’Summer school went by way too fast’

Photo by Niels Utoft Andersen

By Matilde Hørmand-Pallesen
 

The facilities at CBS have not stood vacant over the summer. Over the past weeks, students have earned ECTS points by concentrating on the international summer university programme, ISUP.

The last exams is finished today and Canadian Nadia Gunderson is one of the almost 1500 summer university students who can be pleased about concluding a productive summer.

- Summer school was really good, it went by way too fast, says 21-year old Nadia Gunderson, who will be travelling home this weekend to continue her finance studies at Sauder School of Business in Vancouver.

She chose to extend her exchange agreement with CBS to include summer courses in order to experience Copenhagen in sunshine and to have a less hectic next semester at the university in Canada.
 

Spontaneous group work

This year, ISUP offered 56 different courses on everything from financing and macroeconomics to anthropology and crisis communication. Nadia Gunderson saw the summer courses as an opportunity to try other subjects than financing and therefore attended courses on crisis communication and commerce, globalisation and politics.

Nadia felt that the weeks flew by because the teaching had another character than what she is used to at the university in Vancouver.

- I really liked the group learning. A lot of the summer classes are based on spontaneous group projects to do in class. It is not so prominent back home at my university.
 

Realistic assignments were a hit

Moreover, the realistic assignments were a hit. On the course in crisis communication, the class simulated Copenhagen Fashion Week, which will be taking place in the very near future. The students were split into groups and, via social media, they had to handle media crises during fashion week. 

- We had to interact with each other and with our teacher via Social Media during a simulated Copenhagen Fashion Week. It was a really cool hands-on learning experience - very live and in the moment, something I have never done in school before, she says.
 

International network

Students from more than 50 different countries participate in the summer courses. Consequently, there is plenty of opportunity to network with students from around the world. Nadia Gunderson has met Australians, South Americans, Danes and North Americans.

She encourages other future summer school students to participate actively in the social events ISUP organises. Movie and bingo evenings, concerts and parties have helped Nadia Gundersen make plenty of international friends. This evening, the summer university programme will finish with a big farewell party.

- It will be tragic to say goodbye to all the friends I made here. I am surprized how close we became. We have enjoyed Copenhagen together. But we can keep in contact on Facebook, she says.

Read more about CBS' summer university, ISUP, which will continue in 2015.