JYY and student activities

As a student at JYU, most of you might want to know about the Student Union (JYY) and even be interested in taking part in student groups and activities available at JYY. We have great opportunities to interview with one active member and one staff of JYY to help you know more about the organization.

In the first interview, Shruthi Reddy, an international student from Faculty of Education, talked about her experience in JYY’s subcommittee for development cooperation. When she was a member of IDESCO (the international degree student community), she heard about the recruitment of the chair of the subcommittee and gave it a try. Her motivations were to gain leadership skills and build more networks at the university, and also avoid getting depressed and bored without being part of any activities.

As the chair of the subcommittee, Shruthi is in charge of leading the meetings, raising funds for ongoing projects, interacting with coordinators in projects, handling the budget, running events, social media part, and communications tasks. She mentioned that it mainly depends on how much work you want to take, as there is no pressure or interruption for handling study and this position at the same time. It has been going smoothly in this very first semester of being the chairperson. And importantly, she can learn a great deal about Finnish working environment, the government and public policy, and how Finnish and international students think about development issues. In the subcommittee, the atmosphere is always welcoming and English is the language used; yet there have not been many international students to get engaged in. Shruthi shared her experience that during the first semester at the university, she only concentrated on her studies and did not put any effort in searching for student activities. At that time, she realized that it was not going to work out without involvement in anything, and then she started to be open to activities around the university and pick one with her interests. Now she finds it genuinely a good choice to get herself familiar with the working environment in Finland, and it is genuinely interesting but not too stressful and demanding. She highlighted that the focal point is to do what you can do, and meanwhile improve your personal skills.

In the next semester, the organization is planning to have more cooperation with other organizations within JYU and JYY, and make international students more aware of the existence of JYY’s subcommittees, particularly, in the orientation week and the Opening Fair on 3rd of September. Keep an eye on different organizations there, as you might find some place perfect for you!

Event and meeting by Subcommittee for Development Cooperation

We have another interview with Ágnes Stojcsics, Specialist in International Affairs at JYY. It's important to remember that JYY stands for the student union whereas JYU stands for the university. JYY is an independent organization and all degree students are members who hold rights and have benefits as such. JYY is set up to help students (both degree students and international ones), so all students are encouraged to seek help from JYY even when there is a minor problem. In case JYY cannot find out the solutions for your problems, they always can provide you with some helpful contacts. Ágnes stressed that JYY’s main task is the advocacy for students’ rights, thus students can always come to express their opinions or contribute their ideas to JYY.

There is no separation between activities for degree students and international students, thus all students are welcomed to take part in JYY’s activities, among which are the two subcommittees for Development Cooperation and International Affairs. The language used in these subcommittees is English. Subject associations are also great platforms for students to get to know others from your own field, and be in touch with Finnish students. And if you want to join in other affairs committees (social and academic, culture, sports, environment, etc.) whose main language used is in Finnish, you are also welcomed. However, it would be better to inform them in advance, so that they can have convenient arrangements for your participation. Language should not be a barrier at the university. In fact, the open-mindedness to take part in student groups suiting your needs and interests could help you gain new experience of multi-cultural environment, widen your connections and expose yourself to local surroundings. In addition to being a member of these groups, you can have the chance to hold positions of trust to obtain different perspectives of JYY. Ágnes highly recommends international students taking the courage to be integrated with the new study environment by getting involved in any student groups or organizations.

The bottom line is that every student is a member, thus JYY aims to improve their service equally for both domestic and international ones. JYY aims to be bilingual and nearly all posts in their communication channels are in Finnish and English. However, without connection with students, they are not able to give the best service. And it is expected that students should be aware of JYY’s presence and contact the organization whenever in need. Also, if possible, you can subscribe to an email list to keep posted about ongoing events and activities within the university community. The link to subscribe is at http://lists.jyu.fi/mailman/listinfo/ids.

Once you register, pay the fee of the Student Union and arrive in JYU, in the first week of orientation you will definitely receive a student calendar that includes information about all student groups it the back of the calendar. Check up on it and you will find something interesting to join!

By Phuong Do-Salenius

Student Ambassador Team