Marie Czwielung (Water Management) won the HZ Stern Award for the best bachelor's thesis on Wednesday. Jury chair Wies Buysrogge announced this during a festive gathering at the HZ Café in Vlissingen on Wednesday.
There were seven nominees for the annual prize for the best bachelor's thesis. Marie studied Water Management at HZ University of Applied Sciences. She received the prize for her thesis “Policy Advice Paper on the protection of Coralligenous Habitats in Greece: Identifying Policy Gaps and Opportunities for Effective Marine Conservation”. In it, she investigated how effective Greece is in protecting coral reefs threatened by certain fishing methods. Marie's study identified shortcomings in governance and proposes policy and enforcement measures to improve protection. ‘Marie's thesis is a fine example of the impact you can have with practice-oriented research,’ said Buysrogge in her explanation during the award ceremony in the HZ Café. ‘It is an original study that adds value to the professional field with immediate effect.’
According to Buysrogge, the graduate student conducted and substantiated her research excellently. ‘She also actively sought contact with the relevant Greek ministries to share her recommendations for improving marine protected area policy. She took a creative approach and made clever use of social media, among other things.’ As a result of her work, a threatened piece of coral in the Mediterranean Sea has been declared 'trawl-free'.
Tidying up with toddlers
This year, for the first time, there was also an HZ Stern for the best thesis by Associate degree students. This went to Forrien Weststrate from the Ad Pedagogical Educational Professional programme. In her thesis, “Playful tidying up: Working on executive skills in toddlers”, she investigated how to teach toddlers in childcare to tidy up better in a playful way. She devised an approach that provides more structure, clarity and fun during tidying up. "Forrien's thesis combines the useful with the fun. Through a clever creative combination of methodologies, toddlers can be trained in important cognitive skills such as self-control, impulse control and attention in a playful way, while at the same time ensuring that they tidy up. A win-win for education and important for the development of our youth," said Eva Nieuwenhuize, jury chair of the Associate Degree HZ Stern.
Both students received a statue of a tern and a cash prize of one thousand euros.