Wittenborg Staff

Welcome to the next part of our series following how lecturers and students are keeping themselves occupied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today we are catching up with Theodoor Breevoort, one of our part-time lecturers and Dutch national.  

Today we speak to Sadaf Sakhi, Wittenborg's student registry administrator, as part of our new series where staff and students share little bits of information on how they are adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic. As anyone who has ever crossed paths with Sadaf will attest, she is one of the most positive and cheerful people at Wittenborg with a wicked sense of humour.

Social distancing is possibly the most recognisable buzzword in the world right now but what we are practising is physical distancing. Physical distancing means we are discouraged from gathering and physical contact if we do meet up with each other. For a lot of people, the lack of human connection can be demoralising, but with technological advances and social media, there are a lot more ways to stay connected with each other over the internet. 

Today we speak to Dr Jan-Albert Dop, Wittenborg's Vice-President: Corporate Affairs, as part of our interview series with staff and students on how they are adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Student housing coordinator, Karel van der Zande, is that rare phenomenon – a staff member of Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences who is not working from home during this time of COVID-19, but instead still goes to the office just about every day. The nature of Van der Zande's work is such that it cannot really be done from home – doing maintenance jobs at Wittenborg facilities, occasionally assisting students who are staying in the university's student accommodation, picking up mail and various other tasks.

At least two people in the Wittenborg family have received royal decorations in the run-up to King's Day on Monday for services rendered to their country for the common good. Wittenborg's Vice-President for Corporate Affairs, Dr Jan Albert Dop, received his second honour - as Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau - after being made a Member of the Order 15 years ago. Wittenborg Student House Coordinator Karel van der Zande's wife, Wilma, was also honoured as a Member of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Both Dop and Van der Zande were surprised with a phone call from the mayors of Leiden and Apeldoorn respectively to give them the good news. Congratulations also streamed in from colleagues, friends and relations.

Writing a research proposal is a crucial step in every student’s journey towards receiving their degree and it can be quite a daunting time choosing a topic that is both relevant for their courses and interesting to them. Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences offers students numerous tools for support as they write their research proposals and subsequently their research papers. One senior lecturer, Doron Zilbershtein, has gone the extra mile to help MBA and MBM students write their research proposals through an initiative he calls “Challenge 21”.

Welcome to our new series where staff and students will share little bits on how they are adjusting to the new normal of life during a health pandemic like COVID-19. First up is Wittenborg lecturer, Daniel O’Connell, who is from Ireland. He also sent us a fun picture of his first passport photo!

The Wittenborg family had a pleasant, wonderful surprise in the mail this week. Each one of its staff members received a large bar of luxurious, scrumptious, hand-made chocolate from the Executives. It was a small token and kind gesture of appreciation and gratitude to all Wittenborg staff who have worked tirelessly throughout the last weeks in order to keep the university learning going.

Although Covid19 has turned our normal lives upside down, at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences we have adjusted to the new normal by moving our services online. This transition has not been an easy one for staff, but indeed a necessary one to ensure that our students can complete their studies with as little disruption as possible. This transition has been especially tricky for some Wittenborg staff members who found themselves trapped in their home countries where they had gone for holiday. However, being stuck at home is not keeping them from working and we caught up with them to see how they are coping.