Back in our first newsletter, we announced that we would organise several events for our alumni this year, to celebrate the faculty’s 40th anniversary (among other things). By now we’ve hosted three of those events, and we’re proud of how they turned out!
Alumni dinners
To mark our faculty’s special anniversary, we decided to kick off our alumni activities in grand style with a big dinner for our former students.
In association with the independent ESHPMa alumni association, we have by now organised two dinners for our alumni. The first took place at Zalmhuis on 18 May and was such a hit (180 alumni attended the event and loved it!) that soon afterwards we began to plan a second dinner, which was then held at Stadshaven Brouwerij Rotterdam on 7 September. This second dinner was attended by over 170 alumni.
At Zalmhuis, we were fortunate enough to hear three of our alumni speak. Marjolein Oudshoorn (graduated in 2000, now works as Programme Manager at Gezond en Gelukkig Den Haag), Dorie van Hooff (graduated in 2004, now works as Senior Consultant on Quality & Innovation at Alrijne Zorggroep) and Cassandra van den Berg (graduated in 2003, now works as Programme Director of “Lead the life you love” at Florence) all gave short presentations in which they told us how they seek to make the health care system more sustainable and future-proof through.
At Stadshaven Brouwerij Rotterdam, Bernard Leenstra (a GP (among other things), no alumnus) presented a lecture on the importance of entrepreneurship in the health care system.
The dinner served at Zalmhuis was a traditional three-course sit-down dinner. The dinner served at Stadshaven Brouwerij Rotterdam, on the other hand, was a walking dinner, where guests could stand at tall or sit at regular tables to enjoy their meal and catch up. The informal and flexible nature of the dinner made it easier for alumni to meet and talk to each other.
In addition to the presentations, both evenings were mostly about catching up with old friends and forging new connections. On 7 September, we gave our guests even more opportunities to do so by playing a game of ‘meeting bingo’, which was quite a hit.
Meet & Greet event for students and alumni
Some students have a hard time figuring out what kind of career to embark on after completing their degree programme. What kinds of organisations are likely to hire you, and what kind of jobs can you expect to be offered? To help our students get a better understanding of this, we invited nine alumni to come and tell our current students more at an event called ‘Beyond Your Degree: Students Meet Alumni’, held on 1 July.
The alumni represented many different sectors of the labour market, ranging from the Ministry of Health and consultancy firms to insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, Career Services taught a workshop on how to make choices, particularly with regard to one’s future. Students were able to sign up for multiple sessions. Most of the feedback we received from the students and alumni who attended the event was very positive.
The next edition of the Meet & Greet event is scheduled to take place on Friday, 21 April 2023. If you’re interested in sharing your experiences and career path with our current students, we’d love to hear from you! Please send an email to alumni@eshpm.eur.nl.