Roxanne, a CHARM-EU alumna, originally from the Netherlands and now living in Spain, where she works as a project manager assistant for Innoceana, a global marine conservation NGO. Her journey from student of the master’s in Global Challenges for Sustainability to become a professional with her capstone stakeholder reflects the strong connection between challenge-based learning and real-world impact.
From first contact to career opportunity
“So, during my time in CHARM, in the first semester, I met Innoceana during a beach cleanup. Through talking with them, I proposed them as a stakeholder for CHARM. Afterwards, I also applied to do my thesis with them. Through that, I got into contact with the whole team, and we did the project on the Blue Colony and SDG14 last year. Afterwards, they asked me to join the team here in Barcelona.”
What began as a simple conversation during a beach cleanup evolved into a thesis collaboration and eventually into a professional role. By proactively engaging with the organisation and integrating them into the academic framework, Roxanne built a bridge between her studies and her future career.
Seeing the full cycle: from student to supervisor
A year after working in Innoceana, Roxanne returned to CHARM-EU in a new capacity — this time as a stakeholder supervising students’ capstone projects. Having experienced the programme from the inside, she understands both the learning process and the organisational perspective. Being on both sides of the experience has allowed her to empathise with students while also recognising the concrete needs of the organisation. This dual insight strengthens the collaboration and helps guide teams toward meaningful, applicable results in areas such as blue tourism and marine sustainability.
Advice for future students
“To join the Master’s, I think you have to be very open to quite some challenges and also quite a bit of moving around. It’s not a conventional Master’s — and I think this is exactly why it spoke to me. I applied to the Master’s in Global Challenges for Sustainability because it allowed us to experience an innovative way of learning, to meet other people from other backgrounds and also work on projects together.”
For Roxanne, the true value of the programme lies in its transdisciplinary teamwork and collaborative research approach. Working in diverse teams and engaging directly with stakeholders creates a richer, more dynamic learning experience than working individually.
Her story highlights how openness, initiative, and collaboration can transform academic opportunities into long-term professional pathways — demonstrating how education and real-world impact can go hand in hand.
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