JADS Lustrum Stories: Liesbeth Leijssen about the open JADS community
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In our series of JADS lustrum stories, Liesbeth Leijssen, Director Business at JADS, shares with us her memories and thoughts about the open JADS community.
“Today, February 10, 2022, we hosted a visit of representatives of the Dutch Council for Education (Onderwijsraad). They wanted to visit JADS for an exploration of new forms of a university in a digital world, entrepreneurship and our approach to education across all levels of the teaching and learning at JADS.”
Enlightening and stimulating visits
“The visitors attended guest lectures and discussed with our teachers and students the unique way in which JADS combines data science and entrepreneurship at an academic level. We host such visits regularly, and without exception they are enlightening for the visitors and stimulating for our colleagues and students, because of the open interaction.”
More than 200 partners
“As a director of Business, I have been working for several years now at the interface of JADS with the external world and its stakeholders. From the start of JADS, a constant stream of organizations has spontaneously entered over the monastery threshold to be part of the JADS community and get access to talent and knowledge. We maintain a portfolio of more than 2000 contacts with more than 200 partners. We actively collaborate with these partners in a plethora of projects and events, ranging from (professional) education to strategic research projects and from being part of our start-up incubator up to the SME-Datalab.”
Startup university
“For me JADS is a kind of “startup university”, i.e, a workplace where people are given the freedom to experiment with all kinds of innovative approaches that contribute to our brand promise “doing cool stuff that matters, with data”. Actually, when I learned about JADS back in 2015, my first thought was that I simply had to become part of this most compelling initiative. I managed to accomplish this and I never did regret my move to Den Bosch, not for a single moment.”
An open community that fosters change and innovation
“What keeps inspiring me about JADS is its intrinsic culture of an open community that fosters change and innovation, thus combining intellectual thoughts and insights with an entrepreneurial drive and action. There is a deeply rooted attitude of positive thinking, there is room for experimentation, and failure is part of the journey. I sincerely hope that JADS will manage to maintain and sustain this element of a positive academic entrepreneurial culture, for it has so much to offer to our partners, staff and students in their professional activities. I can see that every day when I walk through the corridors with my guests: we explain it to them with passion and they get inspired!”
