Lunch-buddy

Lunch-buddy

 

Photo of the NTNU Principle handing out the prize

Kristin Karlsen and Hanne Olssen receiving the prize from Rector Gunnar Bovim

 

Social environment and student achievements are undoubtedly connected, as students who have a social network on campus are more likely to use campus and not drop out. Unfortunately, there are always going to be some students who struggle more socially than others.

“I wanted to do something positive for the student environment” says Kristin Karlsen, an Advisor at the NTNU IE Faculty, which IDI is part of. Her idea was Lunch-buddy, an event where students at IDI (who preferably don’t know each other) are matched in pairs and meet over a free lunch.

“Although the initial idea was to help improve the social environment at IDI, we also wanted to reach those who did not have anyone to study with. Those who might not have their social circle within their study-program”, Karlsen explains.

Karlsen pitched the idea to Excited in the spring of 2019. She received funding for three events.

Overwhelming feedback

Lunch-buddy turned out to be one of the most successful activities financed by Excited in 2019. “I was afraid Lunch-buddy was going to be too weird for most students. But it turned to be so popular we actually ended up with a positive deficit! Our funding was for 100 student lunches but over 130 students signed upsays Karlsen. IDI covered the extra cost. Two more events were held in the fall, and two more are planned in the spring of 2020.

Some of the students who attended had good social connections already, while others barely had any social connections at all. Despite the differences students had in going in, the results showed that the participants were either very pleased (69%) or pleased (31%) with the concept.

A student who has attended Lunch Buddy not once, but five times is Kristine Larssen. “It has been a blast each time. The beginning is always a little awkward, but that passes relatively quickly. You get to know people from other places in Norway and other study programs, which I find interesting and exciting”, she explains.

Depth-interviews will be conducted in 2020 to gather data for further research and document the effects of Lunch-buddy.

Positive deficit and Buddy award

The success of Lunch-buddy was also noticed outside the Department of Computer Science. During the Big Challenge conference in June 2019, Karlsen was awarded the Buddy-award (fittingly enough) on behalf of the Lunch-buddy team.

The Buddy-award is given out by NTNU’s Rector to honor those who make an extra significant contribution to the student environment. “To win this award is a nice recognition for the job we have done and how Lunch-buddy has been received by the students”, Karlsen said after receiving the award in June.

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