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Projects at UCG

Date:11 March 2018
UCG barbecue
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Projects being fundamental to UCG and having to do tons of different projects throughout the years, you end your UCG career in style with the third-year final project.

I still remember from the first projects how confused we were by the assignments: there was no clear outline, purpose, and we didn’t know how it would be graded. It was so very different from the strict, but therefore well-defined, assignments at high school, and I remember everyone being annoyed about this and complaining to the teachers. Looking back at it now, this was actually a really good experience as to what a future job will look like. Often, you won’t get a clear assignment and the people who can come up with an idea and just start creating something are for that purpose very valuable.

Fast forward to the third year, the assignment was around the lines of: do a project and make sure it contributes to society. It makes the list of possibilities endless, and so the projects within our year differ completely from one to another. Some people are making a documentary about stress under students, while others make one about the EDM culture in Groningen.

Currently, I am involved in the refugee project, which is part of Vluchtelingenwerk Groningen. For this project, we work together with Vluchtelingenwerk to analyse refugee stories and see if we can find parts in their story which can make them stay in the Netherlands. We get a look inside all the legal documents, like interrogations, decisions of the judge, and decisions of the immigration and naturalization service. Not only does this give you an idea of the process a refugee goes through when they get to the Netherlands, it mostly draws a picture of what some people go through, by reading their stories. Women having to flee their countries because their families blame them for being raped, or someone having to flee because someone of their family was involved in an oppositional party, and now they are threatened with murder.

Of course you don’t know what is true and what isn’t about these stories, but with the documents you try to find evidence and a legit reason for why these people should stay. In the process, you learn about different laws and cultures in different countries and is emphasized again how different people think around the world. What is more, you feel like you really help people and make a difference in their lives – a major reason for me to do this project.

The projects last till June, after which we will present it all on presentation day. Presentation day is far from your regular Powerpoint-lectures: we present the projects in the most creative suitable ways. The faculty will on that day be completely dedicated to projects, using all its different rooms, including spaces like the basement, study landscape, and canteen. Last year, after being involved in a project in which we created and kept up an online blog, we designed the room to become a newspaper production place. This meant the visitors would go through the different stages of writing an article themselves, eventually pasting it in the newspaper we designed.

With the projects all being presented in a creative, engaging way, it turned out to be a really fun day. Now when I’m thinking about it, I get excited to start coming up with how we are going to present our project – as there are so many possibilities. However, we just started, and for now it is still getting into the story analysis of refugees. More on this later!