Fien Wilms

Background

About Fien Wilms

The motivation behind my studies, volunteering, projects and career choices stems from a deep curiosity in people, how we try to live together, and the many ways we often misunderstand one another. I love to learn, reflect and build on new ideas through conversations and connections with others. Feel free to reach out, I’d love to see where it brings us! During my bachelors in Pedagogics, I learned a lot of valuable lessons, mainly about myself and the path I wanted to take in the future. I could not help but notice that I was reading so many interesting things about how people learn and live together, yet this knowledge was often not put into practice by the institute. Furthermore, I missed diversity in the voices of the mandatory reading materials. I was inspired by the professors who did things differently and broadened my horizons in the search for a master's track. I was looking for places and people that left more space to learn from each other through discussion and reflection. The professors, and my fellow students in the master's track of Cultural Psychology at the University of Amsterdam were a great example! I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to start my professional journey in a warm and inspiring organization, School zonder Racisme vzw. Together with a small team, we spent our time discussing with teachers and students the topics of racism, discrimination, migration, identity, and more. Every school should strive to be a place where different cultural identities are recognized, valued, and positively engaged in the learning process of all students. Sadly, School zonder Racisme vzw had to lay down its work due to political underappreciation. Despite the very important work and many efforts of the team to find alternative funding, we had no other choice but to close our doors. In 2024, I joined the KIYO family as a facilitator for the Belgian team. Here, we try to create spaces for young people to come together, reflect, and learn from each other. We aim to have conversations on global challenges and solutions, and connectivity between people and planet. We experiment with different ways of engaging in society, striving for positive change based on values of justice, inclusion, and sustainability for the planet and its people.