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Student-driven WhySE? podcast at IMT’ 
04.05.2021


Student-driven WhySE? podcast at IMT

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Aktuelt
04.05.2021
2 min
The WhySE? Podcast is used as a tool for learning new skills, working together on the many practical and technical challenges and is a way to communicate the work of students and faculty-members - maybe list first as most important aspect

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Mette Rolan-Kjærsgaard

Chefredaktør

Jenny Eschweiler, Assistant Professor of Social Entrepreneurship always has something in her ears – earpods and a podcast that is.

»It’s really become one of my favorite medias to listen to – and that’s the case even more so for the students’ generation, so working with podcast seemed the natural choice when we started this out a couple of years ago« she says on a Zoom call from Berlin where she’s spending her Corona lockdown days.

The time honoured danish tradition of smoking licorice pipes when podcasting

The first workshop was held in the spring of 2019 and the WhySE? podcast has been running since with volunteer students doing everything including idea developing, producing and editing. The show spans over a wide range of content – the only rule being that it must have a connection to the Social Entrepreneurship program and Management (SEM) and that it should fit the time it takes to complete a train ride from Copenhagen to Trekroner.

Podcast wins the resume

Also joining us on Zoom was SEM alumni Lou Coubells(title xxx) who now lives and works in Paris, and who made her experience with podcasting at IMT into a selling point at a job interview, got the job, and is now working with podcast, among other things, for the French NGO Singa where she’s currently working.

»It’s something a lot of organizations would like to try out and work with, so it really was an extra edge in the job-hunting. It’s something a lot of organizations are interested in working with, but lack the skillset for « she says

Having to reformat and communicate the academic work they are doing for projects and exams into a more-easily approachable form has helped the students learn communication and gives them experience in understanding how other students work, as well as their professors at RUC.

James Plumeridge joined the call from England, where he is spending his Corona lock-down. He is currently a student at IMT and an active member of the WhySE? podcast team.

»You learn a lot from just producing the show – having to think about it, develop, learning how to have a conversation that sounds natural and not just reading out loud – and listening to another person at the same time, it’s not an easy task,« he explains.

Advertising and help for parents

WhySE? is also a form of advertisement for the Social Entrepreneurship program, James explains.

»Of course we would like to reach the general public – and have them and young people who could have an interest in social entrepreneurship listen to the podcast, and get an idea of what we work with. But we even heard that it helps parents understand what their children are working with and studying«says Jenny Eschweiler.

Right now, the Covid-19 pandemic has put the kibosh on the annual workshop for the semester, which helps recruit new podcaster, but it will hopefully be back in the fall.