Monique Koemans werkt sinds 2,5 jaar op de Nederlandse ambassade in de Verenigde Staten. 'Leiden is een opvallende rode draad in mijn leven.'

Research, Personal development, Leadership

Of the 150 elected representatives, 24 studied or conducted their PhD research in Leiden. Who are they and which degrees are most popular among these MPs?

Alumna Louwien Eising is headteacher of Carmel College in Emmen. How have things been during the pandemic? And how has her degree in Education and Child Studies helped her? ‘In the evening I was attending lectures and the next day I was applying what I’d learnt in the classroom.’

Jaïr van Rhenen studied Medicine in Leiden and is now a GP in the largely religious Veenendaal. Before this, he worked as a tropical medicine doctor in Lesotho. ‘If you have the prospect of an afterlife, you often respond differently to illness.’

Marion Anker is a junior curator at the Rijksmuseum, the National Museum of the Netherlands. She studied History in Leiden and Amsterdam. Together with her team, she organised the controversial exhibition ‘Revolusi! Indonesië onafhankelijk!’ What did studying History teach her?

The new cabinet has finally taken office. Six of its members studied in Leiden, once again making the University a key supplier to the cabinet. Who are these alumni?

Halfway through his career alumnus Marc Tijhuis made a radical change: he left the corporate world to join the global battle against waste with the International Solid Waste Association.

No full-time job, but full-time voluntary work instead. That’s what Aniek Moonen decided on graduating from Leiden University College The Hague, when she started work as a committee member of the Young Climate Movement (Jonge Klimaatbeweging). As its Chair, she joins CEOs and government ministers in…

Carmen Gonsalves has been the Dutch ambassador to Chile since this autumn. She studied history in Leiden. How useful has her degree been and what’s it like to be an ambassador? ‘Diplomacy is fascinating.’ We spoke to her just before the presidential elections.

From assistance in the event of natural disasters to peace-keeping missions. As a communication adviser, Leonoor van Poelgeest goes to all those destinations where the Royal Navy are active. Why did she choose this work and how has her Public Administration study helped her?

To read Chekhov in the ‘original’. That was what motivated Arie van der Ent to study Slavic languages and literature with Karel van het Reve at Leiden University. ‘My love for Chekhov hasn’t faded,’ says Van der Ent from his home 60 kilometres south of Kyiv. ‘But it has for the rest of Russia.’

Marleen Hogendoorn (36) studied Dutch Language and Culture at Leiden University and is now editor-in-chief of the feminist monthly OPZIJ.

Lecture, Research Seminar

As an exchange student, alumna Jessica Ma was already looking for a bridge between statistics and the real world. In Leiden, she gained the experience to follow her interests and, after a few detours, she landed her ideal job with Disney in the United States.

Lecture

Lecture

Lecture

The Development and Alumni Relations department maintains contact with Leiden University alumni to stimulate and strengthen our alumni’s involvement with the University. If you wish to know more about our alumni, or organise an alumni event, do not hesitate to contact us.

Jiska Ogier studied notarial law, which wasn’t always easy because she went to lectures in a wheelchair. As a student she pushed to make society accessible. And with her law degree and lived experience she has now made this her work. ‘You can achieve a lot with creative solutions.’

The whole world is waiting anxiously for sufficient supplies of coronavirus vaccines. As Launch Navigator at Pfizer, alumnus Dennis de Mik must help ensure that the Netherlands receives 19.8 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. How is he going about this and how has his Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences…

On Monday, 4 July 2022, the graduation of the two-year Advanced MSc International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD) programme was commemorated in the iconic Academy Building in Leiden. Students and guests were welcomed by the Program Director, Professor Madeleine Hosli.

Leiden University alumni can make use of a number of University services: ULCN and uMail, career support, mentoring network and the Young Alumni Network.

After having been cancelled in 2020, this year the Summer School in Languages and Linguistics is going online. From 12 – 23 July, language and linguistics enthusiasts from all over the world can once again learn about a variety of rare languages and linguistics topics. Director Sasha Lubotsky tells…

Leiden University’s alumni database is managed by the department for Alumni Relations and Fundraising and currently stores information on around 105,000 registered alumni.

Organisation

‘There’s so much knowledge, research and experience in the field of student well-being. Let’s put this topic on the agenda, work together to promote it, and learn from each other.’ This was the message of the two-day virtual symposium on Good Practices for Student Well-Being.

2021 saw many prizes awarded to staff and students of Leiden Law School. Grants for new research projects were also awarded and our staff were invited to particpate on committees or recognised in other ways too. An overview of this year’s achievements is given below.

The Leiden African Studies Assembly (LeidenASA) held its Annual Meeting on 12 December. LeidenASA is the network of Leiden based Africa-researchers. Fifteen researchers gave pitches on their projects, and sketches of Leiden University's Africa strategy were outlined.

Another successful edition (the fourth!) of the Leiden Alumni in Brussels event took place on 23 February. With a fully booked registration list, it already promised to be a great success in advance. The event took place at the Baker McKenzie location right in the centre of Brussels. As the area was…

Big celebration upcoming weekend: MIRD's 20th anniversary is on the cards. Four alumni from different periods tell what this unique two-year master's in International Relations and Diplomacy has brought them.

On Thursday 8 December, the project teams of Leiden University and Heijmans Utiliteit, together with the construction workers of the project, celebrated reaching the highest point of phase 2a of the Gorlaeus Building. An important milestone in the construction and traditionally the moment to put the…

On September 28, 2022, dr.ir. Mark Driessen presented a publication about the ancient Roman frontier in Jordan. Venue for the book launch was the residence of the Dutch Ambassador in Amman. The event was attended by Prince Hassan bin Talal and his wife Princess Sarvath el Hassan, members of the Jordanian…

Alumni event

On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) RISE puts the spotlight on four women in our faculty. The Researchers in Science for Equality (RISE) network is launching a junior board on this special day. Their main task? Optimise the information provision between RISE and the…

On February 15th 2018 former students in Methodology & Statistics (M&S) of Leiden University share their current and previous professional activities to provide M&S students an insight into their career perspectives.

PhD defence

Lecture

It is one of the most talked-about subjects right now: how do we eradicate sexual harassment and violence? Alumnus Femke Eisma is the spokesperson for Mariëtte Hamer, the government commissioner tasked with tackling this persistent social problem. Eisma studied the Dutch language at Leiden. How is her…

The goal of alumnus International Studies Dennis Jansen (24) is to make the voice of young people heard in the climate debate. In November he is going to el-Sheikh in Egypt, where the Climate Change Conference is being held.

De afdeling Alumnirelaties & Fondsenwerving stimuleert en vergroot de betrokkenheid van onze alumni in Nederland en in het buitenland. Naast het organiseren van alumni-activiteiten, biedt de afdeling Alumnirelaties en Fondsenwerving ondersteuning aan medewerkers op het gebied van fondsenwerving en…

On Thursday 6 May 2021, alumni of the Bachelor Security Studies (BaSS) and the Master Crisis and Security Management (CSM) were gathered in an online event arranged by the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and the study association L.S.A. Custodia.

Lecture

One of the good things about my job is that I come into contact with so many different alumni. It’s incredibly important that we build good relationships with our alumni from a young age already. We can help our graduates develop skills and grow their network, and they in turn can help our organisation…

On March 16 students and alumni of the Advanced LLM in European and International Human Rights Law were brought together in an online Zoom event organized by our programme coordinator, Mahshid Alizadeh, and head of the LLM, Rick Lawson.

She stands out for the moderate tone she takes in discussions on Dutch talk shows. Without judgement you can have an open conversation, criminal lawyer Natacha Harlequin learned in her student days in Leiden. ‘What I personally think of the alleged act doesn’t matter so much.’

Three alumni of our Master’s degree programme in Ancient History talk to us about how they found a job after graduation during the coronavirus pandemic. During the interview, Gabriël hung a huge board covered in post-it reminders behind his laptop, Molly was glad that the members of the selection committee…