This month, we introduce another person from the Jacobs community. Alice Elizabet de Vos is half British, quarter Dutch, and quarter New Zealander. She was born in Hong Kong and moved to Australia when she was 3 years old but found her way back to Hong Kong at the age of 9, where she lived until she was 18 years old. She moved to Bremen soon after and has been at Jacobs University since. Interestingly, ‘de Vos’ translated from Dutch means ‘the fox’.
“When I moved to Hong Kong, I had an extremely thick Australian accent, which made me the weird/interesting kid. Another reason I was odd, was that I referred to flip-flops as ‘thongs’ (the Australian way to say flip flops). Imagine how kids and parents would react to a 9-year-old talking about bringing their thongs to camp”, she laughs. She remembers sailing often while in Australia, but due to the dangerous animals, one needs to be very careful in which waters they swim and sail. And of course, picking up mangoes off a tree near her house for breakfast.
Since she can remember, Alice has been interested in science, starting with Physics, and then gradually moving to Chemistry. Now, Alice takes Chemistry not only as a major of study but as a hobby as well. She has a blog, in which she dives deeper into topics and shares the knowledge in a fun and interesting way. The topics for her blog posts are mostly derived from the normal life routine, for example, one of her posts was inspired by an allergy medication she has. She takes the time and puts a lot of effort into her articles and does everything herself – from research to drawing the processes and managing her blog.
Since coming to Bremen and starting at Jacobs University, she has become more passionate about sharing her love for chemistry with others. She is now the head of the Chemistry Society and the Health Focus Area Representative. Being in such high positions, studying and working on a personal project (her blog), “could be hard work”, she says, “but it pays off”.
Just 19 years old, Alice de Vos has overcome many challenges, learned about different cultures, and achieved one of the highest undergraduate positions on campus – a health area representative. We are looking forward to many more achievements and we wish her lots of luck in her following years on campus.
BY KREMENA TERZIEVA (BULGARIA) | CLASS OF 2021
