Go-getter Melle wants to go to university via VMBO basis
Stacker Melle Kampstra graduated cum laude for VMBO, MAVO and HAVO. Now he is in 5-vwo and he is going for a quartet of school diplomas obtained 'with honor'. The university is within reach.
Picture: Fred van Diem
He has yet to buy a new frame. So that his HAVO diploma obtained before the summer can get a place on the wall next to his other two diplomas. A HAVO diploma once seemed difficult to achieve, but nineteen-year-old Melle Kampstra even started studying public administration at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam last September. He wanted to pass his propaedeutic certificate within one year and continue on to university.
But he got back to it quickly. “I thought it was a theoretical study that would prepare me well for university, but the lectures were disappointing in terms of content,” says Melle. "The pace was slow, we had few contact hours and I felt that I was not being challenged enough." And so the new student called his old secondary school, the Keizer Karel College in Amstelveen, to ask whether he could still enroll in VWO. That was allowed. “This feels much more like a challenge. I am simply adapting my route to the university. ”
Melle's educational path is special. He started with four years of secondary vocational education. After that he did mavo-4 for one year and then two years of havo. He completed all courses cum laude. Melle: “The teachers have stimulated and appreciated me. They have paid attention to me and always presented me with all possibilities. Their influence has been great. *
Niels Jongkind, Dutch teacher at the Panta Rhei school community: “In the fourth year of the VMBO basic I knew that Melle could do a lot more, his written language use was very good. He also worked hard. He distanced himself from the fact that it would be 'cool' not to do homework and followed his own path. Especially the personal contact to give him more self-confidence was important. Then I spoke to him during recess or after class to emphasize that he must believe in himself. ”They taught me to let go of my fear and to go for it. ”
The teachers paid attention to me and always presented me with all the possibilities. Their influence has been great
That stimulation was subtle. Sometimes by teachers who only said a few sentences. “For example: 'Melle, you are doing so well with your grades, you pass VWO.' Or they asked me about my HAVO ambitions. ” His teacher of German in MAVO-4 at the Panta Rhei comprehensive school in Amstelveen also motivated him. 'How great! A 4! 'She exclaimed after Melle took his first test for that subject. "If you get a 4 at the beginning of the school year for a subject that you never took, then you'll be fine," she said. " In addition, personal contact helped Melle further. “That was important. My teachers always took time for discussions about the future and possible routes. ” The nice classes also helped. "It felt like a second home and you do your best for that."
Timid
At the time, his parents were disappointed with the school advice VMBO basic in group 8. “They wanted me to go to a higher level, but the Nio test (Dutch Intelligence Test for Education Level, ed.) Showed VMBO. In addition, primary school thought that I was timid and would certainly have difficulty in secondary school. ” Although Melle immediately felt at home in his VMBO class and made new friends, he was insecure for the first two years. “I didn't do much at school, but I did develop socially. Also thanks to my mentor, Mr Bouamrani. He was very relaxed and I felt at home because of him. ”
Primary school thought I was shy and would definitely struggle in high school
The turning point came when Melle had to choose a direction from the third year. "Suddenly I had to think about the future and I realized that I had only 'been' at school for two years." The comments of teachers who said: 'Come on, do your best, there is more in you', suddenly came in. From that year on, his grades jumped and teachers recorded nines and tens. He passed his VMBO base with flying colors.
After pre-vocational secondary education, it is normal to do pre-vocational secondary education or go to secondary vocational education for one year. At Panta Rhei, the teaching team was unanimous that their student could go straight to MAVO-4 so that he would not 'lose' a year.
“My father and I lobbied for that,” admits Melle. The teachers wrote a letter to the school director who then asked the Education Inspectorate for advice. “Initially they said it would not work. I also had to take school exams of the third year of secondary education and therefore do two school years in one year. Panta Rhei made an adapted curriculum for this. ”
I have always been told that climbing from pre-vocational secondary education to university is absolutely impossible
Melle seized the opportunity to continue steaming in one go. Mavo-4 was the most difficult year of his school career so far. “Melle had a huge backlog in MAVO-4 for German, because he had never had the subject,” says his former German teacher Caroline Puttenstein. “In the summer he already started to catch up. That says a lot. As teachers we facilitated his route. But that Melle was able to move up this way is mainly due to himself. You don't often see the path he has taken in theoretical education. ”
In MAVO-4, Melle often did homework for three hours after school. He could muster it because his teachers believed in him. “I didn't want to disappoint them, also because HAVO at the Keizer Karel College was within reach. The school I heard great stories about from athletics friends. ”
Impossible
Now that the diplomas have been received, Melle clearly sees the differences between the levels of education. "At the
havo at the Keizer Karel * 
Elly Driessen, Dutch teacher at the Keizer Karel College: “Two hundred percent interest, asking questions and absorbing all the knowledge. Melle is the ideal student. I also never forget the 10 he passed for the first school exam in the fifth grade. I almost never give a tens, because getting everything right in a test almost never works. Our 'click' was in the interest in politics. In my lessons I always try to ensure that students also become socially aware and I try to include current, political issues. Melle liked that and he would say so. You don't hear that every day from a student. everything was much more focused on knowledge and performance. It was more about insight and seeing connections. At that school I had to be more independent and there was less personal contact than at VMBO. Of course you could ask anything, but you had to do that on your own. That took some getting used to. At the MAVO it was much more material, but the teachers were more beside you. ”
Just like at his other school levels, Melle continued to persevere once he reached HAVO. “Sometimes I was surrounded by less motivated students, while it was an honor for me that I was finally in HAVO. Especially because I was always told in the past that climbing from pre-vocational secondary education to university was absolutely impossible."
It was an honor for me to finally be in high school
What seemed impossible, the university, is now within reach. Melle wants to study political science. “This has been my interest from an early age. Politics is where power lies. Everything that is decided there has an influence. ” The student wants to dedicate himself to education. “I have gone through many school levels myself and therefore have experience with it. Few politicians have attended pre-vocational secondary education. ”
As a VMBO basic student, he often felt that professions were out of his reach. “VMBO has a bad image. Many people asked me: Do you do havo? And then I thought it was stupid to say that I did VMBO. It felt like that is less. VMBO students more often run into walls and are really not always seen as equally promising. ”
He now sometimes helps other VMBO students to determine their route. "I then say: anything is possible with a VMBO basis."
