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Short Summary

The concept of a large student society from Norway

Walking along Elgeseter gate towards the center of Trondheim, a large red and round building attracts a lot of attention just before crossing the Nidelva river. When I first saw this building it seemed interesting, but I had no idea that it would play a very important role for my Norwegian student life and still fascinate me after going back to Germany.

Luckily, I did not have a super full schedule during the beginning of my Erasmus semesters and decided to apply for a volunteering position as a waiter/ bartender at the Studentersamfundet. After the surprisingly challenging interview I volunteered for 8h once a week in the student run restaurant “Lyche” during both my semesters in Trondheim. This is how I got in contact with a student society containing several different organizations all run by volunteers. Personally, I have never experienced or even worked in a similarly large and complex organization that is based on voluntary work. The more I learned about it, the more I was amazed by how well students can run such an organization in their free time and in my case serve great food and drinks in a restaurant.

During the second semester, the food was even topped when I volunteered as a cook as part of the largest culture festival in Norway: “UKA”. With the “Selskap“ group we prepared and served multi course menus for groups of up to several hundred guests.

The “Studentersamfundet i Trondhjem”

Founded in 1910, the student society in Trondheim is an institution, which is well known all over the country despite similar societies in other Norwegian cities. Its objective is to be the central gathering point for students. Among the most famous events are the weekly society meetings where students discuss politics and current events, but for an external observer concerts and other cultural events may be more visible. The red house itself is home to several music venues, a restaurant, a pub, clubs and a café, which are frequented by students but also accessible to the public. As a society, “Samfundet” is divided into several different groups that are either in charge of arranging events, running everyday business, working with administrative tasks or publishing the student media, as well as several bands and choirs. Furthermore, the cultural festival UKA and ISFiT - world’s largest international thematic student festival - originated in “Samfundet” and are still closely attached to it.

Approximately 1700 students volunteer in the previously mentioned groups in order to run this society. In addition to the volunteers, employees execute a few tasks. A daily leader, coordinator, general and financial manager as well as head technician, facility manager and cleaning staff are paid for their work. The whole concept wouldn’t work without the volunteers though. Within all the groups, leading positions need to plan their work and development, manage daily activities and teach the new people the necessary skills to keep up the good work in the following years. Despite not being their primary tasks (they’re all students) all of this seems to be very well organized and works fairly smooth.

Financially, some groups make money to pay the costs of others. For example, the festival UKA sells tickets for various concerts and parties whose revenues go into the preservation of the whole society. Obviously, this isn’t enough money to finance such a society. That’s why many events are only available to those with a membership. There are about 14.000 members who thus run the society. Future members are also encouraged to join with further discounts on food and drinks. The normal prices are already relatively economic for Norway.

Find out more about Studentersamfundet i Trondhjem here.

Why I loved being part of it

Because I love cooking and serving cocktails I really appreciated learning more about food and drinks, but also customer service as a waiter and bartender. For my personal experience, it was probably more important to be part of a large student group of volunteering students, though. It was inspiring to see how quickly everyone was learning, how motivated people were to do their tasks well, how much time and effort the leaders put into it, how much everyone enjoyed working in a group of nice people and how much time there still was for having some fun along the way. I was also surprised that such a large number of volunteering students (which normally do not stay longer than 5 years) is able to maintain a good quality of services not only throughout one semester, but also for several years. Besides, I was able to improve my Norwegian a lot there.

Due to my limited time of two Erasmus semesters, I did not advance to higher positions with tasks that are more varied and the responsibility to lead new people. However, I could well notice that the people in these positions already had or were developing important skillsets and a self-confidence that have the potential to help them a lot in their future work and private life. I was especially happy to see this as I felt like my studies had mostly taught me to study efficiently for exams, but few skillsets to work efficiently in a team and with typical tasks and problems that could appear in many jobs. It seemed to me like the students volunteering at Studentersamfundet developed much quicker and better than someone focusing completely on their studies. Some of the volunteers with more responsibilities end up needing a semester or two more for their studies, but not being in the regular study period is something normal to me as I studied at RWTH Aachen University.

It is not a surprise that it was possible to establish a large volunteering organization like Samfundet in Norway. Volunteering is such an integral part of Norwegian culture that the Norwegian word: “Dugnad” has been voted to be the word that best describes Norwegian Culture in 2004 [bbc]. This help/ support/ volunteering seemed to me as an requirement to run all of the sports clubs, organize social events and keep public places clean. As it also strengthens the community a lot, it seems for me to be a strong base for the incredibly well working society of the whole country. Hence, it is the one thing about Scandinavian and especially Norwegian societies that still fascinates me a lot. I am particularly interested whether this volunteering culture may actually be exportable and executable in other countries. I like to believe that “dugnad“ has the potential to solve a lot of problems worldwide.

How Samfundet helps developing students

Learning at Samfundet already started before joining. The interviews I had for different positions were similar to the ones for a normal job, thus either a good practice or even the most challenging job interviews some people will have in their whole life.

In the basic volunteering positions, students predominantly learn how to do their job. In my case, it was drink and food preparation, customer service, restaurant processes and organization. Someone working in the photo group would thus learn about the basics of photography and a volunteer for the newspaper about journalism. These hard skills could be valuable in a future job or also in the private life. Working in a team, following and questioning orders, communicating effectively and solving problems independently are just some examples for important soft skills that volunteers can commonly learn. Especially when someone spends little time doing internships, side or summer jobs, it is valuable to have learned these soft skills as a volunteer.

Once the students stayed a little bit longer at Samfundet, which they are encouraged to do, they do not only have the chance to participate in more trainings, but also start working on their own ideas. Many groups have smaller or bigger projects that need to be organized. The advantage of a non-profit student organization is that students with little experience are often allowed to take responsibility early on, too. Once students have some experience and successfully applied for higher positions, they definitely get some good opportunities to learn how to successfully plan ahead, manage at least a smaller part of the organization, as well as lead and teach other volunteers.

In my opinion, these are awesome chances to learn how to lead and to take responsibility already at an early age. As an employee it may take several more years to get into a position where similar skills are required or taught if at all. Especially when it comes to organizing a part of the linked festivals UKA or IsFit, the possibility to develop, evaluate and execute own ideas gives a lot of freedom, self-confidence and an amazing experience in project management and/or event organization.

Last but not last, the social network of volunteers itself is a reward and source of development for the participating students. Meeting inspiring students from other fields is facilitated, older students teach the younger ones as part of a well-executed knowledge management and members may discover unknown social skills as part of the group or in teambuilding activities. Finding friends and support for the studies and later on is just another positive side effect. There is even a contact person for problems during the volunteering or struggles in the studies.

Why I share the concept

So I really enjoyed volunteering at Samfundet and UKA and believe that they are great organizations not only for having fun and for meeting friends, but also personal development, coming up with and executing own ideas, taking responsibility and becoming a leader. Why do I believe this to be important enough to be shared with people in other countries though?

With climate change, constantly increasing garbage amounts and shrinking natural resources, a widening gap between the poor and rich, a growing influence of populism and possible risks through digitalization and automatization there are more than enough challenges to face for humanity. In order to have a chance of finding and realizing strategies to meet these challenges we could need all the help we can get. That’s why in my opinion it is especially important to develop young people and foster the upcoming generations.

Hence, having organizations where young people learn the necessary skills to find and enforce solutions is a basic requirement. From my own experience, it is also crucial to try out various different opportunities to discover strengths and passions. I can learn how to find solutions, lead people and execute projects, but only the skills are not enough to make a change. I noticed that I need a lot of motivation to do this, too. For me this motivation is usually based on two pillars. On the one hand I need to enjoy what I’m doing and on the other hand I need to see a purpose for the project. When either one was missing I didn’t put in my best. Having a purpose (best with a sustainable objective) and doing something I like, I managed to accomplish tasks I wasn’t sure I would be able to.

Being able to try out different tasks and activities is therefore also important to find passions and strengths. Luckily, a multifaceted organization like Samfundet has a wide range of positions to apply for and even the chance to switch “jobs” for a short period during the semester. It doesn’t offer everything, but luckily there are other student organizations and not student-based voluntary organizations where one can go for other types of positions. According to my experience, finding an intrinsic motivation has another positive side effect. Once people have found their strengths and passions and a way to work with them, they tend to be happier.

Another aspect of my theory is that I believe a happy person will naturally do more good than bad and that the positive development of single persons will at some point lead to a positive development of the whole society. If anyone is “left behind” and not happy with his life, they may not only be unable to help solving these problems, but possibly create new ones, too. Keeping development opportunities only to those with good chances to become a leader may not be enough. It would be even better if it would be possible to help anyone in finding his or her strengths and passions. At least according to my thoughts.

For some persons the real development may only come second, but the first step can be similarly important for them. Getting some “work” experience and successfully accomplishing tasks can be scarce experiences for some people. When other aspects of life are not going well it can feel very rewarding to be a part of something bigger and to help to making great things possible - maybe even without a completed education. I also noticed how incredibly satisfying it is just to make other people happy with my work. These little successes can give a great boost of self-confidence to get back on track, try something more or simply feel better.

Possible realization of a student run restaurant

Developing students is something that most student organizations accomplish quite well when the members get the chance to take responsibility and lead their own projects. A student run restaurant offers some more benefits and is in this connection especially fitting to me, as I love both cooking and helping people develop personally.

Coming back from Norway I already thought that more volunteering and similar organizations could make a positive impact in Germany. As part of the ICU-Final of the German leadership organization QX I introduced this idea and now I finally took the time to present it to you. Besides sharing my experience, ideas and beliefs, I would love to hear your opinion on it.

Therefore, here is a concept that I could imagine having similar positive impacts like Samfundet in another country:

My idea is a mostly student run restaurant possibly with a few employees and a paid supervisor. The objectives of the restaurant would be in the following order:

1. Develop students

2. Offer healthy and economic food

3. Enable small-scale research projects

As described above, the focus of such a place would be to develop students or maybe even young people in general. In connection with the different processes of a restaurant, volunteers should have the chance to try out various tasks to help them discover strengths and passions. Maybe they can already generate an intrinsic motivation to develop, evaluate and execute new ideas for the restaurant. Regular workshops and trainings would not only teach all the basics of food and drink preparation, customer service and restaurant management, but also cover soft and life skills. All of the members should be able to feel what it’s like to be a part of a strong social network and enjoy the benefits of teambuilding. Similar to Samfundet, I would also consider some kind of personal support worth the effort. This should include everything in the volunteering, but help should also be offered when the studies do not go smooth or when a member simply needs somebody to talk with.

Considering the food, such a restaurant should aim neither for fast food nor exceptionally high quality. As I have already tried to show at some events with the student organization BEST, good does not need to be expensive. Hence, simple, but healthy food for students and other people with low income would make for a good orientation. By doing so, skills and knowledge of a healthy diet would also be spread among the members.

The objective of such a restaurant would obviously be to run on a self-sustaining basis. In order to reach this or generate some more incomes for extra trainings and support I had the idea of small-scale research projects. They could for example include investigations in the following topics:

• minimum price and effort for a healthy diet

• qualitative meals with “new”, more sustainable ingredients, e.g. insects or algae

• optimized waste generation and management

• optimized restaurant processes, new organizational concepts

• marketing experiments

• Ideas for the restaurant of the future

Discussion

You just read about my experience with the Studentersamfundet in Trondheim and my opinion about it. I also introduced some of my thoughts about what our society may need to do to meet the current challenges of humanity and an idea how a student run restaurant may help to do so. Now it’s your turn. It would be amazing if you would like to tell me your opinion on the topic.

• Do you agree that an organization like Samfundet can help developing students or in general young people? Do you know similar voluntary organizations?

• Do you agree or disagree with my theories

  • that it is important to try out different opportunities to discover one’s own strengths and passions?

  • that it is necessary to know these to find intrinsic motivation?

  • that knowing these or working with them leads to a more sustainable (longer lasting) happiness?

  • that happy people are more likely to contribute something positive to the society?

• Do you think establishing a student run restaurant in a non-Scandinavian country could be possible? What are possible implications in your opinion?

If anyone thinks that it would be helpful to open such a restaurant or a similar organization or is working in a project with similar objectives, I would love to hear about your ideas, plans or maybe even how you’re already doing it.

The “Studentersamfundet i Trondhjem” is a great example of the volunteering culture in Norway. The large student society offers various different opportunities for students to try out different things and develop personally.

In my opinion, other countries could also profit from such student organizations as they give many chances to discover one’s own strengths and passions. Knowing and applying these facilitates intrinsic motivation and working with them makes people happier. Happier and further developed people would then contribute more to society and help approaching the large problems humanity currently is facing.