Berentsen Completes «hat trick» as winner of Bronze Sponge
Bachelor students praise the NHH professor’s ability to make statistics understandable. «Teaching makes me feel useful,» says Berentsen.
A visibly delighted recipient of the Bronze Sponge accepted the award to a loud applause from colleagues at NHH on Friday.
Geir Drage Berentsen was awarded the bachelor students’ long-standing prize for succeeding in making a complex and demanding subject engaging and understandable. The award recognizes his work in MET4, a course in statistics and empirical methods.
«It's very rewarding that students appreciate the teaching. This is a compulsory course, and perhaps not exactly what students imagined they would spend most of their time on when they first started at a business school,» says Berentsen.
Feels «Useful» as a Lecturer
He adds that he makes an effort to ensure that the teaching is as clear and accessible as possible.
This is the third time Berentsen has received the award. His previous Bronze Sponge win was in 2022, when he shared the prize with Håkon Otneim.
The statistics expert at the Department of Business and Management Science says he gains energy and finds meaning in standing in front of students at NHH.
«As a researcher, you don’t always feel that what you do is useful to someone on a day-to-day basis. But when I teach, I often feel: ‘What I’m doing now actually has real value. It feels useful.’ That part of the job is both enjoyable and rewarding,» says Berentsen.
A Long Tradition
The Bronze Sponge was first awarded in 1972 to recognize lecturers who, in the students’ view, have made an exceptionally strong contribution to teaching at the bachelor level.
The recipients of the bachelor students’ teaching award, the Bronze Sponge, are selected by the Student Committee and are based on nominations submitted by students at NHH.