Abdelkarim Megaiz studies Public Administration at Leiden University and is a student-assistant for the DEEPEN-project. In this interview, Abdelkarim tells about the kind of work he does, what Public Administration is, the main reason he joined the project, what he likes to do in his spare time and his trip to China.
What kind of tasks do you have as the student-assistant of the DEEPEN-project?
As the student-assistant of the DEEPEN-project, it is my responsibility to help the team concerning communications. In my case, it’s mostly helping with the Twitter account and in the beginning of the job also helping with the website. It’s my job to come up with new content, writing pieces for the website and Twitter and to plan when the content should be online, which I then check with Natascha and Philipp. In the beginning it was hard, because I had no idea how a website should be designed. Eventually, after hours of Youtube tutorials, I like the result it. The people I am working with in the DEEPEN-project are very nice and open too, which makes work pleasant.
Does Public Administration has something to do with pensions?
Surprisingly, not that much. When you study Public Administration (and in my case the track Policy, Administration and Organization), you’ll learn how policy, organizations and management from the public sector works. We learn to come up with solutions to problems in the social field. We need to use insights from multiple academic disciplines, such as economics, statistics, sociology, philosophy and law to improve the public sector and the social problems. But so far pensions haven’t featured prominently as a topic despite their importance for the public.
In September I’ll start an internship at the NOS (the Dutch public broadcasting organization) where I’ll be a part of the political department. When I finish the internship, I want to do the master Health Care Management at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Here you’ll learn how to be a manager in the healthcare sector.
What was your main reason to join this project as a student-assistant?
In the first place because I like to gain some work experience next to my study. I wanted to improve my communications skills and wanted to do something with the experience that I already have, because I studied Communications before I started Public Administration. Also, the kind of work appealed to me.
What do you like to do when you are not working for the DEEPEN-project and not studying?
I like to do athletics! I am focused on the 60, 100- and 200-meters sprint. When I was younger, maybe 16 or 17 years old, I was even more fanatic than I am now and trained four times per week. Together with a group, we trained to participate in the Junior National Championship and it was a great time. Now, as I am older (and heavier…) I like to coach little children from the age of 10 or so.
And now the last question: I heard that you learned Chinese. Ni huì shuō Zhōngwén ma? (Do you speak Chinese?)
对 (Correct)! But, not very well and I forgot a lot, haha. I studied Chinese a few years ago for a couple of years. I even went to study it there, but it was for a short time unfortunately. I went with my best friend, another girl from our school and our teacher to Beijing. I really like to learn new languages and more about different cultures. When I went to China, I saw that a lot of people have a very different life than most people have here in The Netherlands. It was very interesting to see all those differences.