25-27 of August was a great and fruitful time for the SUPP team. We went to Jabłonna Palace for a 3 day workshop. Our aim was to summarize the work done already and to develop strategies for planning and conducting Orientation Week, preparing information for our foreign students and to consider information channels that may be used.
The SUPP team members present on the workshop included MUW academic and administrative staff (Magdalena Lazarewicz – the project lider, Dorota Wlodarczyk, Marta Oldak, Artur Białoszewski), experts from Norway (Unni Moksnes, Geir Espnes, Espen Munkvik, Wolfgang Laschet and Kristine Halvorsen), and MUW’s domestic and foreign students (Anna Gilbert, Mateusz Machnij, Michael O’Donnell, Muhammad Fikri Muhammad Safian and Mgcini Ndiweni). One of the highlights of the meeting was a visit of Prof. Bożena Werner, the Dean of English Division, who discussed the SUPP project outcomes with the Norwegian experts and project lider.
Here are some experiences from the students that took part in the workshop.
The workshop allowed us to pool our creative efforts together as well show that with relatively sparse resources we can still come up with something positive to the university experience. Having access to NTNU’s own research and findings was eye opening and it’s comforting to know that we aren’t the only ones who struggle these sort of issues as medical students. The remoteness of where we were staying was refreshing and forced us to really work as a team due to few distractions. Although it was perfect for a brainstorming walk/jog. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can implement from the discussions.
Michael O’Donnell
This was my first workshop as a part of the SUPP team and it was a great experience. The review of the work and analysis done by the team in the previous months allowed me to get up to speed and also allowed me to contribute to the meeting in an informed manner. Having the Norwegian team at the meeting was great, they gave us sound advice on how to carry out our plans; we also managed to draw inspiration from seeing how their international welcome went this year in Trondheim. It was rewarding and encouraging to know that they think we are on the right track.
Mgcini Malusi Peter Ndiweni
I went to for the SUPP workshop in the Jabłonna Palace and made new friends for a lifetime. I hope that I integrated quite well with the SUPP team and I learnt well with planning and trying out the icebreaker game. It will definitely be useful in the next stage of the project.
Muhammad Fikri Muhammad Safian
The last days of August I had an opportunity to take part in the workshop for the first time in my life. The Polish-Norwegian cooperation appeared to be very fruitful. We developed many outcomes of the project and had a lot fun at the same time.
Mateusz Machnij
