Summary Of:The 4Th International Nightingale Conference , Norway October 25, 2013 and Partners

SUMMARY OF: THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL NIGHTINGALE CONFERENCE , NORWAY OCTOBER 25, 2013 AND PARTNERS EVALUATIONS.

Østfold University College in Fredrikstad and Oslo and Akershus University College in Oslo arranged the conference in cooperation with the Nightingale Mentoring Network. 50 participants were attended the conference.

The Vice Dean for the Faculty of Social Sciences, Per Arne Olsen, opened the conference accompanied by his own performance on flute. The Manager of the Nightingale Mentoring Network, Carina Sild Lönroth, gave us a short introduction about the importance of a I and a You a Dyad to become human.

Coordinator from Østfold University College, Nita Ørmen, introduced the key theme and how the conference had been planned. Hanna Skuggevik, a young guitarplayer and singer entertained us with her songs: Among others: ”Somewhere over the rainbow”. Coordinator from Oslo and Akershus University College, Mie Mørner, introduced the key speaker. Associate professor, Abdel Magid Al-Araki, presented his lecture: ”Enjoying the company of others”. Assistant professors Svein Fuglestad and Elisabeth Arnesen presented their lecture ”Using activities in mentoring” accompanied by films and music by Fuglestad. Researcher Elisiv Bakketeig fra the Norwegian Social Research presented results from the evaluation of the Norwegian mentoring project. Finally, the members from the different Nightingale concepts in Europe gave short presentations of their activities.

Evalutations from some of the participants:

- Very good conference. Brilliant key speakers and relevant examples. - Great conference! - Very good performance and fine and inspiring presentations. Themes of discussion were fronted. Maybe the different countries can present solutions/suggestions concerning the issue of recruiting male mentors. - Great that there were so many students present. - The English language was good. - An interesting day, with videos that show what mentors do with kids. - Nice hearing other countries talk about the Nightingale. - There should be more time for discussions. - A plus for artistic and cultural activities, good atmosphere. An inspiring conference. - Very good content concerning all the lectures. - A well planned network meeting and conference concerning food and breaks. - Wonderful with so much music, - Room for improvement: the slides for ”Using activities in mentoring needed to be proofread to avoid som many mispellings. - The very best was Abdel Magid Al-Araki. Very interesting and informative. - Positive concerning networking and meeting the other Nightingale members. It would be interesting to create a space to share methodology between members, workshops. - Maybe a final reheasal before holding a lecture? - Very good contents. - We appreciated not having parallell sessions on such a small conference. - To improve: Plan the overlaps between the sessions, who says what and when…! - Fantastic conference. Very good lecture Activity and communication. Very good with the parallell song and music and pictures to accompany it all. - Suggestion for the Malmø conference: There should be more time for each university to present what they do. - This should be a whole weekend, where we meet the mentorchildren also. - Positive that there were so many practical examples. - The musical presentations were very good. - The first lecture about intercultural communication could have been more connected to the Nightingale project. But the contents was very good. - Very interesting to hear about the Nitghtingale in Europe. We should of had more time for this. - A question: What is the mentoring alliance scale? Is it a scale to evaluate mentorprojects in all countries?

Fredrikstad, October 27, 2013

Nita Ørmen