Students Find Creative Way to Have Christmas Party in Times of Corona Measures

A group of Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences students found a creative and fun way to have a Christmas party, despite the COVID-19 measures currently in place in the Netherlands. After Wittenborg's traditional Christmas celebration for staff and students had to be cancelled, students Luuk Ornstein and Isaac Pattison had the idea of organising an online quiz competition on the same date the event was planned to happen, 16 December.

To promote the “Kahoot quiz party”, Ornstein and Pattison were helped by Support Office & External Relations Coordinators Xiaoli Wu and Sophia Faraji, who sent out an invitation by email to all of Wittenborg’s students. In total, the activity had 21 participants, who played individually against each other. The quiz featured 49 trivia questions on a number of subjects including Wittenborg-related topics, Dutch history and geography, general knowledge and entrepreneurship.

After one and a half hour of fun and laughs, the competition ended and the three winners were known. The champion was Lilly Seijffert, who won a 50-Euro Bol.com gift card, while Ural Erselçuk, who was second, received a 35-Euro Bol.com gift card and Kirill Solntsev, who got the third place, was awarded a 15-Euro Tony’s Chocolonely’s box of chocolates.

Dutch student Luuk Ornstein, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurial Business Administration (EBA), said that the inspiration for the quiz came from other online activities he had organised previously as a member of Wittenborg Amsterdam party and events committee. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been organising events that comply with the COVID-19 measures. I personally love pub and trivia quizzes, so I thought it would be a fun way for students to bond. After the event, I got a lot of messages from participants saying that it was a success and that they would love to do more things like this.”

Ornstein adds that, because he will soon be finishing his studies, he will no longer be a member of the party and events committee, but he hopes that Wittenborg will go on organising student activities of this type.

Wittenborg Support Office & External Relations Coordinator Xiaoli Wu said that she was very happy with the outcome of the event. “It was a great activity and we had a lot of fun. The event ended up giving students the chance of being together and feeling the warmth of the Wittenborg family during this difficult and at the same time Christmassy time,” she added.

WUP 30/12/2021
by Ulisses Sawczuk
©WUAS Press