Nearly half a room of students who attended Wednesday’s Etiquette Dinner learned they should put their name tags on the right side of their chest instead of the left.

The Etiquette Dinner took place at 6:30 p.m. in BE15 of the Memorial Student Center and was conducted by Terri Thomson, an etiquette consultant.

The dinner, organized by Career Services at Marshall University, seeks to provide students with a relaxing, yet professional environment where they can learn some basic knowledge of how to conduct themselves at a dinner table with potential employers.

Debby Stoler, assistant director for Development and Outreach at Career Services, said everyone knows how to eat, but there are some proper things they should and shouldn’t do.

“The whole idea is to build confidence for the students,” Stoler said. “It can be kind of scary if you are having an interview for a job that includes a meal and there are a number of forks and spoons on the table. You’re thinking to yourself, ‘which utensil I should use first.’”

Throughout the dinner, Thomson walked around the tables and had the students dine as she spoke.

Blake Chadwick, a senior civil engineering major, said learning to eat from the outside in is news to him.

“I think it’s great Marshall organizes free dinners like this to educate students, it definitely would help in a professional environment,” Chadwick said.

Will Shaffer, a senior civil engineering major, said the lessons he learned from the dinner were beneficial for him, not just in the business setting, but in any setting at all.

“I feel like my mom taught me manners really well, but I guess one thing she left out is scooping away from yourself when you eat soup,” Shaffer said. “It kind of make sense now that I think about it, but my mind was just blown away when I heard it.”

The Etiquette Dinner is an event held every semester.

Kessyl Lim can be contacted at [email protected].