Prof. Dr.

Lauri Wessel
Professor of Information Management &
Digital Transformation
European New School of Digital Studies
European University Viadrina
wessel@europa-uni.de

Course Outline: Community Management Program (CMP@ENS)

Module: B1

Purpose of CMP@ENS. Studying at the European New School of Digital Studies

(ENS) is more than just learning. It is about participating in a community of people who
want to shape the digital transformation of Europe. Key to our community of students,
post-docs, professors, and our management team is that we get to know each other
really well. The raison d’être of CMP@ENS is to help building our community
particularly in these times where personal exchange is very difficult and community
building seems challenging. This will not keep us from building a strong and thriving
ENS community!

Key cornerstones and expectations towards you in the CMP@ENS context.

CMP@ENS is intended to run all year and to accompany you throughout your course
of studies and to help you settle in the Frankfurt (Oder) region. One important thing in
doing so is to foster exchange among our students and as well as among our students
and professors. There are a set of concrete measures that we will launch to achieve
this:

1. Community interview (starting winter 2020/21): Each student will do one virtual
video interview with one other student (we will assign students to each other). The
interview is supposed to be 5-7 minutes long. We will provide you with three to four
questions that you will ask the other student. You will record your interview and
share the file with Lauri Wessel and his team. They will make sure that all
interviews will be made available to the ENS community. In this way, we will be
able to learn about each other quickly. Assignments of interviews will begin in
November 2020. You will be contacted per email.

2. Community lunch/ coffee break/ evening drinks (starting winter 2020/21): Once a
month there will be an informal virtual meeting for lunch, coffee, or after work
drinks. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss diverse matters with you that
you consider important. Matters can relate to the study program, questions about
your career prospects, questions regarding how to settle in Frankfurt (Oder), or
other matters such as professors’ habits of watching Champions League or
whether Metallica should have broken up after the ‘Black Album’. Seriously, this is
more informal and targeted at getting to know each other better. Students need to
show up, Lauri Wessel will always be there too and other professors may join in
depending on their schedule.

3. Community advent calendar (starting winter 2020/21): Current regulations make it

unlikely that we will have a Christmas party. Therefore, we have designed an “ENS
advent calendar”. It works like this: Each student will be given this task: State a
question that is relevant to you in the context of studying at ENS, and then research
an answer to that question. For example, the question could be: “I was wondering
about how I can commercialize my project idea and who in Frankfurt could support
me?” The answer could be: “Contact the transfer office at Viadrina.” Whatever your
 Prof. Dr. Lauri Wessel
Professor of Information Management &
Digital Transformation
European New School of Digital Studies
European University Viadrina
wessel@europa-uni.de

particular question and answer is, you will share it with us and we will post one pair
of question and answer every day running up to Christmas. Questions and answer
remain available so that others can look them up. We expect this to be of great
help for students to get to know their way around at ENS and in Frankfurt (Oder).
Again, we will contact you with the task and timeline per email.

4. Career coaching (starting winter term 21/22): As your project and course of studies
develop, you will ask yourself what your future career may look like. We will invite
you for a personal one-on-one chat with professors about where your project may
take you. This may involve connecting you with practitioners or other contacts that
can be conducive to your personal development.

5. Adopt a rookie (starting winter term 21/22): More experienced students may be
asked to become a student mentor of a first-semester student. This involves an
informal role of helping and advising new students at ENS. Help and advice relate
to how to master certain courses, how to navigate in the Frankfurt (Oder) area,
and other aspects of student life.

Formal aspects. This course is awarded with 3 ECTS and counts as 2 SWS. The
deliveries for winter term 20/21 are your community interview video file, your
contribution to the advent calendar, as well as regular participation in our lunch, coffee,
or drink meetings.

Course instructor. Lauri Wessel and his team.