ADVISING AND MENTORING MASTER STUDENTS ON THEIR THESES 

 
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In summer 2023, Tikvah Breimer (MSc MEd MSc) was pre-selected by the European Institute of Technology and Innovation (EIT) Community, Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) as inclusive design mentor for the Booster 2.0 for start-ups and scale-ups under the New European Bauhaus (NEB).

Launched by the European Commission, the New European Bauhaus translates the European Green Deal into a tangible, positive experience in which all Europeans can participate and progress together.

Follow NEB on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Did you know our Studio also advises and mentors European masters students with their thesis / exit goal? This rewarding part of our work enables us to translate these first hand experiences back into our advice to coordinators of courses and degrees at university. There is a fluid cross-over to PhD candidates as well, as they embark not only on their research, but also their teaching career.

It is important to us as a Studio who advises and trains course/training coordinators, to work with those who receive this training, the learners themselves.

We supervise masters students with their theses, so that we stay in tune with the existing exit goals of academic degrees. Moreover, working with students directly is a rich source of inspiration when it comes to meaningfully addressing issues students struggle with that are not primarily academic. These include fear of failure, insecurities, high sensitivity or neurodiversity, chaotic workstyles, lack of certain skills or capabilities, and perfectionism. The challenge may simply be an absent supervisor or personal circumstances, such as working and studying part-time, or moving back to their country of origin and being far from their physical university.

Each new generation of students brings richness to our advisory work through our dialogues and interactions about their research findings and written output, and their feedback on our approaches.

We appreciate the opportunity to impact a new generation of future leaders in this intensive and personal period of their studies.

A thesis trajectory can change young people’s lives, and give them clarity of purpose about who they are and what they love to do.

We not only come alongside the content, we also mentor the students on their journey to completing their thesis.

Supervising a student allows us to actively design, develop, test, implement and evaluate the educational methods our Studio works with.

An example is our strong focus on evidence-based approaches to learning, drawn from neuroscience.

What we learn from supervising a spectrum of masters students with their thesis, ranging from those struggling to pass to those struggling with excellence, forms an organic loop back into our advice work, clear in the (re)design studio. This work also informs our Audio Podcast ‘How to design a resilient curriculum’, which is listened to by both course coordinators and our students and PhD candidates.

Key projects

^{“You [Tikvah] are able to learn/absorb the subject that I’m trying to produce, and you transform it to a methodological angle, and organise it is such a way that it directs me, and I can do things [in my course] in a more effective and efficient way”.}

Tannya Pico, PhD candidate who participated in StudioBlended’s resilience course where she received advice on her course design. Her research is on Nature Based Solutions (NBS) and transdisciplinarity, Quito, Ecuador  Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University, Rotterdam

^{“Tikvah first of all helped me to align and synthesize the content of the course with my PhD, so that I would work efficiently and feel energized again well into the coming years. [read on here under (re)design studio]”}

Charmae Pyl Wissink-Nercua (she/her)
Specialist in Urban Land, Housing Development and Capacity Building
Course Manager, Sustainable Urban Development (SUDInstitute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University, Rotterdam

We currently work with the following bureaus:
1. Bijleshuis.Be (Gent, Belgium)
2. Bureau scriptiehulp (Hilversum, The Netherlands)

^{“Thank you - truly! I don’t regret a single minute of your supervision! I would have never made it for my master degree otherwise!”}
Master student European and International Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium).

^{“I have come to trust you completely, and the approach you take really resonates with me. I was so relieved to visualise all the knowledge in my head in miro, it really calmed me. I am learning so many new skills in writing and communicating for the reader, to stop being so overly academic. I truly enjoyed listening to the additional podcasts you sent. One, on the experience of a PhD candidate in procrastrination and writing - I could really identify with that. And the other, on slow productivity. I also really like the image of the garden - I love going into the garden, and now I am learning how to likewise do a little bit, every day, consistently.”}
Master thesis student, Leiden University, The Netherlands

^{“Initially I was really suffering from procrastination. Tikvah therefore gave me weekly deadlines, with smaller assignments, so that I could work faster and on a qualitative result. Apart from that, she really brought me to a next level when it comes to content, by offering the right structure where necessary, and giving very specific feedback on my work. All in all a very good experience!”}

Master student Communication. UGent University (Belgium)
Topic: Representation of elderly people in commercials.
Trajectory: Oct 2023 - Jan 2024

^{“Collaborating with Tikvah as my thesis advisor and coach, was an exceptional experience. Her guidance and support were essential for shaping my entire thesis. She demonstrated a remarkable ability to be alert to my needs and feedback, which made the collaboration not only productive but also a true pleasure. Tikvah truly is an exceptional mentor and guide.”}

Master student European and International Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium).
Topic: To which extent is the Brussels Deliberative Commission [to the Brussels Parliament] internally legitimate? An assessment of the 5G and Homelessness deliberations.
Trajectory: July - August 2023

More advice we do

In 2023 we are part of the mentor pool of the New European Bauhaus (NEB).
Image: NEB 2024

Have a look too at our advisory work for coordinators of academic courses.



Curios? Feel free to contact our senior advisor and teacher trainer directly:
tikvah@studioblended.com

We are here especially for you as unique course/training coordinator, to come alongside you and partner with you, as you work on a (architecture / urban / development / policy / land/ water / climate) curriculum, so that you can offer effective and resilient education in its simplest form.