Wrapping up my role as chair of the Circle for Sustainability within Nyenrode Alumni VCV is a great moment to reflect. To capture why I enjoyed serving in this volunteer role for nearly 12 years. This goes way beyond the idea of “Giving back” to the alumni community that continues to enrich my life. Here’s my list of things to be grateful for as I step down from this role – with a touch of hope to inspire others to take up a volunteer role.
- Raising the bar with a shared mission: It was great fun to flash forward to a vision of a world where Nyenrode alumni use their talent, network, and privileges to create a better world. Business can be a key accelerator for positive change. And define our mission to help alumni take their first or next step on their own professional sustainability journey. Many people contributed to this shared mission, with special thanks to Tim Mazajchik, who persistently integrated networking into all our events and kept things as simple as possible.
- Grasping opportunities to try new things: A volunteer role like this is the perfect playground for trying out new things. Staging the usual formats like debates, company visits, brainstorm sessions around real-world cases, and some online events during COVID-19. And less likely formats like comedy shows, a VR experience, and reflective classical music performances. Most remarkable collaboration for me is the partnership with fellow alum Saskia Maas. Staging four sustainable comedy nights at Boom Chicago.
- Collaborating for scale: With many other topical or regional circles within the alumni association, there were plenty of opportunities to collaborate for cross-over events. Not just leading to a larger audience, but also to better insights and discussions. The ones that drew the largest audiences were the collaborations with the accountancy alumni, faculty, and students, focused on sustainability reporting and the CSRD. Fun to do this with Chérie Offenberg, Richard Uiterwijk Winkel, Leen Paape, and others.
- Working with committed and diverse board members: Recruiting new people into volunteer boards isn’t always easy. But for this board, we always had the luxury of a steady stream of amazing people ready to step in, sometimes even more than we could accommodate in the team! I much appreciated working with people from different backgrounds, generations, nationalities, and Nyenrode programs. Sometimes somewhat bending the rules of who can claim to be a Nyenrode alum, like Andrea van de Graaf.
- Connecting with faculty and research: The circle events provided a great platform to engage with Nyenrode faculty. Inviting them to provide an introduction to a topic or a reflection at an event. Inspiring me to deep-dive into some of their research topics or materials currently being used in Nyenrode’s programs. Biggest thank you goes to Andre Nijhof for joining our mission very early on and connecting me to many others in the Nyenrode faculty.
- Having the perfect excuse to reach out to interesting people: Inviting people to be part of our events was an easy way to connect with inspiring people within and beyond the alumni community and my network. Most people responded positively, marking the start of new connections beyond the events. People like Tanja Dik, Josephine de Zwaan, and Petri Hofste.
- Seeing alumni actually take steps on their sustainability journey: It is great to see how some members of this alumni circle have really transformed their careers, with nudges and perhaps a bit of support from our events. People like Björn Aarts, Gaby Rosier, Ilan de Vré, and many others who showed up regularly!
- Fueling my own sense of purpose in challenging times: I try to limit my footprint as much as possible, but serving in this role has also allowed me to expand my handprint in a time when we need people to step up and drive change for a better future. Teaching at UPEACE in Costa Rica and speaking at my other alma mater, Kellogg.
A big thank you to the many people I worked with throughout these years. I am confident that the current board members Tamara Veldboer, Eva van Bergen Henegouw, Herman Lai, and Geke Dijkstra will continue to evolve this alumni circle for positive change. And hoping that this post will spark some others to consider joining this board – or volunteer in another meaningful role.
And last, but not least, I am very happy that my Nyenrode connection and handprint don’t stop here. Another lasting benefit of this board role: I now teach sustainability classes in several executive programs at Nyenrode!
Marjolein Baghuis wrote this post for the Change in Context blog. It was also posted on LinkedIn. To read interviews with interesting people, book reviews, and other posts about change, leadership, and sustainability, please subscribe.