Contact and Meet the team

Summer & Winter School Coordinator 

Bianca, the only Dutchie in the team, was born and raised in Haarlem, the Netherlands. During her International Business study Bianca had the chance to study abroad and learn the importance of internationalisation. After travelling for several month per year (and seeing all 7 continents!) her mind was set on working for the International Office of VU Amsterdam where she has happily been working since October 2017.

“In my opinion internationalisation is truly important for an individual’s personal development, global cooperation, and solidarity. I am proud of our summer and winter school programme's and excited for upcoming edition.''

Summer & Winter School Officer 

During her Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in Euroculture Celia studied in Germany, France and Mexico, where she discovered the value of intercultural exchange. After graduation Celia did a traineeship at the Academic Cooperation Association in Brussels and developed her curiosity for internationalization. In 2021 she started to work for the VU as a Summer and Winter School Officer. 

“From my own experiences I have learned that studying abroad can be a life changing experience. That is why I always encourage students to go abroad and challenge themselves in a new environment, making new friends and learning from all different kinds of people and cultures”.

Summer & Winter School Officer

During her bachelor's degree in English literature and linguistics, she developed her curiosity for culture and people. She went on to complete an exchange in Edinburgh University where she spent a year studying amongst many other international students and discovered first-hand the value of working in an international environment. After graduation, Helena became interested in education and worked as an English teacher for a few years before completing her master’s in Education. She has managed to combine her two passions: education and internationalisation, and has been working the VU Summer and Winter School team since 2021.

Digital Marketer

Mark was born and raised in the UK and now lives in the Netherlands. He is an international digital marketeer with many years of experience working in digital, primarily as a web analyst. Tech-savvy and curious, he works across both Summer and Winter schools in the International Office at VU Amsterdam. Mark firmly believes in diversity and the right to education anywhere in the world.

Meike Morren is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at VU since 2012, after she obtained her PhD in Method and Statistics from Tilburg University. Her research evolves around sustainability issues in which she likes to use advanced modelling approaches to discover patterns in environmentally friendly behaviour. Recently, she has synthesized survey findings in cross-cultural meta-analysis, and conducted an intervention on food choices. At the moment, she applies Natural Language Processing methods to analyse text data. 

Dr Silvester Draaijer holds the position of programme manager at the VU Education Lab, part of the VU Centre for Teaching & Learning at VU Amsterdam. Before taking on this role, he has more than 20 years of experience as a teacher, consultant and educational researcher. He holds a PhD in the field of testing in higher education. Silvester Draaijer has over 20 years of experience in advising on educational innovation.

Helena has worked in the Summer and Winter Schools since 2021. She holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and linguistics and a Master's in education. Before she started working at VU, she was an English language teacher. She taught students of many different levels; from children to professionals. Her role in the quality board is to review the course proposals and to ensure that the courses are up to standard and that they are dynamic and inclusive. 

Dr. Sanchayan Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Behavioural Economics at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) in VU Amsterdam. Sanchayan obtained his MS and PhD from the London School of Economics and teaches in areas of environmental economics, applied quantitative methods and behavioural science and public policy. He is a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

The Certificate Board assesses courses and handles extraordinary cases including student complaints, exam fraud, and is called upon in case assessment re-evaluation is necessary. It also analyses data from evaluation surveys completed by students.

- Frans van der Wel (Chair): on behalf of STOK (former president) 

-André Ran: on behalf of the exam board (former member) 

-Wouter ten Have: on behalf of Raad van Toezicht 

-Bianca van Putten (secretary): on behalf of summer/winter team