About Me

At a Tourism Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum that we organized in South Carolina

How it all began

Through my previous studies and work in Aruba and the Netherlands, I developed a passion for customer service and instructional design.

It first started when I was in Aruba. Being surrounded by hotels and tourists, my interest grew in knowing more about hospitality and tourism. This led me in completing a three-year Bachelor program of Hospitality and Tourism Management Studies at the University of Aruba. During this time, I did an HR internship and part-time at the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino. I helped organize general and departmental classrooms as well as online training sessions for employees, finalized job descriptions and procedure manuals, and followed several courses focused on learning and communication strategies.

Obtaining my Dual Master's Degree

Moving to the Netherlands

As I grew more fond of HR in hospitality, I wanted to continue my Master studies but I was unable to do so because, at the time, there were no HR, hospitality, or tourism related master programs available in Aruba. Still, I saw it as an opportunity to study abroad and expand my geographical, academic and work experience. Before long, I came to the Netherlands and pursued a Master's degree in Human Resource Management. After hard work, I did not manage to complete a course by a few digits. However, I did not let that stop me because I knew there were other programs that I could pursue in The Netherlands. Since I enjoyed hospitality because of its nature of helping people, I pursued and completed a Dual Master's degree of International Hospitality and Service Management at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences and University of Derby.

With my Diploma in front of UT sign

Focusing more on learning

After a short time, I started working as a Customer Service Guest Specialist at Booking.com. I learned a lot about customer service and was even actively involved in extra-curricular activities. For example, I was a Booking.com Quality Ambassador, which focused on providing general and quality-related information to peers and assisting them on behalf of the Customer Service Quality Management Team. Being in close contact with the Learning and Quality Team made me aware of the existence of an (e-)learning job market. This made me excited because it gave me the opportunity to help people further by facilitating and supporting them with their learning journey.

Because of that, I followed a Master's program in Educational Science and Technology (EST). My study enabled me to follow courses related to instruction, design of learning, and performance support in the HRD and Education setting. It also enabled me to investigate the influence of gamification on university students' collaboration and the effect of knowledge sharing self-efficacy on this.

While studying, I worked at the BMS Lab of the University of Twente. During this time, I had the opportunity to apply the learning theories that I learned in my study. For example, applying the ADDIE model (among others) when creating user manuals, instructional videos, e-learning course through a Learning Management System (LMS), and workshops. Aside from this, I helped other smaller organizations with their instructional material such as creating a webinar and a video serie for "Fundación Venezolanos Unidos en Aruba".

I have now graduated from the EST program and I am looking for new and challenging career opportunities.