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Study Problems? Get Free Coaching at the Online Coaching Centre (OCC)
Why coaching?
Everybody can be confronted with doubts, insecurities, lack of motivation, stress, etc. You don’t have to face these challenges alone. The trained coaches of the Online Coaching Centre are ready to talk to you and look for other ways to deal with things. They support you in your personal development and contribute to your personal growth, adjusting to each individual situation. Warm and enthusiastic student coaches, supported by a panel of experts, will converse with you and ask nice, reflective questions to get to a new outcome. Your coach will join you in your adventure, to develop and strengthen yourself.
Go to https://occ.sites.uu.nl/en to find out more and book your first appointment (includes in-person appointments)!
The Motivation Behind and Origins of the OCC
The Online Coaching Center was devised by Hamed when the Netherlands had its first lockdown, in March 2020. Suddenly, all classes had to take place online. He participated in UU’s Incluusion program, which allowed him to follow the course Coaching & Training: theory and practice, ministered by Assistant Professor Daniëlle Vlaanderen at the faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences. She asked Hamed what he could contribute to her course. A week later, the plan for the OCC was on her desk.
Hamed’s idea was to create an online center where students could find help with issues they commonly face in their life and studies. “It had to be a place that did more than solving problems. It’s also about personal growth, development and unlocking students’ potential”, he explains. The coaches were recruited among the best students of Vlaanderen’s course, so they could gain work experience. “Hitting two birds with one stone”, as Hamed puts it.
Such an online center did not yet exist at Utrecht University and was thus an addition to the support offered by UU on campus, which had been hampered or interrupted by the lockdown. Moreover, the switch to online education and other measures to combat Covid-19 were expected to cause even more study problems. “In a crisis, people tend to seek each other out, but Covid required us to keep a minimum distance of one and a half meters from each other”, says Hamed.
text sourced from the OCC website