Hello,

         My name is Mieke Vink. Now, before you read any further, you may be wondering “Mieke? What kind of name is that?” and I am sorry to say that if you tried to pronounce it phonetically, you are wrong. In fact, it is pronounced “MEE-KA”. Don’t ask, the Dutch language can be weird that way. Another fact that may surprise you is that I am indeed Dutch and, I am also Canadian. Was I born in either the Netherlands or Canada? The answer is no. Do I speak Dutch? No. I actually speak English and French and have only visited the Netherlands twice as I grew up in Toronto, ON. So you may now be wondering, “what is your ethnicity?”. Well, to keep my long story short, I was adopted from China. So now you may think that I am Chinese; and you may be correct or this conclusion may be partially correct but even I would not be able to fully validate nor deny anyone’s guesses as to where my genetic material is from.

           I hope by now, if you don’t know me personally, you at least know that I can be full of surprises. I am a strong believer that every individual is unique and that there is always more to them than what meets the eye. Personally, I love to try my best to do what makes me happy, whether it challenges stereotypes, gender norms or something that is not unique at all, I love having the freedom to choose for myself.

     This ePortfolio will become a place where I upload works from my academic career. I am currently a second year undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia studying Geographical Biogeosciences. I chose this major because my goal is to work toward a more sustainable and inclusive world. By this, I mean that I wish to help developing countries grow but simultaneously work on initiatives to reduce the global Human effect on climate change to be able to work towards providing people in need with their basic needs and human rights both locally and internationally. An approach that leans more towards the scientific side has always been the most coherent and direct path for me, however these issues are so closely intertwined with what people would consider disciplines of art and so the department of geography is the perfect fit for me as it allows me to explore and study both the science and art behind sustainable international development.

          My goal is to share my knowledge and hopefully create or continue an open dialog about the environmental and social issues that I study so that myself and others can build off of each other and learn from one another.