National Representative

Dear  reader,

Let me first introduce myself, my name is Ties den Dekker, I am 20 years old, previous board member of ESN Tilburg (currently I*ESN Tilburg)  and the new National Representative of ESN The Netherlands.  Now, let me start from the beginning where I got my first contact with the international atmosphere.

After finishing my secondary school I decided to go to Italy for 3 months to work in an animation team in the North of Italy near Venice. Together with 8 different people from 8 different nationalities we made sure that tourists had the time of their lives on the campsite by arranging karaoke evening, bingo’s and all the other things regular campsite animation teams do. We lived, worked, laughed and partied together. After this experience I came back to Tilburg to start my first year of International Business Administration. After some weeks I started to miss the international atmosphere of sharing cultures, life experiences and dreams. So on a regular Tuesday evening I entered a bar with only international students. I started a chat with one of the board members and I asked; What is this for kind of party? She answered: Well this is SM. I said what? She screamed in my ears: Well this is ESN, a student association which organizes social activities, drinks and activities for international students! And that sounded interesting to me…

After being a mentor for half a year of ESN Tilburg, I decided to apply for one of the board functions of ESN Tilburg. I became the Internal PR Coordinator where I had to take care of the magazines, the website, the magazine and some other promotion materials. After participating in some international events like the West European Platform (WEP) in Groningen, and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Budapest I started to take a look at the international network of ESN. The first thing I noticed is the enormous future potential this study association has as the world, and especially Europe, becomes more united. I talked with Stijn, the previous National Representative, about some topics concerning ESN international and I started to become interested in this function. In April I applied and on the 28th of May I got elected on the National Platform, a week after that I was already in Tartu in Estonia to have my first meeting with all the other National Representatives of the other 35 countries.

One of my priorities this year is to inform local sections more about the International network and to get them more involved.  With 36 countries and +- 375 sections we are the association which can make a difference in the future perspectives of student mobility around Europe and the whole world. I know, you are all very much focused on your local section, which is of course your priority, however there is also a lot on the international level where you can participate in, in order to develop your international and professions skills. ESN offers you the opportunity to really make a change in the future of international students and student mobility.  You have the opportunity to contribute to the network  by getting involved in projects like PRIME, Social Erasmus, Exchangeability and all the international committees. These bodies are very important to gain more acknowledgement from the European Commision, our Dutch National Agency and Higher Education Institutions. If we would work on this together, we can all contribute to the expansion and improvement of the international student network in order to learn from each other!

 I am sure that this year  will be a lot of fun and I hope that together we can make this network stronger and better.

Yours,

Ties den Dekker
National Representative
ESN The Netherlands 2011-2012