BROADER RECRUITMENT. A group of 6th graders at Svartedal school now have a much clearer idea of what it is actually like to study at Sahlgrenska Academy. Students from several of our programs visited the school – and for some it was a joyous return – as they were previously students there themselves.
Svartedal school is a municipal middle and secondary school in Biskopsgården. The school has collaborated with Handelshögskolan, the Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law, for a long time, but at the beginning of October it was the first time that the school had been visited by students from Sahlgrenska Academy. 15 students studying to be pharmacists, midwives, biomedical analysts, doctors and dentists, took on the task of explaining to the 6th graders about their route to university, why they chose their particular education path and what it’s like being a student at Medicinareberget.
When Mesrure ‘Messan’ Karateke, class 6C tutor at Svartedal school, prepared the class for the visit by talking with them about the future and what they wanted to do as a job when they got older, he did not get many responses – but that changed during the study visit:
“Now when the students got the same question from the students from Sahlgrenska Academy, they talked about it. It’s likely that I got them to think about it.”
What do you think the students gain from this type of visit?
“I’m convinced that it’s about sewing a seed, getting them to think about the future. That they can see a link to school and, even though it feels like it’s so far away, it’s closer than they think. It can provide a weighty argument to take school seriously,” says Messan.
The students receive the same financial compensation that is standard when they help their university, but Anette Nilsson, communications officer who has collaborated with guidance counselors to plan the visit to Svartedal school, does not think that it was the money that was the deciding factor.
”Many of the students independently said that they would have found it good to have had the same insight themselves of what it’s like to study at university when they were in middle or secondary school. They are happy to inspire the children and answer their questions,” says Anette.
Several of the students also had another personal reason for their visit: they were once students at Svartedal school themselves.
The next stage is now being planned for spring, when all the four classes in 5th grade at Svartedal school are planning to visit Sahlgrenska Academy.
“We hope to be able to have a total of four meetings with these classes, in order to be able to begin in autumn 2018 with a new batch of 5th graders at Svartedal school,” explains Anette.
TEXT: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
PHOTO: ANETTE NILSSON AND FERESHTEH ERFAN
A brief video with the some of the Sahlgrenska Academy students introducing themselves for the pupils at Svartedal School prior to their visit:
