Biography Freek Stikvoort
I was born on the 28th of February 1991. Together with my older brother and two younger sisters I grew up in beautiful Langweer, Friesland. It’s a small village that gets very touristic in the summer because of the nice lake used for sailing almost exclusively. I grew up doing judo and tennis and sailing in the summer.
When I was 10 we moved south to Hattem, a town just under Zwolle on the Veluwe. Quite a lot bigger than Langweer but still a nice place to grow up. I made friends I still have a lot of contact today with.
Going to high school I started at a bi-lingual school, but after three years I had to drop out because of my grades and switched schools. Next school wasn’t really any better and transferred one last time to a private school. I finished my HAVO there in 2008. After high school I started working in a factory to make some money and waiting for my friends to finish their exams in 2009.
Together with 6 friends I moved to Groningen to study. This was solely based on the fact that they were going there so I figured why not. Turns out not the best plan study wise as 4 years and 3 studies later I hadn’t finished anything. After a year of working the slightest bit and moving back in with my mother I decided to move to Ameland to work in a beach club. This turned out to be a great choice for my overall mentality, working hard and meeting new people. I stayed there for the full season from April to the start of December.
Coming back from Ameland I went on a few skiing holidays and in January decided to move to Switzerland to be a ski teacher. This was great as I could move in with one of my old ski teachers in an old chalet at the side of the town, heating by chopping wood and lighting the fire. True lovely experience overall.
Coming back from Switzerland I moved in with my father. My job was pretty much driving him around. Not spending too much time on this job I picked up fitness which had become a hobby of mine on Ameland.
Going into the summer I had no idea what I wanted to do. Doubting between travelling to Japan and be a ski teacher or maybe trying to find a study. I did a 3-week study test and the final result was IBIS, what really appealed were two things. Firstly, the innovation/creative part because I have always loved creating stuff whatever the subject. Secondly, the international part because looking back at my previous studies of which one was also an international one, I always like the interaction with the international people, and to me it always seemed like they are more willing to work hard compared to the Dutch. The deadline for signing up was 3 days later so it was still partly a guess but moved to Amsterdam a week later anyway.