Ambassador Spotlight
Catarina Almeida (Portugal)
When Catarina Almeida came to Leuven on exchange she simply loved it. So when she had to decide where to study for her master’s degree, she did not have to think twice. “This international, well-organised university offers quality education and great staff in a beautiful city just 30 minutes away from the airport by train. So you can easily travel Europe as well”, says the former auditor and currently happy valuation manager.
“After my bachelor’s studies in management at the Nova Business School of Economics in Lisbon I did a six months’ traineeship at Deloitte Luxemburg. Then I decided it was time to obtain a master’s degree and the choice of university was easy. During my bachelor I was in Leuven on an Erasmus exchange and I completely fell in love with it!”
“Leuven is smaller than Lisbon but still big enough to always find things to do. Actually, it is the perfect size for me, because I discovered that I love to bike and it was awesome to be able to go everywhere on my bicycle. In addition, Leuven is very beautiful and a true student city. In Lisbon I felt just part of the crowd, but in Leuven the city’s character is defined by the students - like they are the most important people there. Finally, I am also fond of the KU Leuven staff. Their helpful and kind attitude makes it easier to settle in and find you way.”
“Apart from this abundance of reasons to return to Leuven for my master, COVID had hit in the meantime. Those circumstances made it a sensible choice because restrictions elsewhere could be worse and I felt more comfortable to go to a place that I already knew.”
“Leuven is the perfect size for me”
“Support for international students is good and starts before arrival. We received a lot of emails with information and welcome activities. It is constantly improving as well. When I came for my second stay, I rented a room beforehand via the new website kotwijs.be. The landlord was nice and everything was in good order, so I recommend to use it to find a decent place to stay, since it includes trustworthy rooms and studios on the private market.”
“I also definitely should mention Pangea, the Intercultural Meeting Centre in Leuven, an amazing place for international students with plenty of activities and opportunities to meet people from all around the university. The organisation played a big role during both of my stays in Leuven. There is always someone to talk to or have a coffee or play a board game with. I joined their language tables to practice and followed different student associations for social activities.“
“There is also a buddy programme in place, which I joined twice: the first time they showed me around and the second time I was buddy myself for a newly arrived student, since I already knew the city. Despite the pandemic there were still activities, mostly online of course, but I also volunteered to help out the tour guides to welcome the new arrivals.”
“Although I hope we never have to switch to mostly online courses again, I still felt lucky to be familiar with the city and the university. It gave me the confidence to reach out to other people. The switch to online teaching was rather smooth and I consider KU Leuven to be a pioneer in this regard. When I was in the Erasmus programme - before COVID-19 - many courses were already recorded. There are definitely advantages to a good mix of in person and recorded classes.”
“After that first great experience, the only difference the second time was social life. On both occasions KU Leuven offered a very good quality of education. It turned out a little bit more theoretical than I expected, but I actually found that a good complement to my education in Nova, where we had practical workshops for every course. In Leuven we had to read and research a lot and I also liked that.”
“The Business Economics programme is modular and allows you to choose a major and a minor that you can completely tailor to your needs and taste. I had Portuguese friends in the same programme with whom I hardly had classes in common. Apart from the customisability, I was also looking for a one-year’s master, which allowed me to be financially independent. I did not want to burden my parents with another rather expensive programme.”
“Thanks to my extra finance knowledge I found a new job in valuation.”
“In my master I chose to focus on accounting and finance. The financial world is broad and I had gained experience with auditing at Deloitte, which is mainly about accounting. I liked it but was not passionate about it, so I decided to add some more finance and that was a good decision. After my master’s degree I returned to audit at Deloitte, but thanks to my extra finance knowledge I found a new job in valuation, which I like a lot. I had two courses in my master touching on valuation and that was enough to land me the new job. The professor who taught one of them was also the promotor of my thesis and he gave a lot of examples and showed exercises in class. The main course on strategy was similar, with mostly real life examples of company strategies taught by an excellent professor. The knowledge I gained from those is most useful in my current job.”
“My main issue with auditing was that I did not really produce anything, I just had to check things and that did not feel like adding any value. Also, I am not too fond of pointing out mistakes to people and bothering them with unpleasant questions. I prefer when people around me like what I do.”
“Since October 2022 I have been a valuation manager at Aquila Capital. I take care of the valuation of assets in their management. To value an asset, you need to understand it and acquire a deep knowledge about the industry where it is located, and I get a lot of joy from that.
Aquila works a lot on renewable energy, which is the future, and also in real estate, which I find exciting too. As an auditor I sometimes was so focused on the numbers that I felt like I lost sight of the company and its strategy. In valuation you do not get lost in details so easily because you always need to keep the bigger picture in mind. We still have audits though, but I am on the other side now and I deliver something!”
Veerle De Grauwe