utrecht during the week of circular economy in which ‘Heel Nederland Repareert!’ launched. We drove from event to event to acknowledge, congratulate, and talk to people who put their heart and soul into promoting and furthering sustainability. During these trips I was in awe of Pauline’s inexhaustible drive and creativity when it came to making connections and helping others connect in order to achieve their goals.
All in all, I am as inspired as I am grateful to have worked at NMU and to have gotten the opportunity to get to know incredible people and gain indispensable experience.
