In order to develop myself personally as well as professionally I participated in several committees, extra curriculars and jobs.
Team IGNITE board year
From July 2022 till July 2023 I decided to join student team, Team IGNITE as full time Internal Relations Manager and HR Manager. This started by bringing three different light project together, creating a community of 40 creative engineers all enthusiastic about light design. As the Internal Relations Manager it was my task to recruit new members and create a sense of community between the different project teams. I divided the new team members among different project teams, depending on their personal skills and goals. Being the confidentiality person, which people could talk to about their professional or personal issues. This helped me in developing my empathic mindset, by first trying to understand the other, and then trying to find a fitting solution together.
During my time in the team I had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people. Next to that I developed my presenting skills, by pitching Team IGNITE to the Dutch minister of education, culture and science Robbert Dijkgraaf. I developed my communications skills, by being the first point of contact for the team members. And I developed my planning skills, by planning and organizing various team events, like biweekly team evenings, and the team weekend.
Presenting the team 
Board during GLOW 2022 
Visit Robert-Jan Smits 
Visit Robbert Dijkgraaf 
Side project 
Team Evening
Exchange
From August till December 2023 I got the opportunity to do my B3.1 exchange at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. This was not only a professional challenge, also a personal one. As it was the first time living alone in a foreign country. I had to find my way in the student and Finnish culture. Both socially and educationally there are differences that made me realize my professional and personal strengths, like communication, socializing, and pitching.
During the exchange I followed the Pack-Age minor a transdisciplinary sustainable packaging design minor uniting visual and structural design, strategic branding, material technology, and user experience design to project-based learning. Working on a real-life design project in collaboration with a Finnish company, Paptic. It helped me develop my professional attitude and business mindset, as the solution should be implementable for the company. During the project I learned how to work with new machines and programs, like the Zund and ArtiosCAD. I also got the opportunity to follow an origami folding workshop. Where I learned a folding system for creating experimental packaging forms and 3D polyhedrons taught by origami-artist Paul Jackson. At the final event I had to present my final work to the company as well as other people from the Finnish packaging industry, developing my presenting skills.
Other courses I followed during this exchange were, History of Innovations and Design; where I got to learn more about the Finnish history of design, and Design and Media Culture; where a video essay was created on the two prompts generative art and participation. The courses Starting Up and Entrepreneurship Essentials were followed to get a better understanding of what is needed in order to start up my own business. Along that I volunteered at Slush, one of the biggest start up events in the world. Here I got the opportunity to listen to speakers from all over the world, like Sanna Marin, former prime minister of Finland, and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, cofounder of Discord. This event helped me better understand the world of start-ups and VCO’s, while networking with people from all over the world.
Zund 
Zund results 
Measuring 
Assembling packaging 
Photoshoot 
Talking to client Paptic 
Origami Workshop 
Final results origami workshop 
Slush Volunteer Crew 
Slush 2023
Extra Curriculars
During my first year I participated in the Clarks Design case. For this design case, I needed to customize the shoes from Clarks in the theme of local hero. My design was based on the ‘’Lichtjesroute’’.
I joined a project from Stichting Move in my first year, where primary school children from the Islamic Primary School Tarieq Ibnoe Ziyad in Eindhoven had to make their neighborhood better. This helped me understand children’s perspectives and I learned more about Islamic culture.
During my first year I also decided to join the First Years Weekend committee of Lucid, where I was chairwoman. This meant being in charge of leading meetings and keeping overview of the activity. Being the chairwoman in this committee helped me become more confident, as people relied on me. In my third year I joined the Luski committee, organizing a ski holiday. Here I took the role of secretary to develop my organization skills further on a larger scale.
In my second year I took the role of external affairs for both IDcate and Conduct Festival, where I got to develop my professional skills of stakeholder management, developing a business attitude. For the last two years I have also been part of the financial control committee of Lucid, checking the finances of the association. This gave me more insights into the structure and legality of such an association.
Along my study I have been working as study information officer for the study of Industrial Design. This means helping during open days, experience days, and student for a day days. This helped me in developing my communication skills, as well as planning skills.
Puck Verbeek 