During the course of a pleasant meeting in Arubahuis, he thanked and dismissed three students who had stopped their work. These are the student Swinda Venhorst-Thijsen, Lourdes Bramble-Tromp and Omar besaril. Both Swinda Venhorst-Thijsen and Lourdes Bramble-Tromp quit, because they retire, while Omar does it, because he finds a promotion in his job that demands much more and therefore the ELO cannot satisfactorily perform the student job.
Swinda Venhorst-Thijsen was a scholar for the Brabant and Limburg region with study cities such as Tilburg, Breda, Den Bosch in Brabant and Maastricht, Heerlen, Sittard and Venlo in Limburg. Lourdes Bramble-Tromp has the cities of Alkmaar, Haarlem and Amsterdam and alabes also leads students in the regions of Enschede, Deventer and Zwolle. Omar Besaril was in charge of the Utrecht region. The Minister Plenipotentiary Mr. Ady Thijsen in his speech kept silent about the importance of the work of a student body in the guidance of our students. According to the president, this guide is important because the country Aruba invests a lot in our young people to pursue an advanced study to become a professional and go back and contribute to the well-being of Aruba.
The student body plays a very important role in this process, as does the Arubahuis teaching department. With their expertise the student body gives guidance, notice and support to our students once they set foot in the Netherlands. A job that comes with many challenges. You confront common situations under students and other times singular situations. Another aspect of working as a student is that all students for the first time are far from their homes, on their own without their parents where they can fall back for advice or comfort. As a scholar you are neither a mother nor a father of children, but toch you feel with this feeling tey, however erroneous it may sound,’ so said Minister Thijsen.
Alabes continued to probe a way to intensify the guidelines of our students, so that Aruba will have more eyes on them, the moment they finish their studies and see to get them to return to Aruba. Minister Thijsen: ‘It is important that our young people return to Aruba, because through “vergrijzing” Aruba needs many workers/professionals in the future. Seeing that the public sector is limited, more private sector initiatives will have to appear, for example on wages and secondary working conditions that are attractive and competitive with the Dutch labor market. I am convinced that this way we will be able to get our professionals back to Aruba.’
Minister Thijsen in his speech addressed the three students where he vociferated his great appreciation for the three, for their passion, love and dedication to our students; each in his own way. ‘Sometimes unexpected circumstances arise, such as the case of the late student Jeannette Wesseling and Arubahuis appealed to Swinda to temporarily take over the regions of Arnhem, Nijmegen and Wageningen. Despite everything, on no day did we hear a scream from Swinda. Along with this Swinda Venhorst was almost a mother to the students. This dedication could always count on many appreciations from his students, also knowing that they could always count on Swinda, ‘so Mr. Thijsen said.
As for Lourdes Bramble, Minister Thijsen said that the students have an enormous affection for Lourdes. Thijsen: ‘This was also seen in the endorsement this year when Lourdes received a royal decoration for everything she did in social and cultural terms. Finally Lourdes always tey for her students, but if an Arubian student, who does not have Arubalening; is a freemover approaches Lourdes for help, she can always count on Lourdes’ attention and her availability to help.’
Minister Thijsen said that although Omar besaril did not work as long as Swinda and Lourdes as a student, one could see someone very dedicated to his students in the Utrecht region with many challenges, especially in the field of rooms and housing.
Finally, Minister Thijsen thanked Swinda, Lourdes and Omar on behalf of the Government of Aruba, Minister of Education of Aruba and Insurance of Arubahuis immensely for all the years they dedicated – along with their work, in their free time – to our students. As an appreciation for his work, Minister Thijsen presented a plaque to the students.
