#49 Edwin van Rest (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

A big, hairy, audacious, what? Edwin van Rest (Studyportals) is larger than life, serious about fun and determined to change the world through international education. He joins Andy and Nick for a throwback TFTDL episode that feels like the good old days when we first started! 

We jump from Japan to Greece to the Netherlands as Edwin reflects on his travel adventures. From dressing up as 'RoboCap' at the AIEC conference, to witnessing a mafia hit in Athens, this is a cultural immersion experiment that you couldn't make up. 

Final boarding call: World tour, the world.

This episode is sponsored by Made Impact, the advocacy group aiming to tell one million stories that document the power of international education. For more information go to www.madeimpact.org 

Tales from the Departure Lounge is a Type Nine production for The PIE www.thepienews.com

Transcript

Andy 0:03

Is that our mantra? Press record and see what comes out

Nick 0:06

Spontaneous is best, Welcome to Tales from the Departure Lounge. This is a podcast about travel for business, for pleasure, or for study. My name's Nick and I'm joined by my co-pilot, Andy. And together we're gonna be talking to some amazing guests about how travel has transformed their. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey. Welcome to the podcast.

Andy 0:38

on the show, we had Edwin van Rest which was nice. He's the CEO and chief opportunities officer and co-founder at Study Portals

Nick 0:49

this is tying up loose ends on this podcast. Edwin's been on our list right from the start to do an episode with, so we finally found time to get round to it

Andy 0:59

we've always wanted him on because he's, what would you call him? One of the sector's colorful characters. He's very, uh, extrovert. Uh, I mean, you notice him, don't you, when you're in the same room?

Nick 1:10

We found out that that's quite deliberate. He's quite an eccentric dresser. The StudyPortals bow ties his fancy dress at conferences and this is a deliberate strategy to be remembered

Andy 1:21

he's a founder of an education business, its focus is on helping students to study abroad ultimately, and, he's really passionate about that, isn't he? He's kind of optimistic about all the benefits that study abroad can bring you

Nick 1:33

he's an eternal optimist. And we found out that they have a company goal, to ha- to, to send more students abroad there are United Nations military peacekeepers abroad, 'cause they see students as advocates of peace

Andy 1:49

What did he call it? A big, hairy, audacious goal.

Nick 1:52

Yes.

Andy 1:54

I like

Nick 1:54

kind of North Star that everybody's working towards

Andy 1:57

Yeah. What's your big, hairy, audacious goal,

Nick 2:01

The new added goal on the end there. Uh, just to get through this episode

Andy 2:07

Yeah. Yeah, for, um, England to win the World Cup. It's coming home. It's probably not, it's probably not come home by the time this comes out. but then At the end, he's got a quite a dramatic story

Nick 2:19

We always look forward to people's big story, and Edwin didn't disappoint when I said we're tying up loose ends, uh, I'm surprised he's not in the Witness Protection Act in Greece

Andy 2:31

So worth hanging on in till the end to hear about that Okay. He's the sexest... Sexest? He's the sector's fancy dresser on a mission to make sure everybody experiences the benefits of study abroad like he did. Look out for his orange bow tie at your next conference. Let's get some tales from the departure lounge from Edwin van Rest

Edwin 2:50

I'm RoboCaps, and I'm keeping the streets of the sector clean of Kronks and Shooks," This program is our biggest non-military program to prevent the Third World War from happening." it's a big, hairy, audacious goal. what is this big white, polar bear doing in our dormitory?" The shooter came and shot him two, two more times. and that was, an assassination.

3:18

So before we get into the episode, I want to tell you about Made Impact, the global advocacy group who have a big, hairy, audacious goal to win a Nobel Peace Prize for the international education sector. They are aiming to tell a million stories that demonstrate that studying abroad is one of the world's best strategies for peace and prosperity. Many of the sector's biggest names are getting behind the campaign, including The Pie. Made Impact will be holding a summit on the 31st of August and the 1st of September at the United Nations in New York. It includes a training day where producers, actors, and coaches will be helping train a team of global students to document their stories, followed by a policy day discussing how to change the messaging about international students in government, in industry, and in wider society. For more details, go to madeimpact.org. now let's get on with the episode

Andy 4:13

Welcome to the podcast. Great to have you on

Edwin 4:15

Thank you, Andy. Great to be here

Andy 4:17

The first question we always ask our guests is our final boarding call, and that is, if you could take our listeners anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Edwin 4:26

That's a great question. Where shall we go? I think actually we're going on a world trip

Andy 4:32

The whole world. Okay. We've o- we've, we've only got a few minutes, but, you know, fire away. Let's go

Nick 4:38

strap yourselves in

Edwin 4:39

Yeah, yeah. Because we're going to visit the various places and so that we can connect the world. That's what the world needs,

Nick 4:45

Let's go.

Edwin 4:46

Let's do this, you know? That's what we're here for

Nick 4:49

First, first location then

Edwin 4:50

First location, I think we have to go to the UK perhaps, or maybe the US

Nick 4:56

Mm-hmm.

Edwin 4:56

And we have to bring along Some people that haven't seen as much from the world as would be, would be optimal. so that we can show them the true face of what the world looks like and, people from other cultures look like

Andy 5:10

So this is a, a cultural immersion experiment

Edwin 5:13

Exactly. That's, uh, you know, kind of what powers our industry, isn't it?

Andy 5:16

Yeah. Yeah, and have you, have, is this something you've experienced then? Is this something that you feel passionate about?

Edwin 5:21

100%. So, I was from very young age driven by international dimension of things. I loved traveling with my parents. When I was a student, I joined the International Student Association, and then I developed this dream to study abroad. And, I'm an ambitious guy, so I figured, if I want to learn about other cultures, I better go to the full other end of the cultural spectrum. Uh, as a Dutch guy, you can imagine which country that might be. Who

Andy 5:51

The UK? No, no, I'm j- I'm joking.

Edwin 5:53

The UK? I actually had an option to go, I had an option to go and do an internship at Rolls-Royce, but I, I chose not to

Andy 5:59

Uh, and so where did you go? Was it East Asia somewhere? China?

Edwin 6:02

Japan. Yeah,

Andy 6:03

Okay

Edwin 6:04

Japan. Fully opposite, right? In the Netherlands, we, we, we believe that everything that you want to communicate, you have to say it. That includes swear words, emotions, ideally with lots of conflict and bluntness, because that's the paradigm under which we believe is the best way to communicate. And then perhaps in Japan, it's 100%, different, where most of the things that are being communicated are not being said. As a matter of fact, they don't even have the word no

Nick 6:34

Really?

Edwin 6:35

They don't have the word no in Japan. Doesn't exist

Nick 6:38

I didn't know that

Edwin 6:39

So actually, if you want to propose something in Japanese, like for instance, where I would say, "Hey guys, let's go for a drink," in Dutch. In Japan, grammatically even to do that, you always propose not to do something. So you would say something like, "I think we should not be having a drink." So it becomes really easy for you to agree with me if you don't want to, go with my proposal, right? And then if you would be interested in having a drink, which of course I'm already assuming because otherwise I would not even propose it, then you would say, "Hmm, maybe." And I say, "Hmm, maybe? Huh, maybe." So and then you have a little negotiation, and then you go for a drink together. So what I learned there is that, no, no direct communicat- communication, but just as effective and a lot more respectful

Andy 7:25

Really interesting. So tell us How old were you at this point? Were you in your l- late teens, early 20s?

Edwin 7:32

I think I was about 22 years old when I went there for my graduate degree in Osaka

Andy 7:39

So you organized to go and study in Osaka. You h- you jumped on the plane with your rucksack, got off the other side, landed in Japan. What happened?

Edwin 7:48

I was supposed to go and study in English. I was picked up by somebody from the international office at the airport, and guess what? No word of English. That was the international office. And then I was like, "Oh, what did I get myself into?" And then I was taken to the... the dormitory for international students. So I remember I was walking down the hall with my two suitcases. Very social guy, never spent too much time away from my mother, really valuing my family and my friends. And then I, of course, wanted to make friends, so as was looking at everybody when, as they approached me, and I was nodding and smiling and saying hello, and they didn't even look at me. The students didn't look at me because they were from China and Korea studying in Japanese and, and thinking, "What is this big white, polar bear doing in our dormitory?" So that was how it started. So actually in the first month, I would say, or two months almost, it was a really tough time for me. I was homesick. I was on the phone with my mother and my girlfriend and, and crying and thinking, "Oh, where in the hell did I get myself into with my ambition of learning about other cultures?" But I, focused on learning Japanese and some poor, student, some older student got made responsible for me in the laboratory, so he had to take care of me and had to take care of my social integration, let's say. I also had a host family, not that I wasn't staying with them, but they were, like, showing me the Japanese family life. So I really had a deep dive into Japanese culture. And that's ultimately, I think, also how I got much more out of that experience because then I, I was able to, to build up deep connection, learn the Japanese language, and able to build deep connections and really became a richer person through being able to assume other perspectives have you seen that movie, Lost in Translation?

Andy 9:40

Yeah

Edwin 9:41

That was, that was what it was.

Andy 9:43

And so it changed you, do you think?

Edwin 9:46

Totally. This is where I found my purpose. International education can connect the world and make it a little bit of a more understanding and tolerant and equal and prosperous and peaceful place. Unfortunately, still very relevant today, but we're not giving up

Nick 10:05

We're not. On Japan, Edwin, because it is one of the most alien cultures to Westerners, and most people wanna go there as tourists, so a lot of our listeners will be interested in Japan if they haven't been there already. What things come to mind in terms of that cultural misalignment?

Edwin 10:23

oh, there's a lot and some of them are not suitable for, for broad publication. You know, I would say, "Let's go for a drink." And then they, "Oh, maybe... Oh, yes, let's go for a drink." And then they-- Oh, they would always say yes because they can't say no, right? Even if maybe high pregnant and, uh, about to explode, they would go and go for a drink with you. as a, As a, as a white, tall, blonde, you're quite in a quite special position in Japan and it's probably less now, but back then in Osaka, I was probably the only young Westerners there, and they like that. They like the, the Western culture. Um, so we would never have to pay anywhere it was, what, it was quite a surreal life, I would say.

Andy 11:07

It set you up, to be a celebrity within international higher education in your later life

Nick 11:32

No one's ever talked about the Netherlands as being, a destination that we should visit. Can you give us a little love letter to the Netherlands? Study Portals is based there, you live there.

Edwin 11:43

I'd say Netherlands is a really nice liberal, reliable High quality of living society. People are fair. You can trust the government. You can... don't have to worry about getting into trouble with the police unless you really do something wrong. You can argue with them. quite important to me and I'm sure many others, the happiness of children is the highest in the world. There's a good schooling system. There's a very good university system. Not excellent. There's no, let's say, superstar universities, but all universities are essentially in the world top two hundred. They're practically for free for students. the weather is not great, but also not terrible. when you're a student, you get free public transportation, and therefore, most students don't buy a car, and then so you use trains to go in the city, and in-- within city, you use a bicycle. so yeah, it's a really nice, country, I'd say.

Andy 12:42

Yeah.

Edwin 12:43

I lived, in the US, I lived in Japan, I lived in Greece, I lived in Italy, lived in Australia. All, all fantastic places, all with their own feats, but I think the Netherlands actually quite a good, decent place to live. Not too much worries, good social system,,

Andy 12:59

I was talking to a Dutch university probably about a decade ago now, and they had this swell of students come from South Korea one year. Uh, like, uh, m- most of them were female. They had this huge deluge of, of applications from South Korea, and they, they couldn't work it out. And then, uh, these students started arriving, and it turns out there was a, a novella, you know, like a, a soap opera in Korea, and it was, about a woman who'd ended up going to the Netherlands, and she could work part-time, and she could ride her bike to the markets and pick up fresh produce. And she was in a, a very e-egalitarian society, very everything was very equal. And this had massive appeal for female South Koreans who saw themselves with glass ceilings, limited in their opportunities, had to work full-time, these kind of things.

Edwin 13:53

So these things can also sometimes swing the other way. So as a ni-nice anecdote for the sector. So I was one visit- of course, we work with all the universities, uh, in the Netherlands, but also in Amsterdam, and I was visiting them, and they were just putting on a big fair for international students. Uh, but, but there was some stuff going on in the city. And the municipality, they had put-- When-- Right when you exit the, the central station, they would ha- they had put up these big, bright light signs that are used when you, for instance, have a highway, roadworks to deviate traffic. Like big, bright signs that you can put messages to car drivers that are at speed. So they put them out of the central station right at the exit, like a few big ones, and it said like, "Warning." Cheap quality heroin was being sold as if it was cocaine in Amsterdam for people to please check what they were buying, right? And then you saw these families, some of them from the Middle East and some other, coming with to, for the Amsterdam University, International Education Fair. Yeah. Well, I don't think that worked very well.

Andy 14:57

Who's checking the cocaine? Yeah, that's what I wanna know. Is there like another service then?

Edwin 15:01

It's i-illegal in the Netherlands, by the way, yeah, take cocaine, and all, and hard drugs. But, uh, they are very pragmatic. The government thinks, "Well, people are gonna use it anyway. If you're not a big drug dealer, we'll try to catch you. But if you're a consumer, we better help you to make sure what you're doing is safe." So on festivals, you'll have spots where you can check your ecstasy or... And in the city, you can get your drugs checked some people might think, on the basis we're talking now that Netherlands is all over drugs. I don't think that's at all the case. I haven't seen any significant more problems, drug-related problems in the Netherlands than in any other place, to be honest. In Eindhoven where I live, that's really the engineering capital. We have a company here, New York Times wrote an article about them I think two years ago, ASML, the most important company you never heard of. And they are the, world market leader that create the machines that create microchips. So at least we've got something in Europe to, uh, you know, as a world-leading company to power that AI supply chain,

Nick 16:06

Tales from the Lab. I think we're doing a science podcast

Edwin 16:10

Yeah. Science corner. Yeah

Andy 16:52

The next section of our podcast is called Any Laptops, Liquids or Sharp Objects, and this is where you can give travel advice to fellow travelers

Edwin 17:02

Okay. So what I always take is, eye mask and, ear, earplugs and, magnesium supplement Magnesium supplement helps with, the flexibility of your bio, or at least for me, it helps me with my biological clock. So I start taking it two days before I travel. I try to already go in the time zone where I'm going. This is only for,, longer time zone, different trips, and really helps me to, reduce jet lag.

Andy 17:28

First time I've heard that

Edwin 17:29

Magnesium supplement also helps with sleeping

Nick 17:31

I take magnesium now and it helps me sleep better. So you take it before you start planning and take it on the time zone that you're going to

Edwin 17:39

Start like two days in advance, and then I end it, two days after I land. But typically, I all go for short trips, so I just keep on taking it until I'm home. And really, it really makes a difference for me. I don't know, if that's the same for everyone. I, for instance, also take, what's that called? Um- this is sleeping thing. Melatonin doesn't work at all for me. I can take five of them, nothing happens. But that is also very personal, I think. But the magnesium really helps me

Nick 18:05

I've noticed if I take, melatonin gummies, it really works. If I take a tablet, nothing.

Edwin 18:11

And what if you take gummies without melatonin?

Andy 18:13

I think you need to take them to the Dutch police to get tested, Nick. Uh, find out what's in them

Edwin 18:17

Yeah.

Nick 18:18

Depends where you get your gummies, doesn't it?

Edwin 18:20

Yeah. any other things, hacks for traveling I mean, try to have fun.

Andy 18:24

Yeah. Always try and have

Edwin 18:25

there's

Andy 18:26

Do you travel a lot? I mean, how, how often are you away?

Edwin 18:29

Quite a bit. I would say about one trip a month

Andy 18:31

Do you enjoy it still?

Edwin 18:32

Not the primary reason why I do it, not for fun, but I, I always make sure that I'm having fun. We have five core values at StudyPortals, and the last one, not the least one, is we are very serious about fun. We started as a couple of students, right? So when we had this, work hard, play hard kind of mentality, but we thought, "Oh, we can't really use that word for business, in a business context, so we're very serious about fun." But it's always been, a part for us to actively seek out a fun component of everything you do. We work with universities in 118 countries. We have teams across the world. So yeah, I, I love visiting them, working with them, understanding what's playing in various markets, talking to clients. Sometimes clients appreciate it if I show up.

Nick 19:18

And I think it shines through. StudyPortals does seem to have a culture of fun that you embody you're quite an eccentric dresser, You introduced the StudyPortals bow ties, uh, I remember you walking around with a briefcase of money strapped to your arm, to represent a scholarship scheme that you were doing. Where does that come from and how do you pack that stuff?

Edwin 19:42

It's also a part of trying, I guess, to make people remember you, right? Or to catch attention, not so much with the dress, but certainly with the suitcase as you, as you mentioned, or sometimes, for instance, I think it was with one of your colleagues, it was the first time at the AIRC conference in, Australia, and then they have this fancy dress party. So then I think, "Oh, how can I make sure that everybody remembers, and then knows who I am?"

Nick 20:05

Tell the listeners not what w- what your outfit was at a fancy

Edwin 20:09

Yeah. So at th- at that time, there was, there was a lot happening in Australia around immigration, still is, and then the government I think they had just announced that they were introducing like a cap and a soft cap and so on. It was very much, uh, um, how the numbers were set were very de- much debated in the sector. So they called it as if it was RoboCap, like as if some robot had set the numbers. RoboCap. And then there was, uh, this, this masquerade and the theme was Hollywood Nights or something. So I was thinking like, let's do something with movies. So then of course you have the RoboCop movie, which is actually a Dutch director. So I, I dressed up as RoboCop and then had a, like a sign saying, "I'm RoboCaps, and I'm keeping the streets of the sector clean of Kronks and Shooks," 'cause that's also what they-- what a lot of the articles were saying. That was a lot of fun. And I-- But it was tough because I actually, had the intention to also walk around and dance like RoboCop the whole evening, and that was the hard part. To But it totally worked because, uh, everybody there will have remembered, RoboCap.

Andy 21:16

You've done a lot of travel. You've been on many planes. There must have been lots of jeopardy and lots of things that have happened to you or around you. Is there anything you wanna share?

Edwin 21:28

Uh, there are indeed many. I think that the craziest one was an, was an assassination.

Andy 21:34

What?

Edwin 21:35

How that, how's that sound? I got the world's best internship through our international office, and I got to work at the Athens Summer Olympic Games, and then later also at the Torino Winter Games. It was three months in Athens, and I was part of the team that was organizing all the IT systems for the Olympic Games. The result systems, but also staff management, access management, tickets, and so on. we were living in the middle of the center and Syntagma Square in Athens. But in the weekends, we would go either south or we would go island hopping. And on one n- one night, we went south in a taxi. I was there with my girlfriend, and there was some other of my other interns in the taxi, and then we were driving down, and right in front of us, saw a guy running and then fell down. And we thought got hit by a car or something. So taxi stopped, it was just like lying probably twenty, thirty meters, twenty meters ahead of us, in, in front of us on the tarmac. And then another... The shooter came and shot him two, two more times. and that was, an assassination. And I had this really nice, super enthusiastic, friend, also a Dutch guy, big, tall, a little naive, super nice guy, like the best guy in the world, and he was always the photographer of everything. You remember that back then, we didn't have the cameras on the phone yet, He had one of those Canon, cameras that look like the, the form factor of, a cigarette box. Remember those? The silver ones? Guess what he did. The guy was still standing over this other guy with a gun, took out his camera with a flashlight, click, click, click. Fuck, y'all, get away. Get, get your camera away. The taxi driver got completely pissed off, and we were the right-- there was no taxi in between what happened then. No other car between what happened then and us. So that was a big shock. It turned out to be some mafia, related, assassination.

Andy 23:30

So after, did the police turn up and then you were like witnesses What happened?

Edwin 23:33

We called the police. Taxi driver was very afraid.

Nick 23:36

Yeah

Edwin 23:37

the police, we're going to drive away." And so he drove away, but we did call the police and we reported and we gave the pictures. Luckily the shooter didn't notice the flashlight, he didn't respond to it, and he just walked away over the highway and left

Nick 23:51

This sounds very morbid, but I'm just curious. Did you go over to the body or did you just stay away? clearly this person was dead

Edwin 24:00

So the body was probably 10, 15 meters ahead of our car. And then when the shooter had left, taxi driver took off, they want- wanted to leave the place,

Nick 24:09

Yeah

Edwin 24:09

apparently afraid for maybe what had happened with the pictures or, you know, any, any possible da- danger

Nick 24:17

He was a witness,

Edwin 24:18

So we didn't see, really see the body, we saw the body lying down, but we didn't really, observe it from up close or anything.

Nick 24:23

Wow

Andy 24:24

Did it affect you?

Edwin 24:25

Did, and it affect my girlfriend as well. Um But I have to say,, the effects were short-lived. So it's not that it, I carried it with me. I mean, I have the memory and when I talk about it, it's quite bizarre. I, I of course listened to previous podcasts, from you guys. So I was thinking about, "Hey, what is the most bizarre story that ever happened to me?" I mean, of course the night was very different than we planned, but... I recently, I was in Athens actually greece is fantastic destination for international students, and it's growing rapidly. Uh, but I sent a picture to the hotel we were staying to that friend and said, "Remember what you did in that taxi?" Like, ah,

Nick 25:07

Wow. I, I'm surprised you're not in witness protection, Edwin.

Edwin 25:11

ja,

Nick 25:12

That's a good story

Andy 25:42

The next section of our podcast is called What's the Purpose of Your Visit? And this is, a segment where you can tell us why you do what you do. Uh, what's your purpose in higher education? What's your purpose in life?

Edwin 25:56

I try to be quite purposeful both in, you know, private and personal life, and I kind of have two dreams. One is on a professional side is to, to build a company that makes the world a little bit of better place, ideally, even after I'm gone. And the other one is on the private side, is to, to build a family where I had the privilege of being part of myself. So I'm very happy my parents took care of us very well. I have a brother and a sister, and really feel privileged and such a strong foundation to a happy life. I want to give that to my children and my wife as well. So, so then on the professional side, building a meaningful company, that started for me in Japan. That's really where I learned about, like I said, how inter-international education can enrich lives and can connect the world. So when I came back from Japan, I was fully motivated. You know, I had full of great stories, and then, uh, I wanted to help my friends also to look across borders. And it was a good time because in Europe, the bachelor master system had just started, and all over Europe, new programs were popping up, many in English. But then we're really frustrated with the same problem that I had because it took me one and a half year to find an option of studying in Japan. The same problem, there was no way to find and compare those problems. So actually, with two friends, as part of an international student association, we started to solve that problem with back then mastersportal.eu. That was the start of study portals. And when it comes to purpose, there was a really, uh, important moment, I think about seventeen months in. One of my co-founders came back from Cuba. We had a big cigar. We were doing some work. And then there was a student that got accepted to a university in the north of Sweden, University of Dalarna, just north of Stockholm, in a master's of electrical engineering, and needed to get his admission documents to be sent to some gospel church. And, and that kind of fascinated us. So we got in touch with that student. Turned out the student was living in a village in Cameroon, and the s- the stuff needed to be sent to the church because it was the only place with a post address. And I remember sitting there because until that evening, I thought sending a Dutch guy to Japan is pretty transformational. But thinking about somebody from a village without even a post address being able to study a master's program in engineering in the north of Sweden, and what that would mean to that person and their family and their prospects for the rest of their life. Until that day, StudyPortals was like a voluntary project. We were-- It was a student-led voluntary, we were not making any money. We, we did a lot of work, uh, partly to do really do work and then chasing all of our other volunteers. So there was kind of a lot of blood, sweat and tears in setting up that first useful service and no business plan, right? No business model. But I remember we talked to each other and said the fact that we were able to help this one student is already enough reward for all of those, blood, sweat and tears. And there's just nothing that we can do that's more meaningful with our professional time to make sure that we scale out this impact. And that was the moment when we said, "Okay, we have to turn StudyPortals into a business. We have to raise some money so that we can grow faster, and we should start hiring staff so that we don't have to deal with volunteers."

Andy 29:33

Creating agency at scale. That's what you've done

Edwin 29:36

Yeah, totally And there was another moment actually in terms of we have also in the study called something that's called the big, hairy, audacious goal. Have you heard of that?

Nick 29:43

Say that again?

Edwin 29:44

It's a big, hairy, audacious goal.

Nick 29:48

Harry Audacious

Edwin 29:49

Yeah. So it's like a man on the moon. It's like a dot on the horizon so that we don't have to manage people that much. We just hire smart, motivated people, and then they know where to go so that they don't need much guidance, right? Because that's where we're heading. John F. Kennedy said, "We are going to put a man on the moon on this decade." Right? The people say that he, he did, that was part of the US winning that race.

Nick 30:11

so you set this kind of crazy goal and then people work out all the steps they need to take to get there

Edwin 30:17

Correct. So and our official goal was to make education transparent globally. An unofficial goal, and that's actually also a travel story. So we went... I went to, I think it was my first ever NAFSA. It was in Vancouver

Nick 30:29

Yeah, I was there

Edwin 30:30

It was in, in 20- 2011 or something, to make sure you don't get forgotten, we rented a tandem bike, so we were driving around in a tandem. So that was fun. But I remember there was a presentation there by a high-ranking US official, and Obama had just got started and they had started this project called 100,000 Strong and the goal of that project was to get one hundred thousand Chinese students to study in the US. It's not that hard, but also one hundred thousand Americans to study in China. And, uh, yeah, I remember I was fascinated, you know, knowing how much impact one enrollment was for me in Japan to have a hundred thousand. But I-- then it really clicked with me when this lady, she went on to explain that she was not working for the Department of Education. She was working for the Department of State, and she said, "This program is our biggest non-military program to prevent the Third World War from happening."

Nick 31:27

Hmm.

Edwin 31:28

Right? Uh, because she said, "We know there's a lot of evidence that if we can get enough Chinese people to connect with Americans and vice versa, and have ties and business and relationships and families, the chance that these peoples would ever be motivated by a politician to go to war is much, much lower." And that really stuck with me as well because I remember from my time in Japan, you know, it's unimaginable now that, the Netherlands would be at war with Germany because we, we know each other, right? So and then o-on the basis of that, I said, "Oh, we have to use this for our big, hairy, audacious goal." So we, we, we changed it into saying, we want to send more students abroad through study portals than there are soldiers abroad.

Nick 32:09

Wow.

Edwin 32:11

Yeah.

Nick 32:11

That's great.

Edwin 32:12

That's cool, eh?

Nick 32:13

Very cool

Edwin 32:14

I mean, it's hard to know how many soldiers are abroad, and unfortunately the development is not good. Uh, but we believe we kind of reach that goal in twenty twenty

Nick 32:24

That's amazing.

Edwin 32:25

it's pretty amazing, isn't it?

Nick 32:26

Yeah

Edwin 32:27

At United Nations, they have one hundred ten thousand military and police peacekeepers. We have in the last five years one point five million students that, started with us and went all the way through to an international enrollment. So more than ten times as much as United Nations, and these are not peacekeepers with a weapon. No, they are with a smile and, maybe some cookies from their hometown. They are building peace

Andy 32:50

Is this, is this your role now to, be global peacekeepers and, relationship builders?

Edwin 32:56

Yeah, I don't think it's our only role, but it's definitely a big part of what we do, and it's a big part of why people work for us. We're not gonna give up on our commitment to trying to connect the world. We're not going to give up on our commitment to diversity and believing that in Study Portals everybody's welcome, regardless of nationality, background, sexual preference, gender, whatever, because we actually believe that enriches not only the world, but al- but also Study Portals and our team, and many people work with us because of that reason.

Andy 33:57

The final s-section of the podcast is called Anything to Declare. This is a free space for you to talk about whatever you like.

Nick 34:03

Perhaps a, a Japanese saying

Andy 34:06

The man who goes to bed with an itchy bottom wakes up with a smelly finger.

Edwin 34:09

Um, no, uh, so I think, for the listeners of your podcast, it's an extremely challenging time, I think, for the sector, and particularly if you are really dependent on the mobility of degree students in destination markets like Canada, the US, the UK to some extent's been a, it's, been a rough start of the year. But I think there are many areas in the world where we are challenged now. Geopoliticals you guys mentioned, but also climate and also,, how is AI going to change the position of the average citizen? I find it quite hard. I'm a fundamental optimist. I really, always look for the positive things, but I sometimes find it quite hard if I think ten years from now, what is the world gonna look like? What is the world gonna look like when my kids go to, start with their first job? It's actually quite hard, I think. But what I would like to do a sales pitch for is for people not to give up and to keep doing what's right and believe in, and, keep going after what they believe in, even if it's hard, or maybe even in particular because it's hard, because the world needs it more. I think if, if, if the majority of people can, keep believing what they believe in and stay positive, I think we can stay on track, and I think we can turn this towards the better

Nick 35:28

Well said

Andy 35:29

Don't Stop Believing

Edwin 35:31

Don't stop believing. No.

Andy 35:32

By Journey. Very a- very apt for a travel podcast, Well, Edwin, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's been great to have you

Edwin 35:39

My pleasure. Thank you guys for doing this

Nick 35:46

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for listening. As always

35:50

If you want to get in touch you can do so at. Sick bag tales from the departure lounge.com.

Nick 35:56

Safe travels. Tales from the Departure Lounge is a type nine production for the pie.