I chose the VUB because I’m a free thinker myself
“In June, I graduated as a primary school teacher at Howest, the college of West-Flanders. As an 18-year-old it was a safe choice. Now, three years later, I have more self-knowledge and I know better what I want in my life. I am currently switching to the Master in Educational Guidance. I like to compare it as the intermediary between people and society.
I live in Bruges, but I chose the VUB, because 'free thinking' is a vision close to my heart. I grew up in a secular humanist family: my mom is a teacher in community education, my dad's in secular humanist societies and I am a board member of the secular humanist center. You can call it a secular humanist home. My parents gave me that way of thinking, but I made it my own.
Besides the name of the school, the university also has a secular humanist approach to students. I'm completely surrounded by a small and friendly community where I felt at home immediately. There are a lot of talks and after-school activities to learn about different topics in society. Little things that I, as a secular humanist thinker, appreciate about the school. After class, I tutor for BRUTUS, a collaboration between the university and secondary schools in Brussels. That is a job that is easy to combine with my studies. Every week I go to the condition gym with my sports card of the VUB. A healthy mind in a healthy body is what I seek.”
Pictured above: Alex de Pape (21, Master in Adult Educational Sciences) next to the statue of the free thinker
On the occasion of the VUB’s 50th anniversary, prof. dr. Martina Temmerman asked the students in her introductory course on journalism genres to make portraits of people on the VUB campus. The ‘snapshots’ resulting from the project Humans of the VUB offer a lovely cross section of life on our university campus in 2019/20.