One of the groups consists of four German students, and one from the RU. Just like all the other groups of the 24-student minor, they have to devise a marketing concept for Mama’s Garden, a meeting place for (single) mothers in Rotterdam-Zuid. Each group has chosen a target group: for the ‘German group’, it is pregnant refugees.

‘Love has no border’

‘We will build a community for them’, says Natalie, a marketing student from Koblenz. One of the plans is a billboard featuring a pregnant woman with the text, ‘Love has no border’, on her belly. The students are busily sketching what this should look like. Danique (communication student at RU) explains that the intention is to connect the refugees with the mothers at Mama’s Garden. ‘The mothers will become a sort of peer coaches’.

And this plan must be finished in a few hours. Are you feeling any pressure? After all, we are in a pressure cooker … ‘Oh, it’s not so bad’, Danique responds. ‘I think we have a good idea, and it’s about how we present it as well.’

You have to speak English

Danique chose this international minor when she decided not to go abroad after all. ‘My fourth choice was my only option, and, above all, I had just got my own home. This minor seemed interesting, and it’s an opportunity to improve my English. Because you have to speak English here…’

It has been anything but disappointing for the Rotterdam student. ‘We work together with really great students: you get along in a different way than with RU students. It is easier to have a drink together after school time; in my usual class, everyone goes straight home after the lecture. It still feels a bit like being abroad’.

‘Rotterdam University is the best’

German student Nathalie also wanted to go abroad. Her eye fell on RU and Rotterdam. ‘I was once here on holiday, and I love the city’. And Rotterdam University? ‘It’s the best in Europe’. With Get Connected, Natalie wants to learn more about communication and social media. So far, she has ‘learned’ something from Rotterdam nightlife and shopping, but also from the way education is given in the Netherlands. Natalie: ‘In Germany we have an awful lot of exams, whereas here the emphasis is more on the practical element. But that could also be because we’re doing a minor…’

Natalie looks around a little restlessly. ‘Sorry, but I don’t really have much time to talk; we are in a pressure cooker, ha ha. And you get points for it. It’s actually a sort of competition between the groups …’

Jos van Nierop