Who are we?

We are Jan and Anneriet Boonen. We are the founders of Vita Tilburg. During our own college years, we really appreciated having a place where we could make friends, discuss life’s big questions, and just be ourselves. After graduating, we lived in Sarajevo for three years to create such a place for Bosnian students. When we returned to the Netherlands in 2008, Jan began working as an IT architect and Anneriet as a student pastor and coach in Tilburg.

We want to develop Vita Tilburg in collaboration with the students and young professionals themselves.

Our Team Members

Auke Hendriks

Auke has been working with us as a back-office staff member since April 2026. He handles the financial administration and general support tasks. Vita relies on donations and grants, and he takes care of that as well!

Starting in September 2026, Froukje is the coordinator of our peer support walk-in. She manages all the fantastic volunteers who are active there. Be sure to stop by at the walk-in or at one of our events for a chat. She’d love to hear your story!

Froukje de Hoop

Our volunteers

We’re blessed with a fantastic group of volunteers who dedicate an academic year to organizing activities or supporting our peer support walk-in. Every May, we start looking for new volunteers for the upcoming academic year. Are you a student and interested in volunteering? Get in touch with Vita!

Our dream

Our dream is to be a center for well-being and meaning in Tilburg—a place where students and young professionals can come for training, gatherings, or coaching, but also a place where you can rest, celebrate, meditate, eat, and live together.

Why

College isn’t just about acquiring cognitive skills, but also about developing practical life skills and exploring questions of meaning. We want to provide a space where students and young professionals can bring their own specific questions to explore together what makes life worthwhile.

In addition, various studies show that student well-being is under pressure. Well-being is closely linked to whether you can find meaning in your life. We want to work together at that intersection of well-being and meaning.

Our values

At Vita Tilburg all students and young professionals are welcome, and you may be who you are.

We love authenticity. We try to be ourselves as well as we can; we do not pretend to be nicer than we are (and that includes on social media 😊), and we watch over the balance between working and resting.

Vita Tilburg is going to come about as a collaboration of initiators and students.

We cater to both Dutch and international students. We always try to make sure that everybody can take part. This means that most of the time we communicate in English.

Sustainability and taking good care of our earth are important to us. In everything we organize we strive for as high a level of sustainability as we can reach in our environment. Should you have any ideas about even a higher level of sustainability, then we will gladly reflect on that with you.

At Vita Tilburg every one of us is both guest and host. You will be able to tell your own story and we all see to it that everyone feels at home.

At Vita we like both hustle and bustle and peace and quiet; we are into contemplation and parties, into deep thinking and learning by experience, and into living together and time off for ourselves.

Vita’s initiators live their lives from Christian spirituality. When we offer meditations, you will notice that we take our inspiration from ancient monastic traditions. We cherish Vita as a place where your spirituality or whatever your beliefs are can be discussed. Everyone is welcome, and we love to hear what inspires you!

Our partners

Vita Tilburg is a pioneering place of de Protestantse Gemeente in Tilburg. Other congregations that support Vita Tilburg are Ontmoetingskerk Tilburg, GKIN Tilburg, PKN Oisterwijk and PKN Hilvarenbeek.

We keep in close contact with Tilburg University and Fontys Hogeschool Tilburg. In that way we can constantly adapt what we have on offer to the perceived needs of students and young professionals.