Core Team 2015
Hanne D'hulster (°1989)
Hanne studied Dance Movement therapy (Art Therapy) at Hogeschool Zuyd Heerlen (The Netherlands). She worked with children and youngsters as a Dance Movement therapist, and gained experiences through different internships by working one year in a psychiatric institute for children and youth.
After this first working experience she enthusiastically engaged herself to support Connect and give young people the chance to meet each other, to learn from each other and to be inspired by different workshops and lectures at the conference.
Hanne gathered some experience in an international exchange by going to Thailand with AFS. After she came back, she became an AFS volunteer for a couple of years.
Hanne is enthusiastic, creative, passionate and attentive. She loves to create a space where people can develop themselves according to their own nature.
Jozefien Poppe (°1988)
Jozefien also attented Connect conference as a high school graduate in 2007.
Afterwards she went to the University of Ghent to study international politics, where she graduated with a master degree in 2012. During this studies, she focused mainly on sustainable development, in Flanders (Belgium) as well as in third world countries.
Apart from studying, she was busy with founding ‘Connect U’, a temporary free time university where young poeple could share knowledge and skills with each other.
After her studies at the university, Jozefien went to Sweden and studied at the International Youth Initiative Program (YIP), together with Shirin.
She worked at a biodynamic farm in Belgium for a while, organizing the farmer shop as well as organizing and hosting workshops for children around food and sustainability. For many years the idea to organize Connect Conference has been ripening within her, untill the moment was there to transmit inspiration into action.
Shirin Eimermacher (°1989)
Shirin attended Connect conference in 2007, at that time organized by the Youth Section in Dornach (Switzerland). After high school she studied educational sciences at the University of Ghent (Belgium) and the Humboldt University in Berlin (Germany). She graduated in 2012 with a master degree in Philosophy of Education and School Pedagogy.
After that she went to Sweden and studied at the International Youth Initiative Program (YIP), a program in social entrepreneur- and leadership. Afterwards, she was part of Classroom Alive: a six month self-directed walking study through Europe. Her study object at that time was focused on anthroposophy, higher education and the neoliberal educational paradigm.
Since she arrived back in Belgium in the end of 2013, she dedicated most of her time to bringing her learning out into the world. Her primary focus lies on young people and the path towards following their passions and dreams.
She also organizes all different kinds of workshops and events around ecological food, different ways to deal with money, community and education.
Flor Verschaeren (°1989)
Being a student at the Waldorfschool in Lier, Flor had his first taste of Connect Conference as a 12th grader.
As a graduation project, he organized a national student meeting in Belgium: the Waldorfschool in Lier welcomed 600 students from all over the country.
Later on the same year, he had the chance to participate in Connect Conference 2007. Two years later he joined the Connect Conference 2009 as a volunteer.
Studying and travelling for the last six years, he found that organizing and taking care of logistics suits him well, that is why he was pleased to put his shoulders under this new project.