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Internationality is a subject that has been discussed a lot during our Soteekki practise. It resurfaces again and again every time from a different point of view. In Soteekki we want to offer an equal chance to participate not only on the services but also the action inside the world of Soteekki. Together we take these steps forward little by little and treasure this idea.

On Friday 29th of April Soteekki had an international day. This event was planned by Soteekki’s own international team. The main goal was to bring together international students and people from Soteekki. We were hoping for an easily approachable event where people could enjoy multiculturality, have fun together and get a chance to get to know to Soteekki before starting their own practice.

The day started at 10am when Agora hall doors were opened. There were games to get to know each other, games to celebrate Finnish culture and beautiful souvenirs from different parts of the world. We started with our own Soteekki people and even though we’ve worked together for the past three weeks, you can always learn something new about each other.

After lunch we finally got some international guests. For a bit we just got to know each other and after that carried on to tasting some Finnish delicacies. There was mämmi, breadcheese, salted liquorice and of course to celebrate Vappu: sima and mini doughnuts. We had also some fun little competitions and games like Alias, traditional boot throwing and finally a tug of war.

Favourites from our little taste testing ended up being sima and breadcheese. To our surprise even mämmi was bravely tasted and as always it really divided opinions. There were some heated debates both for and against. While planning we also looked up traditional foods from different countries. There would’ve been nothing better than to get some of these to taste too.

Multiculturality was also present through clothing. Every member of the international team brought something from their own culture to wear for the day. You could see fashion from Africa and Vietnam and also very traditional finnish bathrobe and rain boots. These were proudly presented on catwalk with backround music to set the mood.

The best part of the whole event was definitely the spirit and how everyone just threw themselves right on the fun! You couldn’t miss the laughter and glee ringing through the walls. All the joy was heard all the way back in the Soteekki office! It was also the last day of Soteekki for our nursing students so you couldn’t really hope for a better final day. We are grateful to get the chance to organize this event. Thank you to everyone who took part on the fun with us, to all members of the international team and of course our amazing supervisors that made this thing possible.

Written By : Nursing Student Vanessa Sayang

SAMK’s International Office hosted a “Get Together Day” at Silokallio on April 6, as part of its efforts to welcome exchange students from other nations in 2022. The majority of the participants came from Pori and Rauma campuses.

Me and my three international colleagues were invited to be part of the organising team in Soteekki as part of our practice, primarily to cover for games and other activities for the students. One of our objectives was to introduce Finnish culture and traditions through games and food tastings.

This blog will go into greater detail about the students’ experiences on this eventful “Get Together Day”.

Laura Adorni is an Italian exchange student at SAMK, Pori, studying Business and Administration.

She considers herself bold and adventurous, which is why she chose Finland as her study destination. The natural beauty of Finland drew her in, and she decided to learn more about it by studying here.

She was keen to urge that additional meetings like this be held in the future to foster friendship and camaraderie among international students, particularly at the start of the semester. Students that attended this event were able to participate in the Finnish Easter ritual and sample a variety of unusual Finnish dishes.

She said the most exciting Finnish tradition for her is going to the sauna and she finds the ritual of jumping into the lake afterwards remarkable. “For me, the experience was so weird, yet it gave me a sense of accomplishment,” Laura said.

Nutthanicha Thaosing, a Finn-Thai who has lived in Finland for almost nine years and was one of the Get Together Day organisers, is a student trainee at the International Office.

This was her first time seeing all of the international students and faculty members from various universities. She considers easter tradition as one of the most fascinating aspects of Finnish culture.

Nutthanicha was responsible with assisting the international office in the preparation of event programs.

Unfortunately, the cold weather made it impossible to organise all of the activities as planned for the event.

This event was beneficial for her because she aspires to one day work as a customer care representative for an international company.

She has always admired Finns for their punctuality and discipline. Her go-to-place for recreation and relaxation has always been the woods.

Janet Pitkänen, is a Finn-Ghanian second-year nursing student, got the opportunity to participate in the “Get-Together-Day” for International Students.

Janet participated in this memorable meeting as part of her practical training at Soteekki.

For her, the most interesting part of the event was the socialising. “Even though the students did not know each other, the mood was warm and inviting, ” she said, that “having more events like this is a must-have for the university.”

Since the event presented everyone to Finnish culture, asked as to which part of Finnish cultures she finds most fascinating. “Summer cottages, festivals like Juhannus (Midsummer) where everyone grills all kinds of food. The event starts on a Friday and by Saturday people are drunk, then the building of bonfires (kokko),” said Janet.

When it came to culture and tradition, asked about her favourite tradition back in Ghana and compared to what we have here in Finland. “Sauna”, she said, is an extraordinary Finnish culture.

Also, Finns are quiet individuals, which is in stark contrast to her native nation. She admires this side of Finns because she has wished to be alone and enjoy privacy at times. This is something the Finns have given her that she treasures.

Written By : Nursing Student Vanessa Sayang

Jane Ojo has always harbored a strong desire to make a positive impact on the lives of others in her community. She chose to make that difference through nursing career.

Jane is in her final year of her nursing studies at SAMK. The journey began in 2019, when she started cultivating the seeds for this career. She’ll be able to enjoy the rewards of her labor later this year when she hopes to graduate as a registered nurse.

Degree Programme in Nursing was not her first qualification. Few years ago she earned a degree in International Business.

But she recalls that nursing is her true calling. She describes this industry as a one-of-a-kind position that allows people to feel good about helping others while also allowing them to grow professionally and personally.

“It gives opportunities and challenges that encourage people to be the best they can be. Commitment is essential for overcoming obstacles on this road. The ideal ingredients to have are committing every ounce of energy to getting through and having the best support system behind you, ” Jane said.

In pursuing her goals, Jane has been supported by her family. The family relocated with her from Turku to Pori to assist her in establishing a new life at the university.

Looking back to when she first started her course, “Everything was new.” she said. However, as she discovered her heart for caring for others, things became easier for her. “I discovered that nursing is my true calling simply by putting a little smile on people’s faces”.

She is currently working on her thesis and obtaining advanced practical training. Jane was visibly smiling and joyful as she contemplated the prospect of finishing her studies and beginning her career as a nurse in earnest.

Written by physiotherapy students Sangita Gurung and Iqra Batool

There is a reason that we humans are the smartest creatures in the world. Because we have acquired skills and knowledge that has helped us to progress and develop further. The key element needed to acquire such smartness is called education that has provided us with the knowledge of surrounding world and environment. Each country or culture have their own set of rules and curricula in their education system. Here we provide few examples of how education is provided to students in different environment and how each system differs vastly from one another. We have interviewed students coming from different part of the world and asked them about their experiences of education in their home countries. 

Q1. What are your thoughts about schooling system in your country? 

Rassendyll (Cameroon): School provide good theory-based education and the student are very knowledgeable with theory content of the topic or subject. There is still lack of practical training because of lack of funding. In his personal experience the school or university environment was very active and a lot of interaction and exposure to different things were provided to him. He went to boarding school where he told us he learns skills like personal hygiene and organizing skills. He thinks that the skills he has today is all thanks to his exposure in his schooling days and it help him right now in his life either it is related to his personal or educational life. 

Karolina (Czech Republic): She mentioned that education is free in her country but way stricter according to her experience. According to her, methods of teaching is old school and memorizing the information is given priority over learning the actual thing. They had very frequent exams both written and oral throughout the semester. They are always graded for all the exams and the 1 is the best grade while 5 is the worst. Student does not have voluntary choices of the subjects as everything was mandatory. According to her the student are in constant pressure to be able to cope up and keep up with the pace of study. 

Matilda (Finland and Luxemburg): She had two different experience of schooling system and they were very different from each other. She had her primary education first in Finland and then her family moved to Luxemburg and then she started her schooling there. She mentioned that here in Finland children usually choose the school which is near to their area and learning environment is more relaxed as they do not pressure the children. Her experience in Luxemburg was very vastly different as school is chosen by parents according to their wishes that means it can be very far from their home and need longer time just to travel to and from the school. Studying environment was very strict and competitive. Children are examined and tested very often and are graded. Very long school days and you are forced to learn languages as you must at least know 3 languages in minimum. Studies were provided on the languages that you choose already at the beginning of your school first year. The education system was bit complicated as well. Most of the family comes from very prestigious professional background so the children had very much influence from early childhood. The school was very academic.  

Q2. What are your thoughts about education system here in SAMK? 

Rassendyll: Education in SAMK is job oriented basically the aim is to make sure that each student graduating from SAMK finds a job very easily and quickly. Overall, education/training is based on what is needed in that profession precisely. According to him, SAMK provides more practical training together with theory in each field, which is a good learning experience and gives motivation to learn new skills and earn new knowledge. Practical training makes a student be ready for work life which is great aspect in SAMK education. He as well mentioned that SAMK education is more focused for Finnish market. They target the job, employment for Finnish market. It would be great that the focus can be widen to more international market.  

Karolina: She mentioned that the studying environment is much easier here in SAMK, teachers are friendly, and they treat you equally. The focus of school is to help everyone to graduate. The school is modern and well equipped. Everything works smoothly here and is nice. Student events and organizations are a plus point. 

Matilda: She told us she had very good experience so far within SAMK and its education system. It is impossible to fail here which means teacher encourages us to pass and graduate and give all of us fair chances to succeed. Teacher and staff are supportive. Food is cheap as well. 

Q3. How do you compare both education systems? 

Rassendyll: According to his experience he told us back in his country social activity, interaction plays a huge role and is part of education system. They had various clubs’ activity provided to student for enhancing their additional skills. They had journalism club, sports club, writing club and many more kind of clubs provided by universities to students, and it helps their social skills as well. While in SAMK he has not been exposed to any kind of these activity and even though there are games and social event parties they are very closed group.  

Karolina: She told us sometime forced environment prepare you for upcoming life difficulties. According to her even though things were hard and pressurized during her academic year in her country still it has taught her various skills that is useful now in her life. While in SAMK she said she has right to choose that put her to ease. 

Matilda: She said both schools have its own strength and helped her to develop. She said the schooling in Luxemburg made her competitive and she gained language skills while in SAMK you have right of choice. Workload in SAMK is easier and you have free days which help student to work on their pace instead of pressurizing themselves.  But sometimes she finds herself less motivated to use free independent time to study as she need push from within herself. 

Wao, amazing! Each of their experiences differ so much from each other and from SAMK education system. Almost all of them have had strict school environment which has affected their future greatly, in some ways the effect has been positive while in other ways it’s been negative. Having a strict environment helps the student to be well-behaved, responsible as well as improve social and personal skills while on the other hands it can also have negative effect especially in regards with mental health. 

In our opinion, it is important to make sure that the schooling being provided to students should be thoroughly planned and implemented with giving equal rights to all students. Students do not learn by memorizing subjects or studying theories, they learn by understanding and practicing their skills to be able to become successful in life. They deserve to be given choices and chances in life to find the best and suitable career for themselves. It is important to motivate them instead of being too strict with rules which often results in demotivation of learning new things. With that being said, rules and regulations are extremely important to be able to make a system work and to be able to teach students the values and its importance. Rules are important but students’ wellbeing should not be affected by those rules. 

With this, we would like to end this blog here by saying thank you to the readers. We would like to mention to the readers that everything written in this blog is pure personal opinion and personal experience of different students. Hope you enjoyed reading😊. 

Written by nursing student Tatenda Malan

At Soteekki practice there is possibility to take advantage of any opportunity to further prospective careers, noting that making available opportunities strengthen both student personal and professional development.

Julien Bobet is a second year physiotherapy student and has just completed a successful entrepreneurship internship with Soteekki. During his five-week period, Bobet worked diligently to promote various social and health projects, including a hands on experience at podcasting.

We spoke to Bobet and asked him if he  had any prior experience of doing podcasts and what inspired him to do podcasts.

Doing podcast at Soteekki was Bobet’s first and only experience doing podcast: “I like to have a conversation with people and get the time develop a subject.”

“The good thing of it is its uncertainty, you can plan questions and time, but you want to have a conversation with your guest and you never know where it leads. Of course, you can always come back to tracks but never be afraid to dig in an information your guest gave you,” he adds.

For him to be able to do the podcasts, Bobet explains that he had to develop a concept by identifying the goals. Once the goals were in place, it was time to personalise the podcasts by selecting themes he always had in mind that which he thought he shared with listeners.

First podcast was about physiotherapy as a preventing tool. They interviewed physiotherapy teacher Maija Kangasperko and discussed on how to implement physiotherapy as a preventative therapy to patient before it’s too late, and to see what support there is from government, organization. Second podcast is made about having practical training in RoboAI Lab. Podcasters were interested in the implementation of new technology in health care and asked student Lorenzo Roccheggiani´s personal thoughts about his practice. Third was about triathlon and interview was done with teacher Kati Karinharju. They talked about her journey in the sport, community, training, different distances, and the fact that having fun can go together with performance. 

Bobet advices for effective podcast interviews, podcasters must prepare carefully, focusing on questions that induce the interviewee to talk freely. “Gathering with your pair, suggesting ideas, agreeing on a topic and a guest and writing some questions. What you are passionate about or just like the topic you kind of  know what you talk about, you share the experience and or you learn.”

He adds, “have on mind that you only have 20 minutes, and that goes fast so if you have a guest, it’s nice to let him or her talk as much as possible.”

Asked what he learned from doing podcasts and possibilities to enhance his own professional knowledge, Bobet says “learning from personal experience is great you can relate to it. People have great stories to tell when they are passionate about the topic. If you have fun or are inspired during it there are great chances for the listeners to feel the same.”

“Be interested in the story your guest tells more than in your questions. Podcasts are meant for discussion not for interviews.” He says that asking unwritten, and the information the guests helped him grow professionally, “I think that will help me when interviewing patients before treatment.”