Many new friends and an inspirational supervisor

Cynthia Veenstra, Master’s programme in Medical Biosciences, from Groningen, The Netherlands (some will be upset if you write Holland, not me though). When Cynthia Veenstra was nearing the end of her bachelor’s degree in Holland she started looking outside of her country for the practical placement that normally fills the entire final year. “I definitely wanted to go abroad and I had been to Sweden before and thought it was a beautiful country”, says Cynthia.

That it became Linköping was a complete coincidence. Cynthia’s granddad transports horses to Sweden and one customer had a relative at LiU who spoke very highly of the university. So Linköping it was. The practical year was combined with a theoretical course at LiU and from there the transition to master’s studies was easy. “The master’s programme was good. It was an excellent opportunity to work with different nationalities. That also made it more interesting”, continues Cynthia.

The laboratory work, however, was different to what she was used to in Holland. “In Holland it is more hands on, you observe more in Sweden. But to counter this the project work is more hands on in Sweden”.

New friends

The whole LiU experience has clearly made an impact on Cynthia. The sociable atmosphere quickly led to many new friends and a busy life. “I didn’t use to go out much before I came to Sweden. Here I was dragged out lots. I met my best friend at LiU and she taught me Swedish. I think it helped that I lived in a student corridor. It was really good”, says Cynthia.

Cynthia left her expectations at home and arrived with an open mind. There were some confusion at first over her practical year and she ended up taking some courses too. One of these courses was Tumour biology, a course she is now a supervisor on! “I enjoy teaching more than I thought. I think that is partly to do with the problem based learning (PBL) approach. The cool thing about PBL is that as a student you get to find out facts for yourself rather than being lectured at”.

Linköping has also become a home to Cynthia. A city she says reminds her of Groningen in Holland. They are both full of cycles! “But Linköping should have more concerts – then it would be perfect!” says Cynthia with a laugh.

The path to research

Cynthia is now in the middle of her PhD in the same lab as where she started out when she arrived at LiU. “I only came here for a year and now I am a PhD student with at least another four years left before I gain my doctorate”.

When it comes to her biggest source of inspiration Cynthia immediately mentions Olle Stål, professor in experimental oncology. “He had a huge part in my staying here, from being my undergraduate project supervisor to now guiding me trough my PhD studies. He is an inspirational person who believes in you”.

She has fond memories of her master’s studies at LiU. Not only did the skills set her up for her current PhD studies but she also made friends for life. “I loved the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) road trips. Especially cycling around the island of Visingsö in Sweden’s second largest lake Vättern.” says Cynthia with a smile before heading back into the lab.