Alumna Cora Man winner Marina van Damme Grant 2021

News - 19 May 2021

On Wednesday May 19th, Delft University Fund organised the Marina van Damme Award Ceremony 2021. Friends, family, former and fellow students and colleagues called in to attend the ceremony online. After three impressive video pitches and a short jury deliberation prof.dr. Marina van Geenhuizen, chair of the jury, announced that Cora Man is the winner of the Marina van Damme Grant 2021.

This grant is made possible thanks to dr.ir. Marina van Damme and enables young female engineers to develop and boost their personal career. This year, the jury nominated three candidates from seventeen applications for the prestigious award (€9,000): Dorota Talady, Faculty of Applied Siences, Jolien de Jager, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and Cora Man, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. Although Cora Man was awarded the Marina van Damme Grant, Dorota and Jolien did not go home empty-handed either. They both received the runner-up award of € 2,500, offered by alumnus Allerd Stikker via the Fortuna Fonds.

Challenging and ambitious career switch
Van Geenhuizen on behalf of the jury: “the jury highly appreciates Cora's systematic reflection on her challenging career switch to take over an innovative company in a business environment that is highly uncertain. Cora seems to have already taken this risky step mentally. She is very well aware of the soft and hard skills she needs to develop and she has a clear plan how to tackle this. The jury wishes her best of luck with taking on this challenge and hopes that this grant will boost her professional career". 

First of all I want to thank Marina van Damme for this opportunity. Her devotion made it possible for us, female engineers, to develop ourselves. I think she is a true inspiration for many women and hopefully I can also be such an inspiration in the future for woman as well. I would also like to thank my employer for his confidence in me and trusting me to continue his life work. I can’t wait to start this new adventure and I am very grateful for all te support I have received from colleagues, friends and family as well. Without them I could never turn this mission into a reality!

― Cora Man

About Cora

Cora graduated from the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering in 2014, MSc. Integrated Product Design. The road to this MSc. graduation was longer than average: she is one of the few MBO students who eventually completed a master's degree at TU Delft. After graduating, she was offered a job at the company for which she was also doing her graduation assignment. Asha International, a Rotterdam family business. She started working as an Industrial Designer to make production more efficient. It soon became clear that many processes within the company could be improved. Cora decided to take the LEAN SIGMA Black Belt course to take the company to the next level.

Today, she still works at Asha International, now as the right hand of the owner of the company. She also supervises various MBO and HBO students within the company. She is getting the opportunity to take over the company. Cora is planning to use the Marina van Damme grant to get herself ready for this take-over. “Although I know the company inside and out, I have little knowledge of technical business issues and how to run a company. This turn in my career means that I should develop in these areas in order to continue and grow the company. "

Cora will use the grant to pay for part of the costs for the Master of Business Administration (MBA) with specialisation Entrepreneurship & Innovation. This degree is offered at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences.

Read here about the two runner-up candidates