The Pros and Cons of Taking a Gap Year and/or Going on Exchange
This panel feautures PPLE Alumni who decided not to continue in academia immediately following their graduation. Some have taken gap years, some have started working, and some pursued other interests. To find out more, read their bios below!
This is a moderated panel. so if you have questions, put them in this form!
Wiebke Brinner
“Hey! My name is Wiebke Brinner and I am a Psychology major who graduated in December 2020 since I did a semester abroad in Singapore in 2019. I currently live at home in Germany and work from home as a working student for an American company whilst taking extra courses with Coursera. From February onwards I will be a Marketing Management intern at Porsche until August. In my future studies, I want to focus on Behavioral Science, more specifically Behavioral Marketing.”
Benjamin Roesch
“My name is Ben, I'm 23 years old and currently living in Berlin. I'm originally from Frankfurt, Germany, where I went to high school before doing a gap-year in India and South America and starting PPLE in Amsterdam! During my degree at PPLE I majored in the politics track, being primarily interested in topics of International Relations as well as democratization. I was one of 2 PPLE students to be selected for an exchange at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and wrote my thesis on a discourse analysis of Donald Trump in relation to the Coronavirus. I then started a 4 month internship at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, worked closely on a project involving Policy Advice and Rule of Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I love music, cooking, and travelling and am currently looking to pursue a career in the field of gastronomy.”
Madeline Lawrence
“While Madeline studied in Law, she realized in her 3rd year that she did not want to be a lawyer. After graduating PPLE, she moved quickly into the world of finance and investment. She is currently an Analyst at leading venture capital fund Peak Capital. She does high-risk investment in early-stage startups.
You may be familiar with many of her company's portfolio, including: Catawiki, Onefit / UrbanSportsClub, United Wardrobe (Acquired by Vinted), StuDocu (StudeerSnel), and more.
Prior to Peak Capital, She was the director of student-run investment fund ASIF Ventures, which she build with fellow PPLE Alumni. During her studies, she also worked in Business Operations at startup-builder Rockstart. She is a firm believer that your studies - Bachelors or Masters - do not define your career path.”
Julie Mismahl
“Hi, my name is Julie. I graduated last year from PPLE as an Econ major. Before uni, I conducted a dual educational training in the field of Wholesale and Foreign Trade working for a large German trading company in South East Asia. During my studies, I tried to extend my experiences as much as possible working for different companies in sales and e-commerce . After graduating, I was looking for something hands-on, even though, the current corona pandemic made the job search much harder than expected. Now, I am excited I have started a managing position with Amazon in their logistics operations, which allows me to combine aspects from all four PPLE disciplines!”