Community, Action and Service

Recently, our science department was gifted with some slick new laboratory equipment. Two large lab centrifuges and a mini one for Eppendorf tubes. These donations were gratefully accepted from UMC Utrecht and were secured by two of our DP students as their CAS project. These students not only achieved their initial purpose of sourcing new equipment but have also created a partnership with UMC for future donations.  On top of this they were also able to donate some of equipment to a clinical laboratory of a hospital in need in Razlog, Bulgaria. WOW!

We asked Rasmus and Steven about the purpose of their project …

“It's basically a project contacting multiple universities and research groups in hopes that they have some old equipment up for donation. The purpose of this was to both avoid the equipment simply being thrown out and to get some equipment that the science department didn't have that they could use to make education more hands-on.”

Violeta one of our brilliant laboratory assistants was thrilled with the additional equipment and how they would be able to help extent the possibilities for students in our labs …

“… they will mostly be used by DP students for extended essays or internal assessments (IAs) but can find application for some simple experiments in the lower grades.”

Initially our students found it surprising the amount of ‘no’s they received but they kept emailing! Their persistence and commitment paying off.

“I am very happy and proud of them, because despite the difficulties and obstacles they met in times of lockdown, they showed that recruiting equipment donations is still a possible task … a true example of if there is a will, there is a way!”

We agree with you Violetta, we too couldn’t be prouder of these two students and what they have achieved!