Core Team 2017
Jozefien, Hanne, Ilias, Clara, Camille, Csengele, Arvid, Franzi, Jappe
Everything started with different experiences: The initiative forum in Sweden, Classroom alive and previous Connect Conferences. We all took part in our own way (participants, volunteers or organizers) at one of those initiatives and we all wanted to give the chance to other people to feel the same way we did, to learn the things we had and to share and discover as much as we did. We all came together to accomplish this wish by organizing Connect Conference 2017. We are an international team of 10 young organizers.
Diversity is what makes our team stronger and our ideas richer and more widespread. Our creative minds have the chance to meet people weekly at the anthroposophical library in Ghent and at the Waldorf house in Brussels. There we can share our common vision about the world and the change we can bring to it.
Csengele Horn-Barta (°1996)
The real world is best understood through shared experiences and connecting with others.
Traveling is my passion. I enjoy staying with local people and learning about new cultures.
I’m motivated to make something to inspire others and to cause a ripple effect of creativity and empowerment for future generations.
Participating in Connect Conference 2015 changed my perspective on life and inspired me to take a leadership role this year.
Working with more like-minded, open individuals in this environment, is my reason for relocating from Hungary to Belgium!
I’m excited to have gotten the opportunity to witness and take part in the evolution of this project from the beginning to the end.
Hanne D'hulster (°1989)
I was part of the organizing team of the last Connect Conference. Mainly being responsible
for inviting participants and creating the program.
Saying yes to Connect for a second time shows how much I love this colorful bunch of young people who took the initiative to make Connect happen again.
I’m inspired by their diversity, enthusiasm and readiness. I’m happy to take up a more supportive role, pass on experience and encourage new impulses and ideas.
Besides Connect, I’m passionate about delicious and local food, exploring my inner and outer world through movement or dance and creating spaces where people can connect with each other.
Camille Col (°1998)
I’m 18 years old and have studied to be a primary school teacher for two years. I love being in contact with people and I’m also that kind of person who never stands still. I’m always in need to do something and to put my energy in projects that make sense for me.
I see education as a challenge, something that can still be improved. I want to offer my resolution, my energy, my optimism and my vision to it.
This vision was opened by participating at Connect Belgium 2015 as a 12th grader.
Growing up at my parent’s farm taught me to be conscious of reality and the world we live in. It created a strength within me to change it, to make it better.
This starts with organizing Connect 2017.
Clara van Camp (°1997)
I’m studying to become a primary school teacher. Not only with children of my class, but also in my scouts. I love to teach kids how to have fun with little things and work together to achieve a common goal.
In the last year of high school, I got the chance to be a participant at Connect Conference 2015. Not only did I get to know my friends from school in a completely different way, I also had the chance to connect with people from all over the world and learn about their stories, cultures and the world we live in.
Going to the Initiative Forum in Sweden 2016 made me realized that I also want to share the opportunity I received with others, so they can all experience this life changing Conference, Together.
Arvid Jansen (°1996)
I am a 20 years old creative, optimistic and initiative taking young man with courage. Arvid, an old Scandinavian name that means the eagle of the forest, represents me like I am.
My whole life I’ve been into arts and crafts. Creating something with my own hands has always been something powerful to me.
Last year I studied in Sweden, at the Youth Initiative Program (YIP), a study in social entrepreneurship. The essence of this study is to get to know yourself more deeply, with the vision that you can become a social entrepreneur from this point forward. In YIP, I met a deeper truth in myself and the world. This was because we created a space together where everybody could share their own story.
I realized that the power of truthful stories is what I miss nowadays in this world.
From here, I started to combine it with my art work and a new project was born named ArvidsFireplace. With the vision to create spaces where people can share their story and can speak the truth.
After YIP, I went traveling and realized that I want to give something back to the world and this meant organizing the Connect Conference 2017.
Ilias de Quidt (°1996)
I am 20 years old and I live in Antwerp, Belgium. I’m studying to become a filmmaker at a film academy in Brussels.
Drawing and writing texts about myself are not my best skills. I love making music and movies, eating food, riding my bike and sailing my boat.
Since I went to the Connect Conference and Initiative Forum, I try to make the world a better place by making movies and mainly by talking to people about society, ecology or other importing issues our society needs to face.
Jappe Delva (°1996)
I’m a former Waldofstudent and specialized in Ecological Building and Sustainable Living.
Because of this course, I’m aware of our current global climate changes. This makes me passionate about bringing a positive impact into our world.
The best way to do this is to be the change you want to see.
I’m pure, basic and sometimes even raw. But most of all honest. Looking for the beauty in everything. Hands on work lifts me up, computer work pulls me down.
I love to inspire people.
Jozefien Poppe (°1988)
Franzi Müller