Washington: TRiO provides students etiquette lessons over professional dinner

By: Osirus Washington

Trio and Student Support Services have gone above and beyond in serving students and giving them the proper tools to succeed. Trio provided a delicious free meal with an additional opportunity to show students how to properly dine by teaching them business etiquette.

Julie Jo Larson and the Trio Student Support Services staff put the event on with the help of guest speaker Jill Carson for the fourth consecutive year at Prairie Bay last Tuesday.

“The dinner was originally a dream of (Sue Austin). She said the dinner was something she wanted Trio to offer, so the team and I made it possible,” Larson said.

The purpose of the dinner is for students to gain experience and get more comfortable at network dinners. Practice will reduce anxiety for future etiquette dinners, organizers hope. Guest speaker Jill Carlson seemed very passionate and had a lot of good advice for students.

Carlson is the director of Training and Community Relations at the Mid Minnesota Federal Credit Union. She has a lot of experience attending network dinners.

“My advice would be to prepare for a business etiquette dinner prior to the dinner. That is what reduces a lot of anxiety for me,” Carlson said.

Carlson said her favorite part about sharing her etiquette tips and pointers are the questions students ask. According to Jill, “the dinner is a totally safe environment for asking questions.”

Larson put on the first networking dinner back in 2013 with Austin and fellow TRiO advisor Jane Vogt. Students won’t get an opportunity like this in an everyday classroom setting so it is important that learning experiences like these are offered. While Trio had roughly 50 people attend on its behalf, I would like to see more students taking advantage of this opportunity next year, and in the years to come.