During my bachelor, biomedical sciences, I liked the topic ‘nutrition’, as it is one of the main factors contributing to the lifestyle of an individual. I enjoyed the fact that the master programme in Venlo teaches students more than one discipline. While most master programmes are focused on preparing students for an academic career, the program in Venlo tries to prepare students for a business career. As I did not know after my bachelor whether I wanted to dedicate my life to research, I wanted to keep my options open.

Another important reason was the obligatory half-year internship. As the program is quiet broad, you are not trained to be a ‘master’ in a specific field. However, due to the internship in the second year, you can still specify on an area of your interest. Furthermore, this internship is a great opportunity to create a good network for your future career.

My main interest was clinical nutrition, or food products to improve patient care. During my internship at Daily Fresh Food in collaboration with Maastricht University, I combined academic research with a business-related project. I had the opportunity to experience how it was to work in a company, but also experienced how it is like to set up your own research. During this internship, I pushed myself to the limit and learned that I enjoyed all the different aspects of research, from creating to practice to writing. Without this internship, I would never have guessed that research was so much fun!

At the end of my internship I got the opportunity to stay in academia and I will be focusing on improving food for patients in a clinical setting.

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