Amelie Gerdes, student from Germany, specializing in Public Health tells about coming at Windesheim Honours College.

"I found the information about Windesheim Honours College.College on studiereninholland.de and was very enthusiastic, especially about the public Health specialization.

I come from a very social family; my grandfather was a nurse and my mother is social worker, so I was brought up on the idea that you should help people.

But my dream is to work abroad in the future, so the Honours College is the perfect combination of all these elements.

Application and interview

I went through the application process very quickly, since it was already January and I wanted to start in February. I filled in all the forms and wrote my motivation letter; I focused on writing in flawless English.

Since wanting to make the world a better place is in my genes, you can imagine it wasn’t hard to write about my motivation! I sent everything in and then I got a letter: I was eligible and I was invited to the Honours College for the interview.

I was not very nervous upfront, because I had spent some time in America as an au pair, so my English would not be a problem. At first everything went well, I answered questions about what I did in the past, what I expected from the College and about my ambitions for the future.

But then they asked some difficult questions, which I really struggled to answer, so after the interview I was very nervous. Especially since the interview made me even more enthusiastic about the College, it was exactly the study programme I was looking for..

After a few days of suspense the letter came in: I was accepted!

Studying at the College

Since then, studying at the College has even surpassed my expectations, it’s truly international and the small scale set up guarantees you get lots of personal attention from the lecturers, so you learn a great deal.

Living and studying with students from different countries is really interesting. Everybody was raised differently, so you learn a lot from each other. Of course we have our disagreements some times, but in general we get along very well and we do a lot together, like cooking, BBQ-ing or just playing pool in a nearby pool hall.

I like my room, especially the fact that I have my own bath room is great. And the view is beautiful! I love having my own space, but company is easy to find when you’d like some.

Every one usually leaves their door open, so you can walk right in to ask questions about home work, to watch some tv or simply to have a chat. Another great aspect is that we motivate each other when it comes to home work. Simply seeing my flat mates study hard motivates me to work hard as well and of course it’s easier, two always know more than one.

The location of the student residence couldn’t be better. The College, the train station and the city centre are within walking distance. The Campus of Windesheim Universuty of Applied Sciences, where the very affordable gym is located, is also close by. In general everything in Zwolle is easy to find, it’s not too big, but not too small either.

For me, it’s perfect!

Bachelor in Public Health