Wetskills-USA 2023, by Steven Ree (Wageningen University & Research, Rijkswaterstaat)
Today we continued working on our cases at the South African Consulate. So far, we spent a lot of time to familiarize ourselves with the topic. Even though the subject is very technical it was introduced very well, and I am of course very happy to have case owner Lester from the Wavemakers United UNGCC joining us here in New York. He is doing a great job in explaining everything to us!
In the morning a Brain Hurricane was scheduled, there we could interview international experts and discuss possible improvements with them. They shared insights from many different perspectives such as financial, water sanitation and project management. This helped us to make our solution a bit more concrete and in finding the right emphasis in the presentation of the idea. We were even offered some potential collaborations with public and private organizations who might be interested, which was really awesome.
After this we continued with paper writing, reviewing literature, summarizing our notes and brainstorming. I think we made some good progress and I am excited for the days to come!
After our working day was finished, some members of the group went back to the hostel as usual. Together with a few others I went to the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar in midtown Manhattan to have some beers and relax after a day of hard work. There were great views of the skyline of New York and the Empire State Building in particular, but as it was still quite cold we decided to sit inside. During the evening we had some really nice conversations about our ambitions, motivations, future goals and experiences so far. Our supervisor Michiel shared a lot of his experience with us which was very valuable.
