Femke van den Bos | Faces of FEB

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The Faculty of Economics and Business is a faculty with a great diversity of people who all have an impact, big or small, on science and society. But who are these people? Within ‘Faces of FEB’ we connect with different students of the faculty and give a little peek into their world. This week: Femke van den Bos, who won the GUF-100 prize.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Femke, I am 21 years old, and I just graduated from my master at the FEB. I have spent four years at this faculty, doing both my bachelor and master here. Besides studying I very much enjoy sports, especially athletics, and hanging out with friends at Zernike, in the Noorderplantsoen or somewhere in the Poelestraat.

2. You recently graduated. What did you study?

Last year I followed the MSc Econometrics, Operations Research and Actuarial Studies, with the focus on Operations Research. Besides this I also took some extra courses from the master Economic Development and Globalization, which I also very much enjoyed.

3. Besides studying, you also did a lot of other things these past years. Could you tell us more about that?

Yes, I really like to take part in different activities besides studying! Therefore I have been in multiple committees within both the athletics association Vitalis and the study association VESTING. At Vitalis I also did a board year. Moreover, I have been a student assistant as well as a research assistant. And I am a language coach for a refugee with a residence permit, via Stichting Vluchtelingenwerk, which is much fun to do!

4. How did the COVID situation affect your studies?

Of course the COVID situation affected my studies, but actually it also brought some good things to me. Last year I would go to London for a master but decided to stay in Groningen due to COVID-19. This has been an excellent choice because I very much liked the master here. Moreover, I wrote my master thesis on the distribution of COVID-19 patients between hospitals, besides which I had a part time job as data scientist at the national coordination centre for patient distribution (LCPS). This was an experience from which I learnt very much, a special opportunity I got because of COVID-19.

5. And just before you graduated, you won the GUF-100 prize…

Yes! A great cherry on top of the graduation. I read the description of the prize and recognized myself in it, so I decided to try and go for it, which turned out to be a good choice. After being selected as one of the top 3 students I was already very happy, because the other nominated students were very good. Hence, I tried my best on the pitch and it was an honor to finally win the prize!

6. Besides your extensive CV, the jury was impressed by your pitch about the meaning of statistics. What were the key takeaways?

My pitch was based on three numbers which were connected to my extracurricular activities and dreams for the future. By first asking the listeners to remember the numbers and later explaining them, I showed the power of effectively analyzing and explaining the meaning of numbers. My key takeaway was that using numbers, or mathematics/statistics, can be very powerful and that I want to show others how much you can achieve by effectively applying your studies.

7. What are you up to now?

In the upcoming academic year I will follow the MSc Economics for Development at the University of Oxford. Here I hope to use the skills I learned in Groningen in a field that very much interests me, development economics. I am very much looking forward to it!