First Impression

The second year students of “Mathematics and applications” are having a project at a real company! The project consists of an assignment developed by the company. The company we are speaking of is Donatus u.a. They sell insurances to churches and monuments. Before we started the project we had a short introduction on how to lead the project to a good end and we had to find a bit of background information about Donatus u.a. This meant that we didn’t go to the company for the first time without any pre-knowledge. After a few phone calls and internal meetings we finally agreed on a date for our first visit.

On the 6th of February 2012 we visited the company for the first time. After travelling 1.5 hours from Fontys Hogescholen in Tilburg we got to the town where Donatus u.a. is located, Rosmalen. Based on the background information we had received and looked up we had certain expectations of this company. We expected that the company would be fairly formal, for they mainly insure churches. How could we be more wrong!

Once we got there, we were welcomed by our contact at the company, a very nice man who showed us where the coffee was. After the welcome we were taken to the conference room and we had a small meeting with the C.E.O. of Donatus u.a. This man was very kind to us and also very helpful. He showed us what reinsuring is all about. The meeting took about 2.5 hours and it was very useful for us. We received all sorts of information which related to our project. In the end we were quite exhausted because of the duration of the meeting and the great amount of information we received from the C.E.O.

This was the first time we actually saw a conference room with our own eyes. And even better, we got to sit in it and have a meeting! Everything you would think is in a conference room was there, good coffee, good chairs, a huge table and devices to support the computer for presentations. From a personal point of view I found it odd to be in the room with a C.E.O. at first, but that shows the importance of this project for them. Normally you wouldn’t expect students to have meetings with C.E.O’s of companies.

At the end of the day we all felt like doing the project though!