After obtaining her BSc in International Development^[1] at LUC, Theresa Lieb (25, Class of 2015) took a year off from studying to get some practical experience. She went to Brazil where she did an internship for the German Development Bank (KfW) working on financing the transition to renewable energy in Brazil. After that, she stayed in Brazil to intern with the German Development Service (GIZ) in their “Green Economy” project. Earlier this year, she started an MPhil in Environmental Change and Management at the University of Oxford.

Where did you go to school before LUC?
Originally, I come from Germany, where I did a ‘regular’ Gymnasium.

How did you like being at LUC?
I definitely enjoyed my courses and the small-scale teaching style at LUC. I made some great friends there, for the rest of my life. The experience at LUC was rather intense and you always had lots to do, especially in terms of essay writing. But, in a way, getting used to the work load has been very helpful for my later internships and current study at the University of Oxford.

You graduated LUC with a major in International Development, do you feel like that left you well prepared for your internships and Oxford?
The biggest take away for me was how to do research and write papers, applying different methodologies, as well as thinking critically and structurally. I still use these skills all the time.

In terms of direct contents it´s a bit more complicated because I am studying a slightly different topic now. But I am using environmental economics again. Also, some of my knowledge on institutional design, policy making and natural resource management is still helpful as background theory.

At LUC we deal with global challenges and are taught to dream big. So, which global challenge are you going to solve in the future?
I am now focusing a lot on environmental issues and also learning much about climate change, so I will definitely be working on treating our planet more sustainably. I am, specifically, interested in the future of food systems spanning from climate-smart agriculture to plant-based diets and urban food governance. But you can´t really solve any global challenge without systems thinking, so what is really required is structural change and more cooperation and communication between fields to reach that.

^[1] For graduates after 2016, the major in International Development has been combined with the major in Policy Science to form the major Governance, Economics and Development at LUC.

Hylke de Sauvage Nolting (22, Class of 2016) did not waste any time after graduating from Leiden University College The Hague. Almost immediately after receiving his BA  in ‘World Politics’, he got on a plane to his next destination: the prestigious Yenching Academy to study Politics and International Relations at Peking University in Beijing, China.

Where did you go to school before LUC?

I completed my VWO at Unic in Utrecht. This is one of the most progressive schools in The Netherlands, with a lot of freedom for the students and a focus on the development of skills, not just on gaining knowledge. Before coming to LUC, I took a gap year to work and explore a little bit of the world. I have always travelled quite a bit with my parents, but going out there by myself really was a great experience!

How did you like being at LUC?

In retrospect, I could not have made a better decision than coming to LUC. It has been the place where I have been able to develop all different kinds of skills and where I have gained a lot of knowledge about all these different subjects and academic areas!  The focus on preparation, in-class participation, the courses, the professors, the level of education and my fellow students have made my time at LUC very special. I also liked that because you live on campus for two years you get this great community feeling. I always felt quite proud to be part of this community!

You graduated LUC with a major in World Politics, do you feel like that left you well prepared for Yenching Academy?

Some things are very similar to LUC, and that is also the reason that I like Yenching: it is an international environment in which you can learn from and become friends with people from all over the world; the program is interdisciplinary, providing me with the opportunity to choose a wide variety of courses; having small classes, the program is based on student participation; and both LUC and Yenching are small-scale colleges, where you have the opportunity to get to know most students and professors very well.

At LUC we deal with global challenges and are taught to dream big. So, which  global challenge are you going to solve in the future?

Looking around, there are obviously many global issues that need to be solved. I feel like having studied at LUC and now at Yenching Academy allowed me to delve into these problems even more. With my background and interests I think I would mostly focus on tackling income and wealth inequality, both within The Netherlands and abroad. A man should have dreams right? Internationally, inequality is the main root of poverty. In The Netherlands, inequality is in my opinion the main cause of many societal problems. Overall, I think I would like to contribute to reducing inequality, improving the life of people.

Namaste!

At the moment I am living in Pokhara, the second largest city of Nepal, snuggly nestled between beautiful Lake Fewa and the Himalaya. When I’m not completely distracted by the awesome views inviting exploratory hikes all around, I am working at my internship at Bioversity International. Pokhara and Bioversity are not just my place of work, but also the base-camp for fieldwork throughout Nepal that I’m doing for my Master’s thesis.

After LUC I stayed in The Hague for another amazing year, in which I got my LL.M. in Public International Law in Leiden. Even though the highlight of the program was learning to be a lawyer in the Telders International Law Moot Court Competition, I decided that court-life isn’t for me, or at least not yet. Therefore, I decided to head to Aarhus, Denmark for a MSc in Human Security. It is there that I rekindled a passion for climate change, food security and agriculture that the fast and dangerous world of international law had pushed to the back burner. Studying in Denmark is fantastic, there is preference for the small-scale student focused education that LUC has spoiled us all with, the local vikings are a good crowd and the hills can be scaled on a citybike. Still, after all these years of grassy fields and coasts I decided it was time for a change of scenery, which is how I ended up in Nepal.

The organization I am working with is, together with a wide array of other stakeholders, implementing a long-term UNEP project on the integration of traditional crop genetic diversity, in order to create a buffer against environmental change. This means that on several places in mountainous Nepal they are implementing measures to enhance biodiversity in agriculture. Such measures include among others community seed banks, participatory plant breeding and diversity fairs where farmers show off the plethora of varieties they grow. I am contributing to a framework that will ensure availability, access and benefit-sharing of the genetic resources farmers possess, and the traditional knowledge associated with it. Staying true to my interdisciplinary roots, this means combining the international treaties, domestic laws and policies, as well as customary practices and agricultural choices. With my internship I get access to not only farmer communities but also government officials, NGO staff and others to gather my own data on benefit-sharing that I will use for my thesis back in Denmark. I am for example currently participating in a workshop on seed systems that includes practitioners and experts from all over the world

There is a lot going on in Nepal at the moment, and its people and agriculture are infinitely diverse, which makes the work extra interesting and definitely keeps me busy for now. After this I get to return to Denmark for one last stretch of student life. What comes after that is still a little unsure, but so far it’s always worked out, and I’m positive that won’t change.