Interview with a former Kweeker: Nina Meeuwes

Who are you and what do you do now?
Hi, I’m Nina Meeuwes, 22 years old and still studying at the university. At the moment I’m finishing my master’s degree in Business Communication and Digital Media and I started my thesis last week. Exciting times!

When were you a Kweek board member?
Let’s think about it. I did this in my 3rd bachelor year, so that must have been 2016-2017. Together with Wessel, Laura and Julia.

What was the main reason for joining Kweek?
I remember very well that I was waiting for my lecture to start, and that Lotte, from the board at the time, came to present about Kweek. In short, she came to tell us that they were looking for a new board at Kweek: I was interested immediately! At first I doubted whether I would eventually dare to do it, whether it would take too much time in addition to my studies and whether I would be suitable for it at all. Because no matter how nice our CIW study is, you don’t learn a lot of practical skills, you’ll have to work on it yourself. I saw a year on the Kweek board as a perfect opportunity to work on my skills!

What is your best memory of Kweek?
The first thing I have to think of is an activity that we did with our board: we did an escape room in Breda, and had a nice lunch and so on. What started as a relaxing afternoon ended as a mega brainstorm session: we came up with the coolest ideas for activities on campus and eventually tried to perfect it at Wessel’s home at the kitchen table. Only later did we notice that we got so carried away by our enthusiasm that the idea itself didn’t make any sense at all. Well, this story sounds rather vague, but I’m sure Wes, Lau and Julia also remember this very well, ha. A nice memory because it reminds me of how passionate we were when it came to idea formation and cooperation!

How did you experience your time at Kweek? What did you learn?
Besides the fact that I got along very well with my fellow board members, I also learned a lot. Not only about running your own business (to call it that) and taking on responsibilities, but also about myself. What kind of role do I take within a team, and where do my qualities (or fears) lie? This self-knowledge is extremely useful, for example when applying for a job or when I started an internship the following year. That’s really something you only start to see as soon as you start working in the ‘real world’ instead of in the lecture halls and chilling in the UB (of course there’s nothing wrong with that either!).

What do you think has changed in the last 10 years?
Whew. Of course it hasn’t been very long since I’ve been on the board, but I think that at Kweek we also see the shift more and more: where we used to work with print media, the creation of websites and the production of online content is of course becoming more and more relevant.

Where do you hope that Kweek will be in 10 years’ time?
I hope that in 10 years’ time, Kweek will still be fully engaged with CIW students, offering them great opportunities in practice, just as we do now. Staying active and innovative online and developing along with the latest communication trends. Of course, it’s already great that you can have a room fixed in building E, who knows if we will ever be able to make it an even more beautiful and larger growing-headquarters…?

How would you describe Kweek in one sentence?
In 1 sentence?! Um. How about “a fun communication agency that lets ambitious students grow in their skills, knowledge and daring”?