SDG Student Ambassadors 2022-2023

Where to begin? 

“I have never lived in a world without poverty, yet eradicating poverty is a vision that I have. As SDG1 Ambassador, my goals include setting up a take-one-leave-one library for textbooks on Woudestein campus and creating an online volunteering platform that connects Erasmus students, willing to lend an extra hand, with Rotterdam-based NGOs, needing an extra hand. For as long as we keep taking steps in the right direction, we will get closer to putting an end to poverty. Doing the right thing is the right thing to do, no matter how small the positive change may seem to be.”

Emma Westenberg
SDG 1: No poverty

Increase awareness about communities who do not have regular access to food

“Many people around the world suffer from little to no access to food, and this has unfortunately increased due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. My goal for the year for UNSDG 2: Zero Hunger, is to raise awareness about these communities amongst people at the EUR campus. I am planning to organise a collection moment on campus to gather food from students/school restaurants and donate to foodbanks and communities in need.

The expected result will be increased awareness and regular donations to communities in need of food.”

Clara Verbeke
SDG 2: Zero Hunger

 A positive impact on student well-being

“As students, we face many challenges to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle. As an ambassador for Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being, it is very important to me to focus on encouraging students to strive for a healthier way of life, and to raise awareness about the well-being of their bodies. Through installations on campus, informative posters and partnerships with other ambassadors to jointly organize activities, I will strive to make students aims for a healthier and more conscious diet, less smoking and more safe sex practices."

Prudence Lanel
SDG 3: Good health and well-being

Helping more people to access learning

“Growing up in Lebanon one faces daily challenges, one such challenge is having access to quality education. Therefore, I am the SDG 4 ambassador: quality education. I aspire to have a positive impact on the world’s level of education, especially in developing country. My goal is to promote an inclusive education that is accessible everywhere for everyone because every human being should be able to reach his full educational abilities.  As a motivated ambassador, I plan to organize fundraisings, meetings with Non-Governmental Organizations and book fairs to reach my goal.”

Noor Kanaan
SDG 4: Quality education

Menstrual precarity among homeless women

"As a Gender Equality Ambassador, I will mainly focus my actions on menstrual precarity. Menstruating can put women at a disadvantage compared to men because, whatever men do, women have to do with the discomfort and pain of periods. Therefore, it is crucial to accommodate women during their periods to truly give them the same opportunities as men. 

To do so, I will organize a fundraising campaign and the collected funds will go to an NGO in charge of distributing menstrual hygiene products to homeless women in the Netherlands where menstrual precarity is still an important issue."

Emma Georges
SDG 5: Gender equality

Explore how business contribute to clean water and sanitation

As a business student, how can we use the business power to influence the sustainability is a critical capacity. Therefore, I want to show students how a business can successfully apply their knowledge and resources to deal with SD6: clean water and sanitation. I plan to organize events which invite different business leaders who have the experiences with applying practices in the contribution of SDG 6 to give students speeches, raising students awareness not only about this topic, but also regarding the sustainability in business in general.

An-Ching Cheng
SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation

Access to clean and affordable electricity

"Energy comes in various forms. The ability to make use of the different forms of energy varies heavily between different regions on this planet.

To improve the availability of clean and affordable energy in those parts of the world that currently have a lower standard of living, I am planning to organize a workshop program in which participants will develop concepts that aim at improving the availability of clean and affordable energy.

Optimally, this will lead to the development and testing of several creative approaches to making clean and affordable energy more accessible."

Luis Eggert
SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy

Contribution towards safe working environments

“According to RIVM’s report, +230.000 work-related accidents occur every year in the Netherlands. My goal is to organize a training program for managers on how to boost employee safety in the workplace.

In order to create a true impact, I plan to:

• Collaborate with RSM professors to create an educational program
• Foster collaboration between managers of SMEs and start-ups which offer safety solution

With this initiative, I aim to make a meaningful contribution toward creating and maintaining a safe work environment for everyone.”

Baris Eren Sezer
SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth

Increasing responsible consumption

“Most companies deliver products and services to consumers to satisfy their needs. If consumers demand sustainably produced goods and services, this will create a new need that organisations have to meet. Subsequently leading to sustainable industrialization, one of the goals of SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure). 

I aim to inform students about sustainable product labeling and greenwashing strategies of companies through several methods (workshops and fliers to name a few).  Having this information, students will be able to participate in sustainable industrialization by making responsible consumption choices and changing the current market needs.”

Larisa Fedeles
SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Girls in Tech

“Since 1995 the percentage of women in computer science has decreased from 37% to 22% (Girls Who Code, 2022). And according to Forbes (Moise, 2017), the amount of tech jobs will double in the next ten years. As the number of women in tech is decreasing while the number of tech jobs is rapidly increasing, this will create a huge unemployment gap between different genders in the future.”

I would like to spark an interest for young girls to join tech. It is needed in every industry, from the fashion to film industry, there are a lot of cool projects to work on!

I believe we can make tech more fashionable and thus more appealing to young girls to choose it as a career by actively promoting the divers tech jobs in various industries. I will achieve this by creating a strong social media community for girls in tech where we talk about tech and fashion. Also, by periodically giving guest lectures at middle schools to talk about cool tech projects that relate to a cool industry that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with tech at first.

Simra Eqamuddin
SDG 10: Reduced inequalities

Sustainable network based on a sharing economy logic

"Sustainable development is a type of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising future generations' needs. My goal, SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities, is to create an app enabling students to share between each other their knowledge, skills and belongings, creating a sustainable network based on a sharing economy logic. The university is a community that could become more inclusive and sustainable thanks to the connections created by the app. It could also serve the needs of students while making people engage themselves in a simple but significant way."

Mia Sfez
SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Raise awareness about consumption behaviours 

“Second-hand clothing is a great alternative to linear consumption of clothes and increasingly more people are concerning themselves with it. So many of my fellow students at university have clothes they don’t wear anymore and at the same time feel the need to shop for new clothes. Therefore, I will organize a flea market for second hand clothing at university, for which students can sign up. 

As SDG 12 furthermore targets waste generation, I will cooperate with other SDG Ambassadors to develop a project to tackle plastic waste at university. 

The planned projects will raise awareness amongst students about their consumption behaviours and waste generation.”

Dorina Marleen
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production

Help lowering the individual global footprint

“Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and it's therefore so important to work for greater awareness of the consequences. We have reached a point where climate change can't be ignored anymore. Therefore, it is important to act in a way that could help lower the individual global footprint. Consequently, I want to find ways to educate students on how to contribute to positive change.

Engaging in sustainability is often perceived as being relatively challenging. Individuals often assume that the only way to act sustainably is to make drastic lifestyle changes. My initiative of SDG 13 will hopefully enable a greater awareness of how to apply sustainable choices in an easy and manageable way in their day-to-day life.”

Lisa Svensson
SDG 13: Climate action

Raise awareness to preserve marine ecosystems

"My goal for this year is to create awareness around the targets to preserve marine ecosystems. The most impactful solutions are not always obvious, so my main goal is to educate others and myself. I believe the best way to achieve this is to join forces with other stakeholders and students. Relevant stakeholders in the nearby area include the Port of Rotterdam, and I want to set up a workshop to discuss feasible solutions for the Port to implement. Small steps for the largest port in Europe can make a huge impact."

Andreas OIsen
SDG 14: Life below water

Greener campus 

“This year I will be the SDG ambassador for SDG 15 Life on Land, a very relevant topic for everyday life as life on land surrounds us everywhere. For this year I want to focus on making the Erasmus campus a more habitable place for all forms of life. By making the campus cleaner and greener it becomes a more enjoyable place for everyone. Not only for the birds and the bees but also for us students!  I think I speak for everyone that strolling through a greener and more colorful campus is more enjoyable for everyone than wandering through a grey concrete jungle. 

While this may seem like just a small step in promoting and supporting life on land, I believe that with these small steps a real difference can be made eventually. Every small step helps us get closer to our eventual goals!”

Aiden Bijloo
SDG 15: Life on land

Your voice matters

“Growing up in the country where the law doesn’t mean anything and where people live in constant fear, this year I will represent SDG 16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions. My goal is to show people that their voice matters, and by raising awareness we can bring the community full of support and understanding together. My focus will be placed on current and past world conflicts and, most importantly, people who were forced to leave their homes behind in order to find a safe place in foreign countries.”

Liza Rakutskaya
SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Erasmus Impact Alliance

“Erasmus University Rotterdam is a hotspot for sustainability and innovation, home to a number of impact-driven organizations, led by both students and faculty. They create positive societal and environmental impact through a rich variety of educational, charitable, and entrepreneurial initiatives.

As SDG Ambassador for Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals, I will create the Erasmus Impact Alliance and unite all our impact initiatives as equal members, aiming to maximize our collective positive societal impact.

The Erasmus Impact Alliance will achieve its mission by fostering a continuous dialogue among its members in monthly council meetings, synergizing cross-organizational collaboration.”

Lukas Posegga  
SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals