Alumni

Luminous
Luminous is the alumni association of UCM. The association was established in 2005 right after UCM’s first graduation ceremony. The goal of Luminous is to provide alumni with rewarding connections to fellow alumni, to current students and to UCM. With support of UCM, Luminous organizes social events to establish these connections.

Website
Luminous has its own website, www.ucmluminous.nl. Contact information can be found on the site. You can also mail to ucmluminous@maastrichtuniversity.nl. Furthermore Luminous has its own Facebook page.

In addition to the Luminous meetings, general university wide alumni meetings take place in London, New York, Brussels, Düsseldorf, and other major cities of the world. Information about these meetings can be found on: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/alumni

Meet your Future 2011

The ‘Meet your Future’ event that took place on Friday 23 September was a great success. Nicolai Manie from the Office of Academic Advising started the event with a short presentation of the master orientation tool that is almost ready to be launched. The webtool was welcomed by thundering applauses from the students. Then six alumni gave a great insight to what life after UCM can be. Including staff there were around 70 people in the lecture hall which is a great turn out for a Friday afternoon from 4-6. Afterwards more than 30 students stayed with us in the common room for another hour to question the alumni. All in all, this event was a great success! The students, especially our third year students, were very happy and thankful.

 

The alumni who were present were:

 

 

 

 

Esther van der Ham graduated from UCM in 2005. After she obtained her Masters in Culture and Society at the London School of Economics, she worked at Ormit doing a management traineeship and working at several companies as a management consultant in change projects.

Since 2010 she has her dream job, being trainer and coach at her own company DiscoverU, facilitating (international) personal leadership experiences and inspirational workshops amongst others at universities.

 

 

 

Ben Bommert graduated from UCM in 2007. After his bachelor he worked and travelled the world for a year before starting his master in London. Then he worked for the British government before embarking on his current position as expert adviser to the board of Deutsche Telekom. In his free time he advises social enterprise start ups, enjoys meeting and mingling with people who have fascinating ideas and is busy on various alumni boards.

 
 
 

Inge Römgens graduated from UCM in 2007. After UCM she did the Master of Arts and Heritage (Policy, Management and Education) at the UM (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences). After the Master she first worked at the theatre at the Vrijthof, did PR for the Musica Sacra Maastricht festival. Thereafter she started working at the Marketing & Programming department of Parkstad Limburg Theaters. Together with her colleagues she designs the theatre's program and positions this program in the market. She is responsible for corporate communication as well as a few musicals, theatre plays and comedy shows.

 
 
 

Iris Burks graduated from UCM in 2008. After having been part of a trail year of a new Neuroscience Master track in Maastricht, she studied Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences in Leiden. During her Master studies she concentrated on Neurosciences, and studied stress on a molecular level. She did an internship at the Maastricht Science Programme (MSC), a new Liberal Arts & Sciences Study track. After obtaining her Master Degree she continued to work for the MSC where she is member of the teaching staff and coordinates the Academic Affairs. At the moment she enjoys combining her two passions: Liberal Arts & Sciences and Natural Sciences.

Jaakko Kooroshy graduated from UCM in 2007. He is a research fellow at the Energy, Environment & Resource Governance Program of Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. In his work he focuses on the international politics and economics of natural resources and has particular expertise in metals and minerals. Many of the projects he is involved in try to improve our understanding of current and future global threats and challenges related to natural resources and the environment.

Thomas Schuster graduated from UCM in 2008. He completed his studies at UCM with a focus on Business Administration and Marketing. Having finished his Bachelor’s he took a year off in order to gain practical experience in that field. Two internships helped him to evaluate what kind of career he wants to pursue and consequently which Master’s program to enroll in. Even though he believes that he always pulled the right strings when it came to his education, he still ended up in a position unrelated to his prior experiences.