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A14 LOCAL
Friday 16 august 2019

Aruba Today’s Columnist

ORANJESTAD — Aruba Today has 5 great columnists that contribute to our newspaper with their knowl-
edge and creativity. Please let us introduce to you Steve, Shanella, Anthony, Thais en Joris. They would
for sure appreciate your comment on their columns so feel free to express yourself!

Creative Islander by Thais Franken
Currently, Thaïs Franken is a 23-year-old Aruban student at the
University of Maastricht (UM). She is studying a Master of Science
in Public Policy and Human Development in collaboration with
the Unites Nations University (UNU). Back home, on the beautiful
island of Aruba she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Organi-
zation, Governance & Management (OGM) at the University of
Aruba (UA). She successfully graduated and defended her thesis
titled “Placing Culture and Creativity at the Heart of the Aruban
Sustainable Development” on July 6th 2018. Thaïs is very passion-
ate about topics such as sustainability, innovation, culture and
creativity. Next to her academic interests, she enjoys reading,
writing, dancing and cooking.

Island Insight by Anthony Croes of Etnia Nativa
Anthony Croes is an Etnia Nativa based artist at Westpunt, origi-
nally from Companashi. As a child, he demonstrated a natural
interest and respect for his old world heritage as well as his na-
tives’ ancestor’s history and their survival challenges. This same
interest encouraged him to pursue anthropological studies as
an academic call. For someone with such interest in cultural ex-
pressions it is no surprising that Aruba Today welcomed him as a
columnist.

Hotel Hustle by Shanella Pantophlet
Aruban born and bred Shanella Pantophlet is passionate about
tourism. That is the world she studied and works in, so we might
as well call her a specialist. Luckily for Aruba Today Shanella also
loves to write. And together with the fact that the majority of our
readers are tourists, we found ourselves a perfect combination
for a column: Hotel Hustle.

Today’s Catch by Joris Zandvoort
Dutch Joris Zantvoort is a writer at Fisherbooker.com. He writes a
monthly fisher report for Aruba Today. The company works with
17 captains in Aruba that help him create this report containing
information like: What is currently in the water? What can you
catch? Also amazing pictures are being shared and part of the
column shows The Captain of The Month.

Today’s Click by Steve Francees
Aruban born and bred Steve Francees has a passion for photog-
raphy. Being a local photographer he knows the hidden gems
of this island and captures them in an amazing way. As a Family
and Landscape photographer Steve is ready to create your next
‘vacation memories’, morning and/or sunset shots.

Our newest column: Happy Community Initiative
The Happy Community Initiative is a visitor charity program that
you can help build Aruba’s community strong by doing a dona-
tion to good causes. CEDE Aruba, a dynamic community foun-
dation, and the Aruba Timeshare Association (Atsa) collaborates
in this platform for visitors who would like to make a donation, but
also volunteer in the future. Happy Community Initiative, pub-
lished bi-weekly, every Thursday in Aruba Today.

We invite you to go to our website www.arubatoday.com and
read all their great articles. q