My Portfolio

Welcome to my portfolio. Here you’ll find a selection of my work. Explore my projects to learn more about what I do.

First week's activity

04.03.2026 - Knowing what your client needs

We were instructed to prepare a gift for a person of our choosing's loved one. This activity helped us learn to work with relative things rather than physical ones. Preparing a gift solely through a description of someone mirrors the real-life tasks that will be given to us by our clients; a depiction of a dream that cannot be seen, yet still needs to be brought to reality. I prepared a gift for a friend of Pascal with only the short description he gave me that can be seen on the side. And he prepared something for someone I care about. We were told to take reaction videos of the moments gifts were unwrapped. This can be seen in the video on the side.

A slight look into next week's inspiration

Second week's activity

18.03.2026 - HIP Camp

Who did you meet and what inspired you?
What surprised you about how others perceive you?
What did you learn about yourself?

We began our day with the City Safari, where we met inspiring people outside our usual bubble and got the chance to see life through different perspectives. In our group of five, our first stop was Jacques Mees, a Dutch musician from Tilburg who travelled around the world singing. He was inspired by Bob Dylan when he was 9 years old, hearing him on the radio. He bought himself his own guitar with his own money at just 11 years old and hasn’t dropped it since. He fought with alcoholism and won, and is now sober. This theme of sobriety can also be seen in his music. He also does music together with his son; they have albums together. His music can be found on Spotify, and I suggest everyone listen to him (I specifically advise everyone to listen to "Sneaked Our of Heaven's Door", it is truly emotional. For a smoother listen, I advise "Tell Me” which is a song where he collaborated with an Italian musician. He has many styles of music, starting with country, and moving on to more emotional ones that he played for us during our visit, like the one about his dad after his trip to a medium, where he felt like he was talking to his dad. He mentioned that he wrote that song within 5 minutes of entering his home, both lyrics and the chords. The second stop was the person with the smallest house in Tilburg. He is a music producer who told us about all the festivities in the Netherlands. He told us about his stories with "snobby" or "egoistic" musicians and their assistants.

It was obvious that he had much experience and wisdom. I pointed out how, especially in his line of business, it is easy to get lost in luxury and greed, but he chooses to stay in the smallest house. I asked the reason for this, and he replied simply: "i don’t need more". I believe this says a lot about a lot of us. He is a 78-year-old man living with his cat in an environment...simply...just enough... He said that at his time, people around him found money and bought the biggest houses in the Netherlands, and are now missing the quiet life and having a garden and some sense of...calmness... He said he doesn’t need that because he knew from way before that was what mattered, and he has it. Before we left, he said he had the best coffee in Tilburg and that we were welcome to always stop by to drink with him. One other thing that caught my attention was his schedule. We asked him what he did to enjoy his time, especially because he lives alone in a limited area. He said he goes out to DJ at parties every other week. We were speechless as we are just young adults who get tired of our schedules, and he enjoys his work of line so much that he still works and watches people dance to his music at his age. This, I believe, says a lot about the choices we youngsters must make, especially in the following phases of HIP. It was truly inspirational to meet these wonderful people full of wisdom, mistakes, experience, and joy.

Before the canvassing activity, I also heard stories from others. They told us that they went to a guy's house who was so passionate about playing a piano that he had two of them right next to each other in his house, and he played both at the same time to my friends. They also mentioned how in the houses they travelled in, they saw many machines that was truly amazing, even one that was made for Efteling that showed every spot in the amusement park. My friends said something that stayed with me, that they did not just travelled houses, as that is a materialistic experience. They said they travelled in the pieces that aligned with the real world with these people's souls. Every piece in everyone’s houses was a split-second vision for us, but for them it represented their lives, people they’ve met, their anger, happiness, love, and thoughts. It was truly exceptional to be able to get a glimpse into a stranger’s life.

The Stars on canvas part made the evening even more personal. It was not about painting skills, but about being curious, noticing one another, and seeing how other people perceive us. That made the whole day feel less like a visit and more like a community-building experience, because each conversation and portrait became a way of understanding people more deeply. The evening showed me that learning does not only happen through studying, but also through listening, observing, and meeting people with very different life stories. From Jacques Mees to the music producer in the smallest house, and from the stories of my friends to the painting activity, everything reminded me that people carry their values, struggles, and joy in the way they live. What I am taking away is simple but powerful: live your life and travel, learn as much as you can before settling, follow your dreams and make it worthy, and most importantly, “every passionate person is a little crazy”.

A lot of people expressed that they perceive me as a mothering, kind, caring person. This, I have heard before. However, I heard them mention something new as well, a natural leader who they can see becoming a CEO or a project manager or a teacher who will inspire others. Hearing this was very hearthwarming and also inspirational for me too as I now feel like I can change my career path to something more active rather than more passive areas of work. Now I crave leading and taking action rather than being in the background.

Hear me from others!

COMING WEEK ON -HIP-

The one with..." connecting with the researchers."

Third week's activity

01-04-2026

Meeting with the researchers

Sander van Gameren, MNEXT

Who is he?

"As a researcher for the Smart Energy and Renewable Energy Carriers research groups, I work at the intersection of new energy sources and how we can integrate them into our conventional grid...We strive to pave this path in collaboration with companies, governments, and educational institutions, so that our research directly benefits society. From research questions to test setups, students, and companies, we aim to build a strong value chain...I graduated with an MSc in Electrical Engineering from TU/e, specializing in control systems and energy technology." (Twize B.V, 2025)

Project Plan

Plan of Approach

-What do you want to learn and experience?

I want to learn more about electrochemistry, but most importantly, I would like to learn to work with companies and the government. If possible, I would enjoy working on a pilot that a company provides us in the lab.

-When will you look back on this collaboration with satisfaction?

By summer, I hope to achieve everything on our project plan. I believe I will be satisfied then; however, the true satisfaction for me would come after I have the chance to use the information I learn with Sander in a more self-controlled environment.

-What concrete actions will you take to achieve this?

I will stay consistent with our project plan and make sure to follow the 7-hour working structure we formed with Sander. I will be open to all the knowledge, criticism, and advice Sander will provide.

4th week-love and skill
learning to listen

15-04-2026

Communication, visualization, and more

We kicked things off by exploring how we listen, realizing most of us listen to respond rather than truly understand. We discussed how communication is open to interpretation and how tone and body language often speak louder than words. Then came the fun (and slightly challenging) part: practicing deep listening. In pairs, one person shared their HIP experience while the other could only nod (no interrupting allowed). Later, listeners summarized key points before switching roles. A second round focused on purpose, with listeners paraphrasing and asking just one question. Many found it surprisingly hard not to jump in, but also eye-opening; listening deeply revealed much more about others’ thinking. On the flip side, talking without interruption felt refreshing, even unusual, and sometimes a bit difficult to sustain.

We then formed intervision groups to support each other throughout HIP, sharing projects and struggles. After dinner, a guided visualization helped us relive joyful moments to understand better what energizes us. Finally, we reflected on life’s “Peaks and Valleys,” recognizing that even tough times can spark growth. We’ll continue developing and sharing these reflections in the coming sessions

06-05-2026
Peaks and valleys, values, purpose statements

This HIP session was all about digging a little deeper into what matters to us. We started by exploring our core values, some of us built a top 10 from scratch, while others connected their top 5 to personal peaks and valleys, followed by thoughtful group discussions. We then moved into a peer learning session, sharing ideas and feedback on our purpose models and portfolios within our groups. We wrote letters to our future selves, capturing our hopes and goals for the end of HIP, a nice way to look ahead while reflecting on the present.