ABSTRACT
Koen: The story I’d love to introduce here zooms in on the whole process of how we supervise higher education students towards the end of their education journeys, when they start doing graduation projects. More specifically, it relates to a group of six 2nd-year master’s students in Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, with whom I engaged in a co-creative graduation experiment in the academic year 2022–2023 as part of a larger project called the Academy of Hope 1 . The core motivation driving this experiment was a shared motivation – of myself and these students – to avoid that their graduation year would feel like a productive yet superficial rat race, a journey of ‘ticking the boxes’ that lacked a deeper experience of purpose, connection, and relevance. A process, to refer back to my opening statement, that does little to evoke a deep sense of belonging. So, what does it mean for me as a teacher to create a setting in which to engage with students differently, to collaboratively turn the graduation year into a regenerative experience? That’s what this story is about, about trying to create that community of students who co-creatively take on their graduation year – and the master’s thesis as its focus point – as an opportunity to actively bring their own evolving biographies into conversation with the world. To show up, so to speak, to be touched and to touch.
