Even though I never had the conscious intention to work in Internationalization, luck would have it that I got hired to work at the International Office (I.O). I guess having lived abroad and my fondness for the English language makes it a good match.

Though work can sometimes be frustrating, days like yesterday are nice reminders of what makes working in an I.O. so much fun. The people, their enthusiasm and feeling united in working towards a common cause. The day started off with the usual overload of general information by important people. Then.. the real work started, workshops galore!

12 workshops to choose from: 6 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. My pick for the morning; ‘Gaining international experience, new possibilities, insights and best practices’. Karina from KU Leuven shared some interesting research findings with us. She tried to measure the international competences students gain by going abroad compared to students who remain in their home country. It is hard to measure the ‘impact’ of internationalization with hard data.

With our bellies full after an excellent lunch, we headed to the next workshop. My team had organized a workshop about the International Office. What we do, or don’t do, isn’t always clear for the teachers and staff who aren’t die-hard “Internationalizationers”.

‘Well, what is it you do do then!?’ isn’t an unfamiliar phrase at the Office after we had to send students or teachers back to their Faculties or Institutes for the information requested. We try not the be hurt and go about our business as usual serving over 1500 students yearly.

So we put our workshop attendees to work. ‘Hoe Lang’ is a full-time Chinese bachelor student going abroad to Belgium. They all had to think of the steps a student has to go through from beginning to end and then decide if it was an ‘I.O.’ task or a Faculty task. My colleague guided them through the steps Hoe Lang had to take, hoping to clarify to everyone how the tasks are divided.

Nowadays going outside isn’t without risks. Bombings, natural disasters and other calamities occur almost weekly.  The HAN is working on updating and rewriting the Calamity Procedures. How to handle emergencies, who is responsible and what needs to be done has never been more important. Of course we wouldn’t do a boring lecture, but we put our attendees in the shoes of the ‘HAN Special Calamity Forces’ by giving them cases based on actual emergencies that have befallen students abroad in the past.

There is always a big lack of time,  the day flew by and ended on a high note back in the Auditorium where we were made aware of our white supremacy by Sunny Bergman, uncomfortably so. With our school becoming more culturally diverse this is an important message for everyone! Thankfully Bart Kiers, stand-up musician, had us leave with big smiles on our faces and the message; Yes! We han.