Great buddies
Great buddies
Every year, many students from universities over the whole world join one of the master鈥檚 programmes of our Graduate School. To help them feel at home quickly, the School has a so called Buddy Programme. Second year and up students can volunteer to become the buddy of one or more new students. The German student Marcello Eiermann was the buddy of the Italian first year-student Riccardo Campanella. Both study Artificial Intelligence.
When they had been matched, their contact started with a nice call, says Riccardo. They didn鈥檛 just discuss practicalities, like how to tailor the master鈥檚 programme, but also touched on a more personal level. During the Introduction, they went to the GSNS Master鈥檚 pubquiz together and they also participated and won the buddy challenge. Then weekly meetings and dinners followed.
鈥淢arcello has a lot of experience with organizational topics, like housing, with which he enriches me鈥, Riccardo tells. But they also did the AI safety course coding project together.
鈥淒on鈥檛 be shy in the beginning, but take every opportunity to make friends鈥, Riccardo advices. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not always easy to start connecting with fellow students, but it really is worthwhile to do so. Having a buddy, can make this easier鈥
Sign up!
The Buddy Programme of the GSNS is designed for new international GSNS Master鈥檚 students, and students that performed their Bachelor鈥檚 outside the UU, to integrate quickly and easily.
To make you feel more at home in Utrecht, at our university and with our academic culture, we pair you with a current student within your Master鈥檚 programme. They will provide you with a helping hand before and after your arrival.
Your buddy can offer support in all sorts of ways, helping you out with questions like: 鈥滺ow can I open a bank account?鈥, 鈥淲here can I buy a bike?鈥 or 鈥淗ow can I view my study progress?鈥.
They can also show you around the city center and our campus, explain the public transport system, help you locate housing services, provide information about education and administration or simply have a chat over a cup of coffee.
Participation in the Buddy Programme is completely free of charge.
If you want to sign up or want more information, you can contact Tanne Bloks and Melissa Kragten through GSNSbuddy@uu.nl.