Mariem Ait Belhadj

As a young girl, I had other plans for my future, until the day we studied in high school about ‘consciousness’ during philosophy class. I sure was interested in human behaviour and neuroscience before, but I never thought that I would base my future career on it.

I am a third year student now and I specialized in clinical psychology. We learn about abnormal behaviour and mental illness. One course that I find very interesting is biological psychology. We get to learn about the biological basis of our behaviour. Questions we discuss include “what happens in our brain during sleep?”, “how come some people’s personality changes after brain damage?” and “why do we get addicted to certain things?”. It still amazes me how some behaviours we see daily are the result of a bunch of neurons and neurotransmitters working together.

Problem Based Learning is the reason I chose Erasmus University Rotterdam. We get to educate ourselves about the topic or problem assigned, and we then discuss it during tutorials, meaning we are actively learning. This also helps me a lot for exam preparation as I feel fully educated about the topic.

I was born in Rotterdam but raised in North Morocco. Living in Rotterdam feels weirdly familiar and comfortable. I left the city when I was six months old, so I don't have any memories from living here, yet it still feels like home. My favourite place in Rotterdam is the South part, below the Maas. It seems to be underrated but there is a lot to discover. And lastly, the only thing that I'm still not used to, and maybe never will be, is the moody weather!