Translation: Lísa Margrét Gunnarsdóttir

Sprettur is the University of Iceland’s recent project, tailored to promising students with immigrant backgrounds and/or refugee students. Its purpose is to support and encourage these individuals through secondary school and towards higher education.

The Student Paper interviewed Nílsína Larsen Einarsdóttir, Sprettur’s project manager, alongside the project’s participants during their summer celebration.

The importance of creating diverse opportunities

„The nature of the project revolves around fast-tracking young people’s education,” says Nílsína. „It is of the utmost importance that we as a society ensure equal opportunities for education for everyone.“ Instead of assuming that all of us know where to look for opportunities, we must create them and make sure they are available to people with diverse backgrounds by purposefully creating means of pursuing them. „We look for people who want to seek out these opportunities and participate in our project.“

The project, which has grown significantly in size since its debut year, will take place for the third time this autumn. In the beginning, Sprettur’s participants consisted of 10 mentors and 10 students, but one year later its students had increased to 30, and its mentors to 15. “And we keep on expanding. In the coming school year, there will be 50 to 60 participants,“ says Nílsína, stating that even more mentors are wanted.

Working together towards results

„One can see that the opportunities presented through this project are appealing. People want to utilise the support and encouragement we can provide“ she says. The support Sprettur has to offer is threefold: educational, social and financial.

The students attend Sprettur every other week and study alongside their mentors. “We do not offer traditional classes, instead we are on site and ready to help our participants find solutions. Sometimes several of us examine a problem until we reach a solution together.“

The project’s social support revolves around the students being able to meet each other as well as other mentors. This includes the group attending cultural events such as soccer games and theatre, and going to cafés. “Simply meeting and spending some time together,“ says Nílsína. Additionally, all students receive monthly payments for participating. The mentors who participate receive a diploma supplement, a gift certificate to the University bookstore and a letter of recommendation. „When applying for further studies, having participated in volunteer work is immensely beneficial to the applicant. Therefore, this project can serve as a platform when pursuing other opportunities.“

The difficulty of finding space to be

Sunneva Líf Albertsdóttir was Sprettur’s assistant last spring. She began participating as a mentor when the project was first launched in 2020, and according to her it is quite common for mentors to participate for longer than one year. The project has mostly been active during the pandemic, and she and Nílsína state that the last school year was especially challenging. „Due to gathering restrictions, first and foremost. This is a large group which can make it difficult to find a proper space for us. All of us wore masks which greatly affected how we communicated,“ says Nílsína. „The situation made things quite complex.“ To adapt to these conditions, the team experimented with the structure of the project and moved homework assistance onto Teams for some time, but the whole group was relieved when in-person interactions could take place once again.

First student to apply for higher education

Crystal Mae Villados is one of Sprettur’s students, and the first participant to apply for university. She has been a resident in Iceland for over ten years, and first heard of the project through a student councelor in Hamrahlíð College. „I thought it sounded like something that could help me a lot,“ says Crystal. She states that the project has helped her both socially and as a student, and since participating she has applied for nursing at the University of Iceland this autumn.

Connections you can’t buy

It’s a lively gathering whenever the group gets together, and valuable friendships have been born as a result of the project. One participant even changed secondary schools in order to spend more time with another participant. „This happened as a result of a connection that began here with us,“ says Nílsína.

The project’s participants come from varied backgrounds, have diverse personalities and speak many different languages. „It’s lovely to see when a group consisting of such different individuals comes together, such a large group, because it creates a moment one can’t replicate or fabricate, some sort of magic,“ says Nílsína.

„One also sees that they reach out to the mentors, not just in relation to their education but also when they find themselves in a situation and need someone warm to speak with,“ she adds. „Connections of this sort are not simply ones you can buy in the store, and they’re not always easy to cultivate.“

Engaging the university society

The project is constantly evolving and serves as a gateway into the university society in many ways. „Concerning this large group with such diverse cultural backgrounds,“ says Nílsína. „We’ve been noting where the gaps lie within the university. Our aim is to provide missing or lacking information when it comes to the context of these gaps within education.“

It is high time that the university society looks within when it comes to students with diverse backgrounds who are already enrolled. „We do well in many aspects, but we can do so much better. We must involve both the university society as well as its students and encourage them to help us facilitate change, both regarding perspective as well as access to education,“ says Nílsína.

„We learn just as much as they do“

Each mentor has several students in their care, and regular group meetings are a vital part of the program. Often, mentors like Hallberg Brynjar Guðmundsson and Hákon Gunnarsson engage their students in activities such as going to the movies together, or taking a trip to the gym or local swimming pools.

Hákon says he didn’t fully realize what he was getting himself into when he applied to be a mentor. „He attended an interview with me and dragged two of his friends with him,“ says Sunneva, laughing. She’s initiated several lectures for the mentors, which, according to Hákon, have been very informative - he mentions that her seminar on colour blindness has stuck with him.

„It’s quite nice to be around people from such varied cultural backgrounds in a relaxed environment. It’s not as forced as attending an interview, I really like that approach,“ Hákon states. He feels that the mentors learn just as much from their students as the students do from their mentors.. „I would absolutely say that this is a two-way experience, we get just as much out of it as they do.“

„I would recommend for everyone to apply,“ Hallberg adds.

Beneficial for everyone - not just sociology students

„What makes this project so much fun is the diversity of the students, studying all sorts of things and then we meet here where we provide homework assistance. Having mentors with diverse study backgrounds is equally important,“ says Sunneva. „Many would perhaps think that only psychology students, student teachers or people studying sociology would have something to gain from participating in such a project - but every type of mentor is important, including people studying engineering or medicine, or anything else. We need role models from all directions.“

Empathy and respect at the forefront

Nílsína says the project has been blessed with quality mentors in the past three years. „It’s been such a strong group of people when it comes to human connection.“ Sprettur emphasises a personal and human rights-oriented approach. „The project’s foundation consists of our rights as humans when it comes to access to education. Such an approach grants us the opportunity to better ourselves and our way of approaching others.“

Hallberg has been in the business of working with people for the past seven years, and his experience has served him well when participating in Sprettur. „My line of work has introduced me to a methodology known as gentle teaching, where empathy and respect are the cornerstones of all our conduct - I try to keep that methodology in mind as a mentor.“

Our duty as a society

All students are still attending secondary school when they start the program, and the goal is to support, encourage and show them the opportunities at hand as well as facilitating them. „To be on their side throughout secondary school and onto the first year of their university studies,“ says Nílsína.

„It’s not just about us creating opportunities. It’s rather about our duty as a society to ensure the availability of these opportunities for everyone,“ she continues. „No matter where you’re from, or which religion you adhere to. That’s why a human rights-oriented approach needs to be at the forefront of everything we do. Our work is very much in accordance with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and universal values.“

Nílsína hopes to see more schools initiate similar projects, because it’s much needed. Our society is more diverse than many seem to realise.

Society’s duty in creating equal opportunities for all