I want to be close to the students

Some times it is difficult to be a student. My job is to help them find a way to go about their life and studies – even though they are challenged in more ways than one.

When I started working at CBS in 2000, the institution did not seem that large. There were fewer rules and shorter chains of command. But in my opinion, the opportunities to realise your ideas are the same. As always, a good idea requires hard work, good argumentation, and a hope for the best.

I have had new colleagues four times in my 16 years at CBS. First, I was programme manager at an Executive MBA. Then an MSocSc programme and an MSc programme. And now I am a student coach. I think that my knowledge of CBS’ organisation and my network have given me courage to explore new opportunities and a desire for change.

I’ve experienced many “great moments” at CBS, one of them being the creation of the student coach position in Student Affairs. I really wanted that job, as it tied my knowledge of CBS’ programme portfolio together with the coaching training I had just completed. I wanted to get closer to the students as human beings, not just students.

In my job, I have conversations with students who feel overwhelmed by life. Some times it is difficult to be a student. My job is to help them find a way to go about their life and studies – even though they are challenged in more ways than one. Besides from the fact that life just isn’t fair and everyone may experience times of crisis and almost insurmountable obstacles in life, an increasing number of students are pressurised by reforms. The lack of flexibility alone is a challenge to the students, which is why more and more students experience massive difficulties during their studies. I want to help them with that.

I like my job. It makes me happy to work at CBS. Perhaps it is because I’ve always focused on the things I find interesting and how I’m able to develop what I do or what I dream of doing. If I start to get bored or if things tend to lack variety, I love to come up with new projects with others – preferably across the organisation. The grass-roots project “Organisational knowledge sharing” is an example of this. Once, at an internal project management course five staff members, including myself, developed this project from a good idea. After a few months, we had raised external project funding for approx. DKK 300,000. The project ran over the course of almost ten years. We established networks across CBS’ administration and generated very good results.