It has been some time since we last sent out a newsletter. But that does not mean that rootlinks has not been active. On the contrary - the rootlinks organizing team took the fall semester as an opportunity to reflect on past semesters and challenges. We used the semester to get back to our roots (pun intended) and grow as an organization. In the following sections we have summarized for you what we have done so far and what we have planned next. So if you are interested, read on.
At the end of September we held our internal kick-off weekend in beautiful Appenzell-Innerrhoden. There we laid the foundation for the fall semester. We exchanged ideas about what rootlinks means to us, what values rootlinks has and what we want to achieve. We all saw rootlinks as a community where we can grow, challenge ourselves and have a positive impact. We want to keep that going in the future and hope to reach a broader audience with our learning journey as well. These findings accompanied us through the following months.
As you might know we work in different circles which focus on specific topics. Here’s what each circle did this semester:
Learning journey circle
We’ve evaluated the feedback from last Semester and integrated the suggestions into the “new” learning journey. Based on the feedback we’ve adjusted some steps of the journey, such as having a more clear red thread, more transparency and keeping up the delicious food 😉 We also plan to integrate the challenge partners more into the future challenges to get most out of it for students and partners. Additionally we’ve started to integrate mindfulness more into the learning journey, likewise with a red thread, as we see it as a useful tool to cope with stress.
Challenge partner circle
From the beginning, our challenges have been at the core of rootlinks. Together with our challenge partners - ranging from large companies to small NGOs, start-ups, and activist groups - we give our participants the opportunity to work on problems outside of academia. To create an impact and provide both our participants and our challenge partners with a positive experience we are always tweaking the way in which we find and define our challenges. For this next semester, we are looking towards new organizations (see below) and want to try some more participatory approaches for the challenge partners to get involved in the process. We're excited and optimistic to see the fruits of our labour!
Marketing circle
We worked on our marketing plan and scheduled the following marketing campaign during the winter months. We’ve especially looked at our goal demographic and who we’ve additionally want to reach. Our goal is to also reach more students from the universities of applied science and the UZH.
Look out / new challenge partners:
We are already in the middle of the preparation for the spring semester and have already some exciting challenge partners we want to share with you! This semester, we once again have the pleasure of working with Sustainability Week Zurich. And we are just as pleased to announce that we are in contact with two other potential partners: Helvetas and Brauerei Oerlikon. Details still need to be worked out, we’ll keep you posted on the final confirmation. Additional partners are also still in the process and will be announced soon on our social media. So make sure to subscribe to our Instagram and LinkedIn. We hope that these new partners have caught your attention and motivate you to apply to this semester’s challenge 😉 All the best, The rootlinks team
