Text: Anne van der Heijden
Working and walking. That’s all Eline needs in life. ‘I walk 10 kilometres every day. I do that on 361 days of the year, and on the other four days I join in the Nijmeegse vierdaagse (a four-day walking event, ed.) And those are the only days Eline takes off. ‘Apart from that, there hasn’t been a single day when I haven’t worked in the last two years. I don’t like holidays. They make me more stressed than relaxed. I would just rather work. I am quite a boring person really.’
As student-assistant, Elines has carried out data analyses at Food Microbiology and organized sensory research in the Restaurant of the Future. ‘In the next academic year I shall be helping with a chemistry course as a student-assistant. And I work in Atlas in the Publicity and Recruitment department, helping package things up. At weekends I work long days in the café at Burger’s Zoo. My contract there has just been renewed indefinitely.’ The long hours she works are no problem for her. ‘I just want to have something to do. I can’t watch TV without doing something useful at the same time. I’ve got to be doing something useful to feel good.’
I’m a quite boring person really
As a student of Food Technology, Eline is happiest working on modelling, statistics, maths and data analysis. ‘I like data analysis in any shape or form, but especially if it’s about something that interests me, such as food.’ Mars products such as Snickers, Twix and M&Ms are what interest Eline most. ‘To me that chocolate is special, nice to look at and yummy. I’d love to do data analysis at Mars. I can picture myself working there after university.’