ECHO Award: practical and idealistic
Two of the nine candidates for the ECHO Award 2011 study in Leiden. The University is proud of Arda Goceroglu and Abassin Nessar. Both candidates talk about their motivation and expectations.
Arda Goceroglu: ‘A good example’
Arda Goceroglu
Born in Germany, of Turkish origin, Goceroglu studies medicine at the LUMC. According to his lecturers and fellow students, he is ‘driven and excellent’. In parallel with his studies, he is carrying out PhD research at the Pathology Department and he is chairman of the Standing Committee on Human Rights and Peace (SCORP). Together with SCORP, he organises projects in the context of the multicultural society, focusing in particular on human rights, refugees and peace. Goceroglu emphasizes the inspiring influence of ECHO: ‘It is really important that students from ethnic backgrounds are given a good example, and that Dutch people can see that these young students have both the ability and the motivation to make a contribution to society.’ In Goceroglu’s experience, migrant students feel restrained by Dutch society. Which is precisely why he thinks that ECHO is such a good example of how that same society offers these students the opportunity to develop their full potential. ‘They have to show their passion,’ is his advice.
Abassin Nessar: ‘ECHO spurs students on’
Abassin Nessar
Abassin Nessar, Dutch student and political refugee from Afghanistan, studies Political Science, Persian Language and Culture, and he is following a minor in International Management. His social involvement is evident from his work with Afghan refugees and his initiative in starting the society of the List of Advanced Students, whose aim as a student party is to bridge the gap between Dutch and non-Dutch students in Leiden. In addition, in 2009 and 2010, he worked for a year as Project Manager in Afghanistan with the cultural aid organisation Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). Nessar: ‘The purpose of ECHO is to spur students on, and this is exactly what is needed. Both from a social and from an idealistic point of view, it is a way to stimulate students from migrant backgrounds to work well, hard and pragmatically both on their studies and their future.’
And if you win?
When asked what it would mean to them to win, both candidates spoke about a broader context than their own career. For Nessar, the ECHO Award is a way to convince people of the importance of multiculturalism: ‘Many young people I know have become somewhat disillusioned with the current situation regarding multiculturalism. They think that they are required to adapt to fit in under the umbrella term of ‘migrant, but multiculturalism also implies adjustment on the part of Dutch society.’
Goceroglu: ‘I would regard it as recognition for my hard work, but even more as a way to let young students see how much they can achieve if they are prepared to work for it.’ Nessar would like in future to expand the scope of the ECHO Award, and he is a proponent of a more generic construction, which would also allow for ‘underprivileged’ Dutch students to be involved: ‘Such an award as the ECHO motivates not only Afghan, but also other students to really go for it; once they see the results it stimulates them to work hard and take a practical approach.’
The ECHO Award
The ECHO Award is a national incentive award for allochthonous top talent in the Netherlands. On 6 April, it will be awarded for the 11th consecutive year to two excellent, non-Western migrant students in higher education (one university student and one university of professional education (HBO) student). The winners can follow a summer course at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).