About us
ChildTuition Foundation is a Dutch Charitable Trust. It’s official name is Stichting ChildTuition. The ChildTuition Foundation was initiated by a group of individuals with strong backgrounds in multimedia, education and linguistics.
Dr. N. (Nico) Nobel
Founder
Nico Nobel (83), our beloved founder and friend passed away on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 in his residency Noordwijk, The Netherlands. We thank him for providing us with his inspiration and contributions to the foundation.
Nobel studied Law at Leiden University. He subsequently worked in Amsterdam as a tax-lawyer and as a publisher of articles and newsletters about Dutch and international tax law.
As a student, Nobel became friends with an Indian boy studying at Cambridge University. This friend invited him to tour India after finishing his studies, and he accepted. In 1958 he completed a 7 month tour through India by car, nearly covering the entire country. Having made a number of new friends, he returned often for short visits. As a result, Nobel regards India as a second home, and himself as half-Dutch and half-Indian.
Since 2006, Nobel has focused on the activities of the ChildTuition Foundation.
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Dr. Ir. J. (Jasper) Kappen
Chairman
Dr. Ir. J. (Jasper) Kappen started his career at DSM after having studied chemical engineering at the Technical University of Delft. He subsequently worked as a process engineer and logistics project manager. To share his knowledge and experience he started to give training in logistics and change management.
After working some time abroad as a volunteer in several projects he decided to study Medicine at Rotterdam University. He finalised his PhD in immunology in 2015 and he now is a pulmonary physician.
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Mr. R.A. (Rene) Bakker
Treasurer and Secretary
René graduated as a lawyer at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He has spent his whole business career in the Publishing and Information Industry. At the start he worked for Wolters-Kluwer and later joined Informa PLC where he was managing director of a number of subsidiaries.
His extensive network, vast experience in the field of professional education and his ‘hands on’ mentality can be of great value for the foundation.
René joined the Board of ChildTuition in November 2013.
Mr. P. (Peter) T. M. van den Oord
Board Member
Peter is graduated at the Rijksuniverstiteit Utrecht (civil) law and is graduated at the Rijksuniversiteit Amsterdam (fiscal) law. He has spent his whole business career as a professional lawyer. At the start he was a co/founder of Van Mens & Wisselink, tax advisors and lawyers and joined in 2002 Baker & McKenzie Amsterdam with a focus on M&A. Peter retired in 2012. Since then he hold non- executive board positions and is secretary (volunteer) of church council of the Roman Catholic parish St. Jan de Doper in Vinkeveen.
Dr. P. (Paula) Fikkert
Educational research and advice
Paula Fikkert is full professor First Language Acquisition and Phonology at Radboud University.
She studied Dutch Language and Culture in Groningen. In 1994 she defended her dissertation ‘On the acquisition of prosodic structure’ at Leiden University (cum laude). She continued to do research on language acquisition and language change at the University of Konstanz, Germany, before returning to the Netherlands as a research fellow at the Royal Dutch Academy of Science. Subsequently, she received an innovation grant from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO), and is now leading the Language Acquisition Group at Radboud University, which studies early language perception and production, focussing on sound structure and word learning. A lot of research is carried out at the Baby Research Centre.
Paula Fikkert is research director of the Centre for Language Studies, board member of the National Research School for Linguistics, member of the Humanities board of NWO, and a member of the ‘Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen’.
BA Y. (Ying) Fang
Project leader & Spatial designer
Ying was born in Shanghai, China. After getting her Bachelor degree of Fine Arts at Shanghai Art University, she came to the Netherlands in 1997 for her further development. After completing her Architectural Design studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, she has been practicing as a spatial designer in various companies in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
With ChildTuition she is working as a spatial designer, material researcher as well as a project leader.
Ying is an energetic, passionate and persistent designer. With her multicultural background Ying continuously seeks ideal opportunities to exploit her unique identity within the professional design world. From the projects she has done you will discover her own personal involvement and the contribution to the integration of Eastern and Western culture.
J. (Jeroen) van der Ent
UX Designer & Project Leader
began his career as a key account manager at an international trading company after having studied International Business and Languages. He was quickly convinced that the internet was a way more exciting playground.
At ChildTuition he is the UX designer and games producer. He is leading the team of developers and designers at ChildTuition and doing user experience research on unaided multimedia learning.
Besides that he is one of the founders of the internet startup CheckZis and working as a freelance UX consultant and designer for various international clients and worked for clients as Rabobank, Kluwer, Boijmans Museum and small tech startups in Europe.
Prof. M.M. (Thijs) Chanowski
Former board member & Producer
Thijs Chanowski (86), our friend and colleague passed away on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 in Alkmaar, The Netherlands. We thank him for providing us with his inspiration and contributions to the foundation.
Chanowski began his career as a musician and writer, but turned to the burgeoning medium of television in the 1950s. As a producer he created a famous children’s television show called “Fabeltjeskrant”, which remains a household name in the Netherlands. In the early 1970s he became involved in the development of digital media. The Philips Natlab hired him as an advisor to the team that developed the Laserdisc, the predecessor of the current DVD.
Chanowski has also been involved in various projects for innovation in education and was until 2012 a board member of the ChildTuition foundation.
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