"The future prepares itself for us." - Interview with fresh TAMK graduate Oana Syrjäläinen

The journey is over - at least for the over 800 students who successfully graduated from TAMK during this spring.
One of them is Oana Syrjäläinen, who studied for 4 years in the Degree Programme in Tourism and graduated on June 8th as Bachelor of Hospitality Management.
There are uncountable experiences and impressions to collect during the time as a student and Oana shared some of them with us.

Why did you decide to apply to TAMK in the first place?
Oana: I actually got the idea to apply for TAMK (or PIRAMK at the time) one day before the application period ended (February 2009). It came as a surprise even to me that I wanted to apply, as I was not previously considering going back to school (after having already 2 BA degrees from Romania). I guess we are not always preparing for the future, but the future prepares itself for us. Tourism felt like a natural choice, also from my recently discovered love of travelling and because the programme was taught in English.

What kind of benefits and opportunities did TAMK give you?
Oana: TAMK gave me opportunities to work and study abroad, though Erasmus programmes, which enriched my life through new experiences and the people I have met while on exchange.
In addition, for me the practical training was an excellent chance to get to know the hospitality industry from the worker's point of view also and opened the path to working life in Finland, something most people might take for granted but not a given for us, foreign students, who struggle with language and culture barriers.

Were there any unforgettable moments that need to be mentioned?
Oana: I cannot speak of "unforgettable moments" but I can speak of unforgettable people: my colleagues are beautiful people from all over the world and I am happy to have met every single one of them! I feel that we have learned a lot from each culture and that we have come together as a small team during these years.

How was the graduation ceremony?
Oana: It was great that I actually had butterflies while at the ceremony, it is I guess a unique feeling for me and for the other nowadays alumni to know that studies are over, new challenges lie ahead and we no longer have to stress about exams, bachelor thesis and credits anymore. The ceremony itself was pleasantly concise and the speakers wittily entertaining, with subtle cross references on previous speeches, uncommon for these type of events, I think. Clearly a good decision to be part of it! Bonus for me was that I got to speak to Markku Lahtinen (President, Managing Director of TAMK) during the coffee-and-cake event, it was a perfect ending to the studies.

Do you have specific plans for the future?
Oana: I am one of the lucky graduates not to find themselves in front of a big question mark about the future, as I am already part of the team that opened in July 2012 Tampere's "youngest" hotel, so I will continue working in the same place.

Would you recommend applying to TAMK to other students?
Oana: Yes, I would recommend TAMK to future students. TAMK is young, dynamic and, in addition to wide fields of study, there is a visible "fun" culture through international events and club gatherings. Basically, I think there is something for everyone on offer, no matter how demanding and what is more appealing, anyone can get involved and be a part of it.
As for studying, tourism is still one of my favourite topics, so I definitely recommend future students to take up courses in tourism, it opens up the taste for travelling beyond imagination. And a piece of advice for all those pondering whether to go abroad for a semester or not: DO IT, you will become part of a community that will give you amazing memories and you will meet people that might change your life!

Oana Syrjäläinen at the graduation ceremony

Text: Oana Syrjäläinen, Bachelor of Hospitality Management; Annika Dillenburger, Trainee, International Services
Photo: Oana Syrjäläinen

International Week for Non-teaching staff 2013

International week participants at Pispalanharju.

TAMK International Week For Non-Teaching Staff ended on Friday the 31st of May and the 34 participants from all over Europe said their goodbyes to Finland, TAMK and new friends. The theme of the week was Intercultural Communication Skills and the programme of the week concentrated on it very effectively.

Finnish-German-French teamwork

The lectures of the week about intercultural communication skills were presented by international coordinator and PhD Ms. Irja Pietilä. During the week programme the guests and TAMK personnel got to study and work together in both theoretical and practical tasks. The group also visited another interesting university at Tampere, the University of Technology.

Irja Pietilä presenting her lecture about intercultural communication

Intense international teamwork during the lecture of Irja Pietilä. Can you find the positive Portuquese João in the picture?

One of the tasks was to draw together as a group, not as easy as it may seem like

A pair of finished group drawings by participants from Finland, France, Czech Republic and Germany. Stunning similarities!

During the programme at TAMK the guests and TAMK participants were divided into seven different Special Interest Groups (SIGs) for example to IT and Library services. During the SIG sessions they compared and shared information, knowledge and experiences of their own fields. Possible future co-operation and projects were also discussed, and hopefully this will be a start or continuation to useful and valuable partnership.

Human resources Special Interest Group discussion

Marketing and Communications SIG sharing information and experiences

After an intense start of the week of working and getting to know each other the participants got to enjoy the recreational parts of the programme as well. Tampere and Finnish culture were also playing a big part in the week programme and the guests got to know a bit about them for example from a sightseeing bus ride in Tampere and in the evening event at restaurant Kaisla located in the harbour Mustalahti. The number one culturally oriented event of the week was nevertheless the day trip to Maisansalo in Teisko, which is located only 30 minutes bus ride from Tampere.

Tuesday evening dinner at the restaurant Kaisla. Great setting and fantastic food!

At Maisansalo the week participants started the day with a lecture from Ms. Pietilä and after it was finished a delicious lunch was served. The lunch consisted of some traditional Finnish dishes, especially the fish dishes were fantastic. After the lunch the group got to try some Finnish summer games like croquet, mölkky and darts. Many visitors also tried nordic walking with our sports specialist from TAMK, Mr. Esko Tirkkonen. Big thanks to Esko for helping with the sports and games, because of him our guests managed to get to know a bit more about the Finnish culture!

TAMK representative Noora Kahra and the guests enjoying a beautiful summer day at Maisansalo

Croquet, a Finnish summer game, also playable in a wheelchair!

Action shot from a Mölkky game.

Most of the guests wanted to try the traditional Finnish smoke sauna offered at Maisansalo, what a nice and exciting atmosphere it was! The regular Finnish sauna also had many users, and the bravest also took a quick swim in the lake even though the temperature of the water was only 12 degrees Celcius. Relaxed smiles in sunshine after the experience were everywhere and the guests would have wanted to stay there for days.

 

A typical Finnish lakeside scenery and swimming after sauna were the favorites of our guests.

Relaxing after sauna

On the final day of the week the guests were asked to summarize what they had learnt about Finland and the topic of intercultural communication skills. The resulting presentations were both funny and full of information and smiling people. Judging from the teams' presentations and guests' feedback it was a really successful week in all aspects! Many thanks to our guests and participating TAMK personnel as well as the organizers and lecturers.

Aww, what a nice message.

A little overview of the week and the experiences of the participants

Summary of our guests' feelings on the last day

Text: Panu Alanko

Photos: Panu Alanko, Noora Kahra & Tuula Härkönen

Behind the scenes: Club International Tampere

Tampere loves CLINT - at least so it says on the members' hoodies. But why? Who are CLINT and what
are they doing?

CLINT's "working clothes"

Club International Tampere (CLINT) is a sub-organisation of our student union Tamko and consists of currently 6 members who are all both students at TAMK and International Tutors of Tamko. The board members for the upcoming autumn semester are chairperson Sanna Hosike, vice chairperson Annika Dillenburger, pick-up coordinator Essi Ihalainen, event organizer Marjut Lievonen, survival kit coordinator Dylan Rafferty and webmistress Iida-Maria Järvi.

It is quiet in TAMK during summer, however, behind the scenes there is a lot of preparation going on in order to organize the upcoming semester in the best possible way. That includes also CLINT who are already preparing for a wave of new exchange students that want to be taken care of and entertained.
About 120 survival kits are returned in the beginning of summer by the exchange students who are leaving back to their homecountries and all of them have to be checked by CLINT, so they can be given to the new incoming exchange students in the fall without missing or unusable contents.

CLINT is checking the survival kits

Even though there is a separate person in charge of the survival kits, usually all available CLINT members do the survival kit checking in team work, because it is much faster and of course also a lot more fun.

 With teamwork every task is finished twice as fast

Also the dates for the upcoming exchange student events during autumn have to be decided on and arranged and most venues and means of transportation have to be reserved well in advance, so also the event organizer has some amount of tasks to do during the teaching-free summer period.

Busiest during the summer is pick-up coordinator Essi, as she has to keep track of all exchange student arrivals - a record number of 180 this autumn - and make sure all of them are picked up by their tutor.

So if you are an exchange student about to arrive to TAMK - WELCOME! As you can see, CLINT is prepared and waiting for you!

Text: Annika Dillenburger, Trainee, International Services
Photos: Club International Tampere

Advertising campaigns for companies by European Advertising Teams

The management of SARAR company with IP participants

European Advertising Teams - EUTA IP 2013 was organised in Eskisehir, Turkey. Altogether around 40 students and staff members from Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and UK took part in LLP Erasmus intensive programme.  From Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland six students participated the IP: Hanna Nelimarkka & Satu Majava from TAMK Virrat, Degree Programme in Media, Scriptwriting and Visual Expression, exchange students Gabriella Fodor & Petra Turi from TAMK Virrat and from Tampere Laura Heininen & Jaana Syrjälä from the Degree Programme in Tourism. The coordinator of the team from Finland was Senior Lecturer in Marketing Pirkko Varis.

Demonstration of SARAR products

Advertising and media expert presentation

Students were divided into multicultural teams to work with company assignments. From each of the countries one company had given an assignment to the IP. The main task of the students was to plan a marketing communications and an advertising campaign for the European markets. Special lectures were given by experts in marketing communications and advertising to give students guidance in their work. Staff members of the universities worked as coaches for the teams. Students built up marketing communications strategies, campaign plans and produced creative solutions for the companies. Each of the team worked hard across the multinational boundaries and produced several campaigns for the companies.

Teams working

 

From Finland the assignment was given by Iittala. The aim was to raise brand awareness and sales of the vases and bowls of Alvar Aalto Collection among the selected target audience in Europe, to influence on the target audience, to raise the recognition of Aalto on social media in European markets, and to design an integrated marketing communications campaign including both traditional media and internet, online & social media. The student team from Finland did a market survey before the IP and the multicultural team worked with the assignment in Turkey. The company got the results of the work and is able to use suggested ideas in its operations.

 

Presentation of one team

Pirkko Varis with other judges listening to presentations

Team Iittala with certificates

To work in a multicultural team with a real-life assignment was a very positive experience. In addition to the study programme, some visits to the region and cultural programme were organized.  More about the experiences and feelings you can find in the Facebook.

We did it! Happy IP participants

Text: The team from Finland

Photos: Staff of Anadolu University

Goodbye Tampere!

Check out the video of winter impressions made by TAMK exchange student Stephan Besseling from Hogeschool van Amsterdam:

The video has been shot in Tampere, Helsinki, Baltic Sea and Lapland during Stephan's exchange period. He studied International Business at TAMK for Spring 2013 Semester.

The spring season showed the very different faces of Nordic climat for international students. The spring semester started with cold and snowy winter months and ended with sunny and bright, even hot days in May. In March a rare phenomenon occured when the clear and colorful northern lights were witnessed in Tampere.

At the same time when the summer arrived in Tampere, the exchange students started to get prepared for returning to their home countries. It's time to say goodbye and thank you for this academic year!

Text: Kaisa Merilahti, International Services