Research Trip 2019: ¡Soy Argentino!

Research Trip 2019: ¡Soy Argentino!

Vamos hombre! This year’s research trip will take us to one of the most cosmopolitan cities in South America: Buenos Aires! With its immigrant roots and wide boulevards, the Argentine capital is famed for its vibrant nightlife, museums, rich culture and picture-perfect architecture.

Our challenge: the Soy chain

But this is no trip for sightseeing only. As we all know, Rabobank has a mission: Growing a better world together. In order to achieve this, we must open our eyes to food chains that still need help to become more sustainable. We have to take responsibility for the influence that we have within those food chains and take action.

Based on our preliminary research we have determined together with Rabobank experts that the food chain we can best influence during our Jong Rabo research trip is the soy chain. And so we selected our destination: Argentina, the third largest producer of soy in the world. We’ll be finding out everything we can about the challenges in the soy chain. We will meet some of our key partners in soy, visit our local branch and, of course, we’ll head outside of the city to get to the bottom of soy. Our research findings will form the recipe for our organization to impact the soy chain towards growing a better world together.

Besides this important research component, there is also a serious personal development aspect to this trip. We’ll be helping you develop the leadership skills for the future. By expanding your view of personal leadership, you will further deepen your understanding of yourself, your environment and our organization. Because you cannot grow a better future by yourself, start thinking: what makes you a future Rabo leader? And remember, leadership is not attached to your business card: everyone is a leader.

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Application

Date and application

The research trip 2019 takes off on September 27 and will touch down October 5. Registration to indicate you would like to join the research trip can be submitted from May 7, 2019, 12:00.

Number of participants and selection criteria

The number of participants is limited to 40 Jong Rabo members.

Your motivation and view of personal leadership will be the main criteria in the selection process. Besides those main criteria we will strive to create a diverse group of participants. We will look at age, working experience, local bank/department, level of education and so on.

Registration

In order to make yourself available for the selection process you first have to register yourself on the Jong Rabo website (www.jongrabo.nl). This is possible until June 17, until 12:00 (midday). Before that time you also need to share your motivation with us. Two main criteria should be addressed in your statement of motivation.

• Describe why you are the right person to join us on this life-changing trip.

• Describe your view of personal leadership and how it impacts your life. * Maximum of length of motivation: 2 minutes.

Make sure your motivation is powerful and your view on personal leadership is crystal clear. The criteria above are a bit vague on purpose, because we want to leave you enough room for your own creativity. Creativity does give you bonus points! You are allowed to use any digital form for your creative motivation and personal leadership view.

You can share your application using our email address, studiereis@jongrabo.nl, or upload your application to the internet and share the link (including a password if needed) using the same email address. Make sure that we have access to your digital creation before June 17, 2019, 12:00. Otherwise your registration will be regarded as incomplete and you will not be selected for the trip.

What do we expect from you?

Personal contribution

The research trip is made possible thanks to substantial contributions from both the Rabobank Managing Board and Jong Rabo. But you do have to chip in as well. This year the personal contribution has been set to 575 Euro. This will help cover the trip, stay, meals, transport and all planned activities. After you have been selected we will inform you how you can pay your personal contribution.

Internal sponsorship

Every year part of the budget is obtained by asking direct managers or whole departments to contribute as well. We request that you ask your management or department if they are willing to sponsor a (small) part of the research trip. Maybe it is more an investment than a sponsorship, because your manager and department are going to benefit from the experience that you will bring back. We will facilitate you asking for this sponsorship.

Research assignment

As compensation to the budget that we receive from Rabobank, we will perform an in-depth research assignment on the soy chain and how Rabobank can impact this chain toward growing a better world together. We expect all group members to actively contribute to the execution of this assignment to a satisfactory degree. The expectation is that part of the assignment has to be performed after the research trip.

Attendance during the kick-off sessions.

• Kick-off 1: August 29, 2019

• Kick-off 2: September 12, 2019

The kick-offs are mandatory as they are an integral part of the total journey and experience. We need you all to be there. The kick-offs will be held in Utrecht.

Reunion

Because we all love to reminisce about this incredible trip we are going to take together, we will have a reunion so that we can do exactly that. The reunion is planned for: October 24, 2019

Practicalities

Travel insurance

We strongly advise all participants to get travel insurance. Jong Rabo is not liable for damage of any kind.

Travel documents

You will need a passport that is valid until at least April 2020. Make sure to check this and make arrangements to get the necessary documents. Applying for a new passport might take weeks!

No-show

Of course this does not apply to you, because you do not want to miss out on this life-changing journey. But if you were a no-show (with no/too late/invalid notice of cancellation), you will forfeit your personal contribution of 575 Euro as no-show fee.

Disclaimer

This research trip will continue, reserved that there are enough participants and sponsorship income to do so.

This is going to be the journey of a lifetime. And we hope you’re able to join and learn with us. We’re looking forward to your applications. And if you have any questions: let us know via studiereis@jongrabo.nl.