Jessica Haak is a University Innovation Fellows of the Cohort of 2019/2020 at the University of Twente. She is currently enrolled in the Bachelor's program Technology and Liberal Arts & Sciences and is currently focussing her study program on the field of marketing analytics and data science, with a background in Engineering and Social Sciences and course knowledge of innovation & entrepreneurship. Ever since high school, Jessica had always had the tendency to refuse the easiest way out. She wanted her choices and achievements to be driven by passion rather than convenience, even if it seemed impossible.

Being half-Dutch-Half-Indonesian, she strives to combine the Western values of ambition and individual development and Asian community values, where people value and support each other.

Jessica is mostly interested in the dynamic when different disciplines are combined to create valuable solutions to complex problems. Therefore, she highly values the power of collaboration and believes people can create unimaginable things when they work together.

UIF Twente Marketing Team

In her first year at UIF Twente, Jessica initiated the UIF Twente Marketing Team. Powered by her learnings in the field of digital marketing for networked businesses, Jessica believed more impact could be made with establishing a clear and engaging online presence. She is in charge of al the socials of UIF Twente and manages the accounts to monitor growth, spread the UIF message surrounding making an impact on campus, and showing other fellows and interested collaborators what UIF Twente is working on. Jessica plans to prepare a workshop for other UIFs around the world in the online marketing of their projects and cause in their region.

Bursting the Bubble Project

Picture of Jessica Haak (center), Tra My Nguyen (left) and Lisa Veldman (right) at the UIF Twente stakeholder meeting of cohort 6 (2019/2020)

Jessica is chair of a UIF initiative project called Bursting the Bubble, which aims at strengthening the ties between the University of Twente campus and the city centre and Culture of Enschede, the city where the university is based

Bursting the Bubble is a University Innovation Fellows project initiative by a team of students, driven by a strong belief and drive to improve education, at the University of Twente that strives to strengthen the ties between the UT campus and the city happenings and culture of Enschede.

The project was founded upon the desire to make a valuable impact on our campus to improve the UT student’s experience during their time in Enschede. We found that many students, especially students not originally from Enschede or Twente, share an uninformed perception of the happenings, culture, and opportunities in the city of Enschede and that the geographical position of the campus makes the area act as a bubble that separates the students on and nearby campus from the city center, creating a lack of integration by students.

Strengthening the ties between the campus and the city of Enschede gives the opportunity for students to enrich their experience in Enschede and provides the city with the opportunity to fuel the entrepreneurial and creative spirit and enrich Enschede’s culture people from around the world.