In the past few weeks, with strict quarantine regulations in place, students have had to keep in their rooms – watching movies, sleeping, sometimes attending online lectures and just pondering on all the time they had the opportunity to get out and party but didn’t.
The college offices of the four residential colleges have hence, assumed a position where it is almost imperative that they keep the students’ morale high and keep up with their usual exciting shenanigans. We reached put to everyone on the college office teams and asked them to talk us through how they’re working towards to maintaining a normal life in their respective colleges.
Nordmetall
Over these mad times, Nordmetall has tried its best to keep high spirits. It was a new challenge, but we came with ideas for the students to not feel left out of social interactions, always respecting physical distancing. We started with some posts on Instagram with themes. Each College Officer did a different day, and we came up with Motivation Monday, Dienstag Debunking, Mittwoch Movies, Donnerstag Dad Jokes, Fitness Fridays, Safety Saturday and Fun Day Sunday. Moreover, virtual cheer-ups have also been scheduled on these days, where the students can join a video chat and engage with different activities, through playing, or just talk to the college officers.
Alongside the common room, where people can go have fun indoors playing ping-pong, pool, table-soccer or video games, we also made an online server in Discord. One of the new College Officers, Chirster Norén, created an online Nordmetall social hub, with an online servery, MMR, Common Room and even a coffee bar with different tables! On this server people can go and see play simple games with their friends such as UNO® and Connect 4. There are also further team-based online games for the more experienced.
Furthermore, virtual office hours have been running, as a replacement for physical office hours, so the students can still refill their hand sanitizers, borrow light bulbs, vacuums or get face masks; avoiding unneeded physical interaction. As well, our RA team and RM, Catherine Paro, are still reachable at all times for the students to contact.
On this way, we are helping the Nordie community to keep a high morale and cheerful spirits over this world crisis.
Krupp
Krupp College Office Team
The Krupp College Office team’s goal has always been creating and sustaining a community here at Krupp; in the face of adversity and restrictions imposed for the greater good of the public health, now, more than ever, we strive to continue providing a home for Kruppies. The circumstances are not normal; no college student should have to go through a pandemic, on top of their already stressful lives. But, here we are; And now we have to make the best of what we have, together.
Challenge introduces adaptation and innovation. We here at the KCO have chosen to pursue digital forms of engagement and entertainment with our community. Consequently, we have “From Kruppies, For Kruppies,” which is a day-to-day schedule added on top of our office hours to stimulate interaction between the community. Each night is hosted by one KCO member with some sort of theme. For example, on Wonders Wednesday we host a live stream called “Two Kruppies Try” on Twitch TV where our KCO member, alongside any volunteering Kruppies, try new games and hobbies every week; On Boogie Thursday, our KCO member hosts a virtual stretch session via Instagram Live in order to remind everyone that physical health remains important and physical activity is another outlet that remains open for us. Check your spams and feel free to join us virtually for some laughs, games, and shenanigans! You don’t have to be from Krupp to enjoy Krupp College activities!
Life is not normal; if it was, we’d know what to expect. At the very least, we want you to know that we took on this job to serve the community and we will continue doing so, just in new formats. Please remember that these changes in our social lives are necessary for the good of the community. And we here at the KCO believe that this community is filled with strong, amazing individuals. We’ll make it through, together.
Until then, wash your hands, follow the rules, and tune in when you can!
C3
As awful as the COVID-19 has been, it hasn't been able to get us down yet.
Before the pandemic reached Germany, we were planning a huge event to raise morale and community spirit in C3. Then the Coronavirus came and completely changed the game, but we haven't given up yet— far from it.
We've altered some of our ideas to fit the still-changing parameters, but we've got plenty planned for our dragons. Each member of our team is exploring different themes and ideas to keep our community engaged, active, and spirited. These include yoga challenges, recipes, fun videos, memes, music syncing, good news highlights, hobby shoutouts, and more; we think of new ideas every day! Our Instagram and Facebook inboxes are always open and we've been receiving a ton of content from our community to share and we absolutely love it. We're dedicated to working and serving our community, now and through whatever comes.
In the words of the great Robert Frost, "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
Mercator
Mercator College Office Team, Resident Mentor and Resident Associates
The COVID-19 outbreak has had a substantial effect on everyone’s daily life. Due to the restrictions and self-care routine that we have to follow and coordinate to ensure everyone’s safety, there has been little room for activities which spring our community to life.
Mercator College has risen up to the challenge of taking care of its residents and fostering an engaging community even though we have a tough task of doing so virtually. Our college office has extended virtual office hours now to cater to the needs of everyone for longer periods in case anyone requires help with anything. To try and engage the community more we have introduced “Themed days”. These days invite our college community to come together and share their ideas through social media according to the daily themes which include but are not limited to Mercator Chef Monday, Top Ten Tuesday, and Wednesday Tea Facts etc. We also use different platforms to try and engage people to do things together such as Netflix party, and games and also offer useful advise and ideas on how to take care of ourselves during this time. The RA’s have been trying their best to play their part with helping students in whatever way possible (for example, off campus grocery shopping) and our RM is also always available - online or a phone call away.
We plan to keep doing such activities and think of more creative ways to engage and offer maximum support to the Mercatorians while keeping up the community spirit that we have built up over the year.
We want everyone to stay strong and healthy as we ride through this special time! This requires a collective effort from every one of us and we hope our constant efforts in taking care of one another while maintaining a distance will play a major part in overcoming these challenging times!
BY USHASHI BASU (INDIA) | CLASS OF 2020
