Catherine van Damme

The 21 year old Catherine van Damme knows how to set about her work and is not afraid of travelling. She lives in Zeeland, is enrolled in the vocational course Business Administration & Agri Food Business in Den Bosch and made a conscious choice to take an internship position in Apeldoorn at the VanDrie Group.

She investigates technical calculations to optimise deboning as part of a valorisation team at Ekro’s Sales Support department. ‘I hope to learn about everything,’ she says. Her quick ‘horse sense,’ as she calls it, comes in handy. She likes the work atmosphere: ‘I can be myself. And you can just walk into the director’s office if you have a question. I love that.’ On Saturdays and during the holidays, Catherine works at a nut stand at the market for leisure. Or she helps her parents with harvesting and packaging at their fruit company. Although she comes from a family of growers, animals have stolen her heart. Her boyfriend Jacco is a student, too, and works in the arable farming industry on the side. Together, they are carefully dreaming about the future. About a farm on a piece of land with corn waving in the wind and grazing animals. ‘But it comes as it comes,’ she says level-headedly. ‘I’m already very satisfied.’