Another College Tour, Student Services, & a Trade Show
Thursday, May 28
Yesterday we went to another college, though I'm not sure which one it was. We have visited so many! The thing that gets confusing for me is that every college offers its own programs, and several programs are housed within each physical location. Suffice it to say that at the college yesterday we met with social work students and saw labs for programs such as nursing, medical lab technology and assistance, and the equivalent of early childhood and elementary education.
The first thing we did was meet with students! They were social work "majors" and told us about the projects that they've done this year for their internships. These projects included putting together a "money week" to teach fellow students about saving and budgeting, a theater production about what it's like to be a mother in different cultures, and putting together lessons and activities for young children. One student also told us about his service learning trip to Bosnia to do activities with impoverished children there. These students were more mature than others I've met and interacted with, which I'm sure has to do with the fields of work that they are going into.
The social work students took us on a tour of the college. I haven't really been taking photos of the other colleges and I kind of regret that, but I had to take a photo of the recycling project at this college. They make things out of recycled materials and what they've done was really awesome and artistic.
After that we had lunch with a guy who I believe must help coordinate a lot of the study abroad opportunities for students. Then we met with "my people." We met a couple of student services people! The two women we spoke with mostly help students in terms of career and disability support, as well as "social work," meaning helping students figure out how they can be successful in college whilst dealing with personal issues. It was interesting to learn about their processes and philosophy; it feels like their system for this is much more holistic than ours. This meeting made me feel lucky that we have a department dedicated solely to disability support, as the ROC (the collection of all 12 colleges together) has only one person to serve all students. Of course an ongoing theme for all education systems is "do more with less." Certainly this was true during our interaction with these ladies.
After Joyce's workday was done, we drove to a nearby town called Amersfoort, which is about 25 miles away from Utrecht. The trip took us nearly an hour because of rush hour traffic. I've never really seen traffic that bad before, even in Chicagoland. There are just so many people in a small space trying to get to where they need to go after work... it was crazy.
Our purpose was to visit another ROC college and judge students on their English ability. This was the students' final project after completing an internship with a company, doing work related to their studies. They were to present the company that they work for and the job that they do in a trade show format, so each student had a booth with information about their company. We visited 10 booths and had conversations with the students. All the students were men, aged 18-22ish; they are logistics workers and team leaders, which basically means that they pick orders in a warehouse and/or lead a small team of order-pickers. This event was kind of a big deal for them since their jobs are relatively easy, if I can say that (certainly the students themselves said that!), and may or may not require much professionalism. Many of them were nervous to talk to us, which might have been because I was introduced as an American. I feel like I would be much more nervous as a student to talk in a foreign language to a native-speaker! They did such a good job though and most had huge enthusiasm about their jobs and the companies that they work for. I hope their enthusiasm was real because it was so refreshing to see people love their jobs, especially something that seems so simple. A few students were more ambitious and you could tell that they wanted more and would make good managers some day.
At the end of the event, students with outstanding performance at the trade show were awarded and we, as "examiners," were thanked with a bouquet of flowers and I had to do a triple cheek fake kiss with one of the guys who coordinated the event. Triple cheek fake kiss is customary in the Netherlands, whereas in England they did one or two cheek fake kisses. So funny and interesting!
Overall, the trade show was a fun experience and a great way to end my "work" here in the Netherlands. I love the idea of this culminating professional experience for students. I keep saying how fun it is to talk to the students, but really it's been such a pleasure to get to know them a little bit.
Yesterday we went to another college, though I'm not sure which one it was. We have visited so many! The thing that gets confusing for me is that every college offers its own programs, and several programs are housed within each physical location. Suffice it to say that at the college yesterday we met with social work students and saw labs for programs such as nursing, medical lab technology and assistance, and the equivalent of early childhood and elementary education.
The first thing we did was meet with students! They were social work "majors" and told us about the projects that they've done this year for their internships. These projects included putting together a "money week" to teach fellow students about saving and budgeting, a theater production about what it's like to be a mother in different cultures, and putting together lessons and activities for young children. One student also told us about his service learning trip to Bosnia to do activities with impoverished children there. These students were more mature than others I've met and interacted with, which I'm sure has to do with the fields of work that they are going into.
The social work students took us on a tour of the college. I haven't really been taking photos of the other colleges and I kind of regret that, but I had to take a photo of the recycling project at this college. They make things out of recycled materials and what they've done was really awesome and artistic.
After that we had lunch with a guy who I believe must help coordinate a lot of the study abroad opportunities for students. Then we met with "my people." We met a couple of student services people! The two women we spoke with mostly help students in terms of career and disability support, as well as "social work," meaning helping students figure out how they can be successful in college whilst dealing with personal issues. It was interesting to learn about their processes and philosophy; it feels like their system for this is much more holistic than ours. This meeting made me feel lucky that we have a department dedicated solely to disability support, as the ROC (the collection of all 12 colleges together) has only one person to serve all students. Of course an ongoing theme for all education systems is "do more with less." Certainly this was true during our interaction with these ladies.
After Joyce's workday was done, we drove to a nearby town called Amersfoort, which is about 25 miles away from Utrecht. The trip took us nearly an hour because of rush hour traffic. I've never really seen traffic that bad before, even in Chicagoland. There are just so many people in a small space trying to get to where they need to go after work... it was crazy.
Our purpose was to visit another ROC college and judge students on their English ability. This was the students' final project after completing an internship with a company, doing work related to their studies. They were to present the company that they work for and the job that they do in a trade show format, so each student had a booth with information about their company. We visited 10 booths and had conversations with the students. All the students were men, aged 18-22ish; they are logistics workers and team leaders, which basically means that they pick orders in a warehouse and/or lead a small team of order-pickers. This event was kind of a big deal for them since their jobs are relatively easy, if I can say that (certainly the students themselves said that!), and may or may not require much professionalism. Many of them were nervous to talk to us, which might have been because I was introduced as an American. I feel like I would be much more nervous as a student to talk in a foreign language to a native-speaker! They did such a good job though and most had huge enthusiasm about their jobs and the companies that they work for. I hope their enthusiasm was real because it was so refreshing to see people love their jobs, especially something that seems so simple. A few students were more ambitious and you could tell that they wanted more and would make good managers some day.
At the end of the event, students with outstanding performance at the trade show were awarded and we, as "examiners," were thanked with a bouquet of flowers and I had to do a triple cheek fake kiss with one of the guys who coordinated the event. Triple cheek fake kiss is customary in the Netherlands, whereas in England they did one or two cheek fake kisses. So funny and interesting!
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| Beautiful flowers! |
Overall, the trade show was a fun experience and a great way to end my "work" here in the Netherlands. I love the idea of this culminating professional experience for students. I keep saying how fun it is to talk to the students, but really it's been such a pleasure to get to know them a little bit.