(Oranjestad)—Rudselyne de Kort, better known as “Rudsy” by her family and friends, is a 30-year-old recent graduate at the University of Aruba with a Masters in Law. She currently works as a jurist at Richbar Attorney and Corporate Advisors, while she waits to give her oath as a lawyer. She sat down with our reporter and shared a bit about her life, her studies and the different aspects of her life which molded her into the person she is today.
Since childhood, she was involved in the world of entertainment. She danced, modeled, and was once a television presenter. Through this, she got the opportunity to travel abroad and represent Aruba in beauty pageants and dance competitions. Besides this, Rudsy loved sports too. She used to play soccer and volleyball. She was also busy with different activities and this was a part of her life she really enjoyed.
During her years in higher education, Rudsy was active in different activities as well. Once she graduated high school, she went to Flagler College in Florida, where she remained active in the school’s dance team and volunteer work at the Enactus Organization. This organization focused more on her study, which at the time was Business Administration.
After Rudsy received her Bachelor’s degree, she wanted to first go back to Aruba and then continue her Masters in The Netherlands. However, due to family reasons, she decided to stay in Aruba.
She then paid a visit to the University of Aruba to see in which direction she can go in terms of her studies. Law was something that she was always interested in.
“I thought, let me try one year to see how it goes, and it went great. My grades were very high and I loved the challenge it gave me. I thought, well if it’s going really well and I like it, why not just keep going,” she expressed.
She remarks that she had no plans to do this study, and during her last year, she worked as an intern at the firm she currently works at. They contacted her to do a two-month internship program, which went very well, and they asked her to stay and work as a jurist assistant. For more than a year, up until she graduated in January, she worked in that positions and after she graduated, they offered her a job as a jurist, until she receives her new title as a lawyer.
“It wasn’t something I planned, it just happened. But it was something that I just grew more interested in since the day I started,” she said.
Rudsy is currently studying another career. She explained that she is not necessarily changing her career, but she personally feels like she wanted to finish her studies at Flagler College.
She came to find out that the UA had masters in business administration, which lasts two years. Because of this, she grew interest in finishing her masters in business administration.
Rudsky shared that the great thing about this is that the office in which she works specializes in corporate law, which means that her masters in business administration can go hand in hand with her masters in law.
As mentioned already, Rudsy has been active since childhood. She highlighted that this helped her become the person she is today, above all in sports and dance. These were activities that really helped her become disciplined.
“If you have a goal, you have to work hard for it. This surely reflects in studies, especially during times when I was struggling with my first Masters study. At a certain point I wondered if this was really for me. Sports and dance helped me a lot with this, especially during competition seasons: sometimes you have to sacrifice fun.”
At an older age, Rudsy started doing cross fit. Through this, she was introduced to the sport of Olympic weightlifting. She shared that till this day, this is something she loves doing, even though she doesn’t practice much anymore. She hopes to starts again in the future.
With barely a year’s worth of training, Rudsy ended up in second place in the national competition, which was a huge deal for her, because she had only started it as a way to distract herself. Her hard work reflected in her progress and this is what made it interesting for her.
In terms of the future, Rudsy shared that in ten year’s time, she sees herself working in her field with more experience and more knowledge. Law is something very complex; there are many aspects to it and she hopes to learn as much as she can. She expressed that she has an entrepreneurial spirit too, and she hopes to balance this with her profession in the future.
She ends the interview with a final message to the younger generation: “I firmly believe in education, but even more than that, I believe in doing what you love. It’s true, you do need a plan and you do have to work hard, but the important thing is that you do something you really like and see what you can with it. Most people who changed the world were people who followed their passion,” she stated.
