Five Fellows - Project work and student life

 

Welcome back to our blog!

This time we are going to talk about project work and teamwork in general. Later on, we are going to share some thoughts about the student life in Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) from different viewpoints as well.

About project work and teamwork

TUAS provides many opportunities to participate in different kinds of hands-on projects, such as this project at hand. Naturally, this means grouping up with students from different and fascinating backgrounds. There are students from other cities as well as other countries – personally, we found this to be a good environment to improve yourself as an individual and possibly as an employee. Having students attending the same university from different sides of the world is also an ideal way to form new connections and make new friends internationally.

Working in a project team challenges the participants to consider others and one of the most important tasks is to delegate the work fairly. Because projects exist in a timeframe, first and foremost, the schedule must be discussed and planned. We have found that an effective tool for this is creating a Gantt-chart. Secondly, project roles should be established early on. These roles vary but almost every project requires a project manager who is responsible for the schedule, delegating, project progress and presenting the outcomes. According to our experiences, working in projects can be an effective way to learn new things, but only if the project participants are all equally enthusiastic and operate on the same wavelength.

About student life in Turku

Next as promised, let us get into the student life in Turku. Let’s start with Joonas Hytönen Rivero’s thoughts.

The student life does not revolve around studying nor working – I try to focus on having fun and enjoying the process, as well.

As mentioned in a previous blog post, I am currently finishing my studies at TUAS, therefore my workload has gotten lighter compared to my previous years. Throughout my studies, I have managed to keep myself busy by completing school tasks and working at the same time. In the midst, I also have time to play football and spend time with my close ones. Regardless of my busy schedule, I can confidently state that I have learned to balance different aspects of my life quite evenly. At times when I find myself being too busy, it is easy to feel unmotivated, but then I can take some time for myself to recharge. The student life does not revolve around studying nor working – I try to focus on having fun and enjoying the process, as well.

Siiri Velling – COVID-19 freshman point of view

I have lived whole my life in Turku and first of all, this is a great city. I also like that Turku is a real student city and many things are well thought out from the students’ point of view, for example there are gyms and student restaurants all around campuses and the downtown area.

I am a so-called COVID-19 time freshman, also known as second-year student, so I have not had a completely similar understanding of student life here. I believe many of you will be able to identify with my situation. The first two years have very much revolved around Teams and Zoom -classes. In a way, this situation has made it easier for me to combine school, work, hobbies, and so-called student life. Of course, I’m also looking forward to the events returning and seeing friends and meeting new people again. Finally, I would like to mention my favourite student event in Turku: Halliapprot! Basically, the idea for the event is to go to the hockey arena to watch the game and tour the arena’s restaurants and bars.

Mark Kivelä – Turku is just like bigger Pori

I have lived almost my entire life in Pori, but nowadays as I live in Turku, I feel like this is kind of like a bigger Pori. Turku is one of the biggest student cities in Finland and it has a lot to offer for students. It was very easy to move to Turku and it felt like home right away.

I started my studies in the fall of 2020 and my student life did not start normally, since at the same time as there was global pandemic going on so there were all kinds of restrictions. So, most of the studying has happened online and there has been a lot less of student events that I really was looking forward to. The pandemic has made studying for me really hard because I really need the contact lessons to really learn stuff, so I hope that we will get back to contact lessons soon.

My favourite student event in Turku is Aurasoudut! The main idea is just to go around Turku and visit as many bars as possible and there is also an event where people go to Aurajoki and have a rowing contest.

Eero Jalo – focus on school and floorball

As I mentioned in our first post, I am a second-year student at Turku University of Applied Sciences. This couple of years has passed with distance learning. Hopefully we will catch up with contact teaching soon. During my studies, I have also had enough time to play floorball. I’ve now had a couple of conflicts of interest dealing with injury and now it´s starting to be time to jump on the fields soon. So, during my student life, I haven’t had much time to spend at bars and parties. However, I can only imagine how fun events they are, but my choice is to put myself to shape. On a ski holiday, I go downhill a couple of times and take some time to relax from studies.

Patrik Dunderfelt – student who switched the degree

Before my current studies as a sales engineer, I was studying mechanical engineering for a year and that was 2017. During that one year of studying, I noticed that this isn’t for me. So, my whole one year as a student back then went into helping our engineering student organization with their events and basically going to every single student event I could.

Currently I can say that as a Covid-freshman as Siiri mentioned before, you really don’t find that many events unless they are online or for a small group. I really miss the good old days when we had events almost every day, when you could find something new every day, but most importantly get more friends and connections.

And before my thoughts go too much siderails here is my favorite student event in Turku: PGP, Polkuauto Grand Prix (I think its Pedal Car Grand Prix for English). There basically every student organization in Turku races against each other on a track and have fun. Many students come there to watch and cheer their own organization.

 
Thanks for reading!

If you have in mind the stuff you would like us to write or any feedback, please email siiri.velling@edu.turkuamk.fi.