The IU Office of Scholarships hosted its first “Take Your Professor to Lunch” event of the year Tuesday. The event allowed students to invite any professor of their choosing to a networking lunch held in the Tudor Room at the Indiana Memorial Union.
Megan Immerzeel-Davis, associate director of stewardship and scholar engagement for the IU Office of Scholarships, said the event helps students develop their networking skills. The event falls under the department’s Hoosier Scholar Experience program.
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“This event is a great way for our Hoosier scholars to develop their professional and academic skills by inviting their professors out to lunch,” Immerzeel-Davis said. “While you’re a student, it can be a little intimidating to get to know your professor better, but this is a really great way to do that.”
Immerzeel-Davis said students invited professors they wanted to get to know better, or professors that specialize in a subject they were interested in. She said that 34 professors and 41 students attended the event.
IU junior Mackenzi Neeley invited her professor Jessica Adams, an instructor at the IU School of Social Work, to the event. Neeley said she attended the event to learn more about her future career.
“I wanted to have a conversation about my future with Jessica,” Neeley said. “I want to get to know her experiences about navigating through graduation and getting into her career.”
Adams said she would encourage other professors and students to attend a “Take Your Professor to Lunch” event in the future.
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“This is a chance to foster more intimate connections between instructors and students and for the students to also be able to network with one another,” Adams said.
Immerzeel-Davis said the Office of Scholarships began planning the “Take Your Professor to Lunch” event over the summer. They decided to host the event in the Tudor Room because it provided a professional environment and had a central location on campus.
Immerzeel-Davis said that the Office of Scholarships hopes to host another “Take Your Professor to Lunch” event during the spring semester.
