Alumnus testimonial
Laura - Junior project engineer soil remediation at Witteveen+Bos
Laura’s adventure in Wageningen started in 2013 when she enrolled in the BSc programme ‘Soil, Water, Atmosphere’. The choice to study at Wageningen University was easily made and in good spirits she started her first year. After a little more than 5 years she received her bachelor's degree and continued to the master Earth and Environment.
There is a lot of variety in my working days as I mostly work on 5 to 6 projects at the same time and every project is different.
Which specialization did you choose in your masters?
I choose the specialization water quality as I was really interested in water chemistry.In my second year something happened that turned my whole world upside down, the COVID-19 epidemic broke out. At the time I was working on my thesis, in which I investigated the sorption of PCB congeners on weathered microplastic and had just finished the first half of my lab research. The day before the university closed its doors, I was able to put the last samples in the gas chromatograph so that I had data to work with. I finished the remaining part of my thesis at my parents' kitchen table.
Can you tell us something about the internship you did?
I did an internship at the 'Urban Water and Geotechnics' department of the engineering office of the municipality of Rotterdam. I have investigated whether the presence of a water-passing pavement leads to a change in the quality of the local groundwater and surface water. Water samples were collected at three different times, and I compared their composition with various environmental quality requirements in order to be able to say something about the expected change in the quality of the water in the city.In December 2020 I completed my internship and obtained my MSc diploma.Four months laterI signed my contractatWitteveen+Bosand in May 2021 I started as a junior project engineer at the Soil Remediation group.
What do you do as a junior project engineer?
There is a lot of variety inmyworking days as I mostly work on 5 to 6 projects at the same time and every project is different. One moment I'm preparing a quote for a potential new customer and calculating how many drillings, monitoring wells and analyzes are needed and what that project will cost. The other moment I prepare fieldwork so that it can be carried out by a subcontractor a few dayslater.Furthermore,I commission the lab to analyze samples fromprojectsandIwritereportsso that it can be sent to the customer for comments.
What would you want to say to prospective students?
I am very happy with where I ended up after graduating. However, a year ago I would have thought you were completely crazy if you had said that I would be involved in soil research and soil qualityon a daily basis as during my studies I had focused so much on water quality. This shows that you don't necessarily have to stick to the specific topic you specialized in during your studies. You are prepared as a versatile scientist with a broad set of knowledge and skills. And if I may give you one piece ofadvice,make up your mind which direction you want to specialize in , but stay open-minded at the same time. There is more possible than you think!