I always looked forward to my trip to Turiba University, Latvia as an Adjunct Professor every year. One of the main reasons is because it gave me an opportunity to live and interact with my current and past students staying in the hostel.
I had been a Resident Fellow for more than 12 years. The interactions and the mutual learning I had with students had always been the key reason why I decided on 2013 to restart a new career in the academic world. My trip to Turiba University allowed to rekindle this passion to interact and learn with students of mine.
From the moment, I touched down at the University, a group of students I taught last semester made special efforts to bring me out for lunch (Laxmi Arora, Saltanat Amirkhanova, Srichanan, Majid). It was snowing heavily and they really took very good care of me. They bought bus ticket and brought me to a really nice restaurant. To my surprise, one of the students, Srichanan told me that for all the years that he was in Turiba University, he had never been to a restaurant and he came here because of me. I was so touched by this.
During my stay, I had the opportunity to visit one of the largest education conference and chanced upon another of my students, Linda who attended my IT security and risk management course. We had a good time catching up. It was enriching to learn about the landscape of University education in Latvia. This understanding was enhanced when the Deans of all the schools (Eriks Lingeberzins, Ivo Krievs, Jana Bunkus, Jānis Pekša, Zane Drinke) in the University followed by the President (Imants) met me for in-depth discussion on strategies going forward for the University and how I can value add over lunch and dinner.
I was also asked to run a teacher development programme to share with the professors how to use LEGO(R) Six Bricks to engage students in Active Learning (Ineta Luka) We had a lot of fun exchanging ideas and learning on teaching.
I interacted with the Director (Katrina Zarina) of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Latvia (all thanks to Aigars Rostovskis, President of the Chamber for the connections and willingness to consider this) to discuss potential collaborations to co-create something of value to their >6,000 members’ organisations.
The greatest highlights are: (1) 2 students, (Luīze Annija Rumpe, Hussein Shalaby) invited me for a drink at the beautiful skyline lounge and we chatted until late night; and (2) several students decided to cook an absolutely delicious chicken curry meal for me just before I departed.
Being able to teach in Biznesa augstskola Turība University has been a coddiwompling experience unlike no other. I thank Divinty everyday for this.