Start of my thesis & some tips

Chaotic, confusing and still with my head in Sevilla...

That´s how I felt at the start of my thesis, which is now 3 months ago. Multiple persons (especially my friends in Sevilla) told me that this is exactly how they felt as well. Good motivation when you are about to start on your thesis, right? 😉

A month ago I finally passed my plan about the thesis and now I feel like I am finally getting to know what I am doing, which is a great feeling. According to an article (in Dutch) I read on the internet, there is more panic and drama on the way. Great to know!

I wouldn´t consider myself an expert, as I am just 3 months in making one, but I feel like it is much easier if you have an interesting subject to do research about, have a nice organisation which helps you whenever you want, and a mentor that is capable and willing to help.

Luckily I have all three of them. These are not things you can prepare at the start of your thesis (except when you work or an internship at your organisation and you know your mentor), but you can hope for it!

Find a Subject

You can think about subjects which might interest you. You do not want to research something for 6 (or more) months and not be interested in it, that makes it even more difficult). After you know which subjects you are interested in, you can look for an organisation which might be able to help you with that.

Let´s give an example. I was/am interested in the subjects social media with children and refugee/migrant youth (I study pedagogy). I thought these would be subjects the whole Dutch society is talking about.
Then I started looking for organisations that help refugees and I ended with an organisation that is about peer support.

This basically means that every young person can come in to ask a question, organise something or just chill and they will get help from other young people.

I felt like this could be an organisation that was willing to help me and would have a good subject to do research about. How lucky could I be! This were exactly subjects they were struggling with in some kind of way.

My subject & question

After struggling a lot with forming the perfect question for my thesis, I finally have something. It is about getting to know which questions the refugee youth (16 to 24 years old) has in the Dutch society, so my organisation (Jimmy´s in Groningen) can help them in the best way possible.

A lot of refugee have problems with arranging everything (think about money, houses, family reunions, integration in the Dutch society and more), especially when they become 18 and it is important to be aware of that.

I can write down a lot about this, but let´s not do that haha. Because I am so interested in this subject, I do not mind doing research about it, which makes me very happy. I really hope I will be able to help some refugees and my organisation of course.

I wish you a lot of good luck with your thesis (I am sure I will need it too!) and I hope my tips will help you to do research about something you are interested in! Stay positive 🙂