Students are super excited to wait for their 'coffee with the principal' appointment

"Don't hesitate, I invite!"

Recently, at the opening ceremony of the 2023-2024 school year, Professor - Doctor David Bangsberg, the new principal of VinUni University, a famous American scientist in the field of health, officially introduced himself to the entire school after 1 month of coming to Vietnam to take up his position.

At the opening ceremony, the principal invited all students to schedule a "coffee with the principal". Professor Bangsberg said: "Don't hesitate to schedule a coffee with me via email. You can have tea or even a smoothie. My treat!".

Professor David Bangsberg: "Feel free to schedule a coffee with me via email. You can have tea or even a smoothie. My treat!"

Before coming to Vietnam, Professor Bangsberg was the founding Dean of the School of Public Health, Oregon Health Sciences University and Portland State University (USA), abbreviated as OHSU-PSU. Although he was helping OHSU-PSU achieve many successes in training activities and mobilizing funding for the school's scientific research activities, Professor Bangsberg decided to fly halfway around the world to Vietnam to work at VinUni University.

Explaining this decision, Professor Bangsberg said that it was because he felt the intellectual passion and thirst for knowledge of VinUni students. In particular, he experienced this deeply in the past month, by starting each day by sitting and drinking coffee with VinUni students.

A happy selfie with colleagues of Professor Bangsberg on the opening day of the new school year at VinUni University

It is known that Professor Bangsberg and his wife arrived in Hanoi from the US on August 27, and first came to VinUni University to take up the role of principal on August 28. After the September 2 holiday, he returned to work on September 5. After more than a week of getting acquainted with the new people and working environment, on September 13, Professor Bangsberg started his first Coffee with the Dean.

The first student to have the honor of sitting down to drink coffee and chat with the principal was Khoi, currently a fourth-year student at VinUni Health Sciences Institute. Since then, before each working day, Professor Bangsberg begins by sitting down to drink coffee with students (one student or a group of two or three) at the school canteen.

Because of his hobby of "receiving energy" for a new working day with coffee, chatting and taking selfies with his students, a student forum commented: "If there is a title of the "most adorable" principal in Vietnam, this title deserves to be given to Mr. David Bangsberg, the new principal from VinUni".

Pham Le Quynh Nhu, a fourth-year student at VinUni School of Business and Management, said: "The first time I met the new principal of the school was on the day welcoming fourth-year students during the school's orientation week.

That day, Mr. David gave a speech and announced a scholarship including books and documents worth more than 2 million VND.   "For the first student who emailed me about booking a Coffee with the Dean. I emailed him right away and was lucky enough to get the opportunity."

Professor David Bangsberg with student Pham Le Quynh Nhu

The Coffee with the Dean between the principal and Nhu took place on September 27. The principal asked Nhu about her studies, asked if Nhu had any difficulties studying at VinUni...

"Before the Coffee with the Dean session, I was a bit nervous because meeting and talking with a school leader was an experience I had never had before. But during the coffee session, the teacher radiated a very close and friendly energy. I felt like I learned a lot from him through that conversation, even though he didn't give any advice," Nhu shared.

Students "super excited" waiting for appointment

Tran Hai Thanh, a second-year nursing student who was invited by Professor Bangsberg to have a coffee chat on the morning of September 28, said that once Thanh went to school to meet a lecturer in the nursing program to ask about some matters related to the study plan for the next school year and accidentally met Mr. David, who had just stepped out of a meeting room. Thanh and the teacher greeted each other, and because he had never seen the teacher at school before, Thanh asked who he was.

"When I learned that he was the new principal, I felt really "embarrassed" (because VinUni University had previously introduced information and images of the new principal on many channels). But he broke my awkward feeling by continuing to talk openly, saying that he wanted to understand more about the school's students, and that he would be happy if I emailed him to schedule a Coffee with the Dean.

I sent an email, and the Coffee with the Dean meeting took place about 10 days later. That day, he reminded me of the question I asked him about when we first met, which made us both laugh happily," Thanh said.

Professor David Bangsberg with student Tran Hai Thanh

That day, the teacher and student talked for about 45 minutes. Because the teacher had many connections with the health science group, the conversation became even more useful for Thanh, a nursing student. After that conversation, thanks to teacher David's introduction, Thanh was able to connect with an acquaintance of the teacher who was the founder of a company related to the service Thanh was interested in.

According to Thanh, although Professor David brings a new style of interaction with students, Thanh was not too surprised when he invited him to Coffee with the Dean. Teachers at VinUni University are often very enthusiastic in discussing issues related to students' learning experiences. The previous principal (Professor Rohit Verma) also often held lunches to listen to students' feedback about the school.

"Professor David Bangsberg is willing to take personal appointments with students and has actually maintained it for the past month, he said he will continue to do so in the future, I think it is unprecedented in Vietnam. My friends are also super excited to wait for the appointment (they all wrote emails to him), because it is rare to see a principal willing to help with the development process of each individual student like that", Thanh shared.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/sinh-vien-sieu-hao-hung-cho-lich-hen-ca-phe-voi-hieu-truong-185231012001632407.htm