Expedition: designing solutions for people in Kenya, Amboseli National Park

We presented the Expedition at the Hotel Management Research and Education Day. So far, the team have been collecting interesting data during their field research in Kenya. In two weeks, we met and engaged with many different people in the area and discovered what makes them happy or sad, we found out about their dreams and aspirations, and we heard what stands in the way of their hopes. On the basis of these findings, the teams have created Persona (see an example in the link below) . They will now create solutions that will hopefully work to improve the quality of life for people in this tourism area–so that tourism will benefit not just a few, but most people.

Maasai_Woman_Persona (1)Presentation HMR&D day 30-11-2017 (2) (2)

Yes you can…still join the Saxion Minor Expedition for september 2017

 

This exciting and adventurous Minor includes the following topics:

Global Citizenship–Hospitality–Service Design–Kenya life and culture

We will focus on Kenya. The heart of the Minor is to execute a service design project for a local client, Kenyan Wildlife Services.It means that we will prepare in weeks 1.1-1.7, then move to Kenya (yes!) and stay there for 3 weeks, to do field research. After the research period we move back to Deventer to develop a prototype service. If this sounds like your ideal minor, contact me: s.h.c.m.bernasco@saxion.nl

Check this presentation which tells you all: MINOR presentatie SAXION MARCH 2017 Presentati HBS INFOmarkt

Kenyan Wildlife Service

be quick–there are only a few places left–

 

Mirjam joins the Expedition

HI, my name is Mirjam Bouwman and I study Tourism management at Saxion, Deventer.

I’m very excited to participate in the expedition. It’s a great opportunity to work with a multi-cultural team and so to see different kind of perspectives . Because of the collaboration with Strathmore university of Kenya and the Danish UCN college, we will help each other to develop a new service.

I have been several times to South Africa, for volunteer work, internship and to travel. I fell in love with the country, people and the nature. I’m curious about the rest of the continent and I think Kenya is a good start to explore more of Africa. During the expedition I would love to work with the local community and get to know the country and its roots of culture.

The Expedition will be a great way to work with different cultures, different disciplines of work and create something that hopefully will make a difference for the local community.

 

 

Ester joins the Expedition

Hi! My name is Ester Koopman and I study Tourism Management at Saxion, Deventer.

I am currently studying in Dutch and I am very excited to do a minor in English and improve my English but especially to work together with different nationalities.

I lived in America for a year and I did my internship in London but this will be my first time in Africa and I cannot wait to meet the locals and help out! I love to meet new people and to start new adventures.

The Expedition is a great opportunity for me to develop myself and I am sure it is going to be such a great experience with our team, the students of Denmark, the students of Kenya and the locals. With all our different backgrounds we will come up with a perfect new service for the local community.

Manuel joins the Expedition

Hey!

I´m Manuel Campos and I study tourism at Oviedo University in Asturias. Saxion Expedition Service Design is my big opportunity, as I want to share my ideas and work with other people. I am looking for something different.

Africa is a place where I have always wanted to go and this expedition for me is like a dream that I can now touch.

I´m a really extrovert person and I love meeting new people and new cultures. I´m full of jokes and I like to share my happiness with a good team. This is a great challenge that motivates me. I can feel fulfilled when I can offer my help without expecting anything in return to…and now I have the opportunity to apply that within my studies.

Saxion Expedition Service Design is going to be one of my best experiences without a doubt. I´m young but I learn quickly and I´m sure that I will acquire very important knowledge. I´m so happy to have this choice and I want to start soon.

“All beings may be happy!”

Sam joins the Expedition

I am Sam Janssen, a global citizen and currently a hotel management student at the Saxion Hospitality Business School in Apeldoorn. You could describe me as an energetic, motivated, spontaneous and open person with great ambitions in the international hospitality world.

 

Beside sports, good food and wine I like traveling around the world especially on the African continent. Having enthusiastically travelled to multiple African countries in the past something happened: I simply fell in love with that continent. The wonderful people, the gorgeous culture, the huge diversity and the amazing nature of Africa have stolen my heart. The most memorable trip was in 2012 when I travelled by car from Nijmegen to Gambia for a charity project. During this project I experienced what the impact is for a single person and for the local community when their education system gets some support from the Netherlands.

With this in mind I start the expedition where I will be able to develop myself, working in an international and multidisciplinary team to add value to a local community in Kenya. Working together with professionals, students of UCN Denmark and students of Strathmore University in an African context will help to think differently and to develop a prototype of a new service. My goal is to present the solution that we will create during the Expedition at EuroCHRIE conference 2017 in Nairobi to assure that there is a true foundation for the established service. We will make a real difference!

Aitor joins the Expedition

Hi, I am Aitor and I study at Barcelona University.

I want to do the Expedition program because I think it’s very interesting. There are a lot of new things which I never did in Barcelona and it’s very motivating.

I love working with a team and this program could be a very good opportunity for me. Moreover I’ll be able to improve my English and meet new friends, not only Dutch friends.

I want to work to help others, and if I can do this while studying it could be very motivating.

On the other hand I want to do the trip to Kenia and study there, it’s a great opportunity that I want to take.

I think this program is a great opportunity for me to learn a lot of things.

I’m really prepared for this program. Professionally and personally, it is the right choice.

The satisfaction I feel when I do things right motivates me to give my best all the time. I enjoy positive feedback from a colleague for a job well done and I recognizes that people who respect me drive me to work harder.

I want a challenge and I think this program could be one of the best challenges of my life and I’m very motivated to start and I want to start as soon as possible!

Hauke joins the Expedition

Hey there!

I am Hauke Friedrich and I study social work at Saxion Enschede.

The best thing about the study is that you can improve the lives of the people who really need it. The expedition seems to me like a great chance to do so.

Working in a multiprofessional and international team and going to Kenya will be a great experience and makes the project even more interestig to me. I am looking forward to create an awesome project that can actually improve people’s lives. Achieving this will be a very good and valuable experience.

Also I have always liked to explore the world and get to know different societies. The whole project will definitely be challenging but I am sure that it will be worth it.

I am tired of sitting around complaining about the world. I want to get things done!

Minor Expedition Service Design 2017: Kenya here we come

Hi there!

Did you know?  The Expedition is moving to Kenya in 2016. In september 2017 the Expedition will prepare and run a project in Kenya, which will make local society more hospitable. If you join, the programme will look as follows:

week 1-10: preparations in Deventer and Enschede. Global Citizenship, Hospitality, Service Design and Creative Technology–and of course multidisciplinary team skills, the “scrum” way.

week 11-14: Field Research in Kenya. We will be in Nairobi and in one or more safari camps, to get to know the local context.

week 15-20: ideating and developing the prototype for a new service that will add value to the lives of the local community on Kenya.

You will be part of an international team, in which Danish, Kenyan and Dutch students participate. This in itself will be a huge experience.

Curious? send an email to the coordinator, Bastienne: s.h.c.m.bernasco@saxion.nl

See you!

 

After all the hospitality he had been offered

Anne Enright’s latest book, The Green Road, brings us the Irish Madigan family. The four grown-up children return home to spend Christmas with their aging mother. Emmet, an aid worker, has lived abroad for most of his life. He is living temporarily in Dublin in a house with a room-mate. Here’s a situation which anyone who has lived with international friends, may recognize. At Christmas, many families ” just can’t” be hospitable.

…Emmet climbed the stairs and tapped, as he passed it, on his housemate’s door. “All right?” Denholm came out and followed him to his own bedroom, as Emmet pulled a bag out and set it on top of the bed. “Shipshape” said Denholm. “Just checking you were still there.”…

Denholm was commuting to Kimmage Manor every day for a course in International Development. His mother had died a month after his arrival from Kenya and his sister, also in rural Kenya, was HIV positive, a fact she only discovered in the maternity unit of the local clinic that was run by the same nuns that got Denholm all the way to a housing estate off the N7 and to Emmet’s spare room.

“I am very well” said Denholm. “The Wi-Fi working?” said Emmett. “A little slow”, said Denholm. But yes”. He had been talking to his brother on Skype, he said, before his office shut down, It was a big holiday in Kenya. They were all heading out of Nairobi, the same way Emmet was heading out of Dublin. They would get back to the villages in time for Midnight Mass, then a big party–all night–more parties the next day, and then on St.Stephen’s Day, which they called Boxing Day, a soup made out of the blood of the Christmas goat. Good soup, Denholm told him. Hangover soup.

…”Sounds like the business,” Emmet said. He was slipping a hand under the mattress for his passport when he realised that he was just going down the road, in Ireland.

“Yes”, said Denholm, who could not keep the Christmas loneliness out of his voice. And “Wow”, Emmet said, trying to hide the sudden mortification at the fact that he was leaving Denholm alone. After all the hospitality he himself had been offered, in so many towns. Why did he not invite him home for his dinner? He just couldn’t.

It was not a question of colour (though it was also a question of colour), even Saar was out of the question–Saar with her Dutch domestic virtues, who would clear the dishes and wash the dishes, and sing as she swept the fallen tinsel off the floor. Christmas dinner, for Emmet’s family, was thicker than Kenyan blood soup, so none of the people that Emmet liked best could be there, nor even the people he might enjoy. The only route to the Madigan’s Christmas table was through some previously accredited womb. Married. Blessed.

from Anne Enright, The Green Road. London, 2015