Elena studied Industrial Ecology at the TU Delft. Industrial Ecology is the first joint Sustainability master’s programme of TU Delft and Leiden University, including contract education from Erasmus University. Via Centre for Sustainability, Elena was able to find an internship at Cirkelstad. This enabled her to put her knowledge into practice. Elena was the first example of how CfS connects science and practice for innovation in circular economy. Read her story!
In July 2016 I finished all courses for my masters, and was only a thesis away from starting the working life. But I realised that I did not have a clear idea of what I would prefer that life to be like. Therefore, I decided to take a semester break from studying to gain experience in an internship. When I shared my search for an internship with the Centre for Sustainability (CfS), they connected me with Cirkelstad as its activities align very well with my background in the built environment and industrial ecology.
View this video to learn more about Cirkelstad!
The internship was great, and I am very grateful the CfS facilitated this opportunity. Cirkelstad is a platform for parties working on cities without waste of materials and involving dropped-out people. Members get together to cooperate in projects and learn from each other through facilitated activities and an online academy. I was the first intern at Cirkelstad, so together with my supervisor I outlined my activities for the semester. This was a bit of a search sometimes, but this search gave also room to experiencing different types of tasks and getting insight in many different aspects of the platform.
My main activity was making ‘Wegwijzers’ (or ‘signposts’ in English) for the Cirkelstad academy. A lot of knowledge is available, but sometimes it is difficult to find when you have a practical question such as ‘how can I build without toxic materials?’ or ‘how can I organise a living lab?’. I spoke with parties having questions or knowledge, to then write concise Wegwijzers answering the question by directing people to the information that helps getting into action. Additionally, I contributed to the organisation of several activities and thought about a structure for the knowledge management connected to the academy. During the internship, I learnt a variety of things thanks to the varied package of tasks and working environments. It was very interesting to meet many different professionals in the built environment such as contractors, architects, municipality employees and academics in the process of creating Wegwijzers or in Cirkelstad meetings and to learn about their expertise and views. I furthermore enjoyed seeing in ‘real life’ how bringing parties together can lead to cooperation and new ideas being brought into practice.
Finally it was useful for me personally to see many different work environments in order to feel which one would work best for me. I worked in a ‘classic office’ with other interns, saw what it is like to be an entrepreneur from my supervisor and visited various other offices visiting experts for Wegwijzers. Altogether it was a very interesting semester in which I learnt a lot about working on transitions, the communication and practical implementation of knowledge, and preferences for work after studying.
Below you can find the "Wegwijzer"!