'After finishing my master Preventive Youthcare and Child rearing at the University of Amsterdam, I wanted to acquire more knowledge, experience and skills before starting the working life. I chose to study Youth at Risk because I was curious as to why certain risk factors can have far reaching consequences for one individual, while the other comes out alright.

I feel that Youth at Risk touches on the most important contexts that youth interact with and it gives you good insight into the mechanisms that can put youngsters at risk. What I like about the programme is that it is an international master, focussing on child development in different places, cultures and contexts; the professors use this to facilitate learning from your co-students.

Furthermore, there is space to focus on your personal needs and interests. For my internship at the GGD Amsterdam (STD-clinic of the municipality of Amsterdam), I  researched sexual health of youth with a mild intellectual disability.

For my thesis, I am focusing on how hiv positive parents tell their hiv negative children that they have hiv, and how this is experienced by both parents and children. As may become apparent from my internship and thesis topics, after finishing this master, I’d like to focus on youth’s sexual development.