Small Island Solutions
This minor will start from the 2027-2028 academic year.
Imagine solving a real business challenge for a local organization, on a Caribbean island, together with students from all over the world.
This is your invitation to join the 'Small Island Solutions (SIS)' Grand Tour minor on Aruba. For nine weeks you live and work in a small island economy, where you take on a real challenge for a local organization. You go into the field, find out what customers actually need, design a solution, test it with the people it is meant for and present your advice to the client in person. You do this together with Aruban and international students, so you learn as much about working across cultures as you do about business. We are looking for curious, entrepreneurial students who like to figure things out on location and want their work to matter to a real client.
Minor content
Small island economies are a unique place to learn how businesses grow. Markets are small, resources are limited and every decision is visible to the community. That makes Aruba the ideal setting to explore how organizations can find real customer needs, develop viable solutions and scale them in a sustainable way. In this nine week minor you work on location with a local organization and do your research where the customers are. Company visits, guest speakers and excursions give you a broad view of the island's economy and the trends that shape it. Next to the business side, the minor focuses on your personal growth: working in a new culture and a diverse team, understanding yourself and others, and learning to lead with confidence. You will benefit from a blend of:
Field research and customer insight;
Designing and validating solutions with real users;
Advising and pitching to a real client;
Personal and intercultural development.
Structure of the minor
The minor is built around one real client challenge and runs in four phases. Throughout these phases you will:
Arrive and explore (weeks 1 and 2): meet your team and your client, get to know the island and frame the challenge.
Field research (weeks 3 and 4): talk to customers, partners and experts to uncover the real need.
Design and validate (weeks 5 to 7): develop a solution, test it with real people and improve it.
Advise and pitch (weeks 8 and 9): deliver your recommendations to the client on location and reflect on your growth.
By the end of the minor you will be able to:
Uncover real customer needs through field research.
Design and validate a viable solution.
Understand how businesses scale sustainably in a small island economy.
Spot emerging market trends.
Build stakeholder trust and pitch with authority.
Work effectively in a new culture and a diverse team.
Reflect on your own role, leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Study features
Assessment in this minor is as close to professional practice as possible. You present your findings and recommendations to your client, and these presentations are given both to and together with the client organization. In addition, you take part in assessments in which you show and explain what you have learned, both professionally and personally. Finally, you hand in the professional products you create during the minor, such as your field research, your validated solution and your advice to the client. Together, these show how you have grown as a professional and as a person.
You will enjoy this minor if you like to work in the field, want to work for a real client, are curious about other cultures and take initiative without waiting for instructions. We expect active participation, openness to different cultures, professional behaviour towards the client, a solution oriented mindset and the ability to work in English.