INSIDER 19.01.2018 | VOL. 20 | ISSUE 11
STUDENT MAGAZINE OF XAMK
EVENT PLANNING
THE NEW LIBRARY ONE YEAR OF XAMK THE DRY PROFILE
THIS WEEK DOKI DOKI LITERATURE CLUB CONNECTIONS, CONNECTIONS
EDITORIAL STAFF
Anastasiia Abgarian Mikkeli Current Affairs
Daria Chekalskaia Mikkeli Current Affairs
Stela Demaj Kouvola Current Affairs
Hafsa Farah Kouvola Current Affairs
Lingli Jing Profile
Suvi Karell Overseas Reporter
Trang Le Recipes
Long Nguyen Layout Editor
Setareh Nourzad Abkenar Kouvola Current Affairs
Hugh Clack Editor in Chief
INSIDER STUDENT MAGAZINE South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Paraatikenttä 7 45100 Kouvola Editor in Chief: Hugh Clack INSIDER ISSN 1457-1587 /INSIDERSTUDENTMAGAZINE 2
PHONE +358 44 702 8758 WEBSITE insider.xamk.fi EMAIL insider@xamk.fi
EDITORIAL
Another semester, another year. Next month Insider celebrates 19 years of publication, so the big 20 will be next year! We have seen many changes along the journey, and one big change has been happening recently in Mikkeli as you may have noticed in December. As from this month, the Mikkeli team of Anastasia, Daria, Alisa, Hoa, Erik, and Sara, will be bringing you Mikkeli Campus’ own edition of Insider. The team will concentrate mainly on stories and happenings in an around the Mikkeli Campus, but also bringing you some stories from Kouvola. The Kouvola team will still be bringing you the Kouvola edition as before, including some content from Mikkeli. The Insider website will continue to be updated with articles from both teams. As Insider has now started expanding to another campus, we would also like to hear stories from Savonlinna and Kotka. Are you a student or member of staff with an interesting story to share with others? If you are a student, would you like to join Insider and bring regular stories from your campus? Don’t forget, you can earn up to 10 optional credits working for Insider, and it will be a great addition to your CV. If anyone is interested in joining the Insider team in Mikkeli or Kouvola, or you simply want to send content to Insider from Savonlinna or Kotka, just get in touch with insider@xamk.fi or contact Editor in Chief, Hugh Clack, hugh.clack@xamk.fi. Welcome to the spring semester at XAMK!
Hugh Clack Editor in Chief
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ONE YEAR OF XAMK A year past since Kymenlaakso UAS (Kyamk) and Mikkeli UAS (Mamk) merged into the new University of Applied Sciences – XAMK. Our university includes 4 campuses with 9300 students and 750 staff workers. XAMK is considered the second largest UAS in Finland in terms of the budget with annual turnover EUR 70 million. However, numbers and rank positions cannot reflect the real life of our university. So, to celebrate the first anniversary of XAMK, we decided to ask the opinions of the most experienced teachers from Mikkeli campus. The questions are:
1. What changes you are noticing as a teacher? Does your professional life in XAMK alter from one you had in MAMK? 2. In your opinion, does your career benefited from the XAMK establishment? 3. Do you perceive those changes positively or negatively? What changes are the best? What is the worst?
Ojamies Osmo – IT department –
Question 1: For me the most obvious difference between XAMK and MAMK is the size. The number of students has doubled and so has the number of staff. The campuses are in four towns and quite far away from each other. Question 2: My professional life has not changed very much because of the merger of two universities. I am a teacher of Information Technology. The IT degree programs are in Mikkeli and Kotka, which are 160 km apart. So far, all my classroom teaching has been in Mikkeli. But for example, recently I was in the Innovate or Die event with the XAMK student group. It was nice to see, how the students of the united XAMK feel allied. Question 3: It is a career advantage to belong to a bigger organization that has more opportunities. In XAMK there are many colleagues, projects, and laboratory facilities that I do not know yet. This is not a disadvantage. It is a positive challenge which offers opportunity to learn new things and to get professional help from many different fields.
Vuohelainen Reijo
– IT department – 4
Question 1: We have nowadays more online meetings and there are more demands to provide teaching online and using different methods. More courses than on previous years to every teacher, because the resources were reduced. There is now only 110 hours per 5 credit point course. Preparing the courses and handling these
multiple ways of learning is more difficult. The co-operation between cities is still very limited. Question 2: What I am now doing, the merging to Xamk did not provide drastically more for my career. Question 3: Students have now more options to study. Online studies from our different campuses are increasing, which is good. Peppi is also good after we managed to input the data correctly.
Nemilentsev Mikhail
– BM department –
Question 1: As a teacher, I have noticed new courses in the study curriculum and a higher role of internationalization in teaching and RDI work. My professional role in XAMK has altered from that in MAMK, since I am currently teaching new courses and having new responsibilities as well. Question 2: I hope that all teachers’ careers will benefit from the XAMK foundation. We are currently being at the stage of developing a new educational brand – XAMK – which is really good and that brings in new responsibilities and positive expectations. Question 3: I would rather perceive these changes positively, since optimism is an important feature of a teacher. It is a bit early to discuss the effect of these changes, but in general all changes in XAMK are for the best.
Arto Sormunen – EE department –
Question 1: I think no, the purpose is same, we want to “produce” high quality experts for working life. However, more digitalization and its tools is used for teaching (meaning virtual courses etc.). Question 2: Now we are bigger unit, stronger unit, hope that will help my carrier. The bigger university provides more options and choices. Personally, I am doing my dream job, thus building my own expertise as a teacher. Question 3: Personally, I would like to see changes in positive view. We are bigger, we stronger and together we can do it. This together means also students.
Anastasiia Abgarian
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SELF-DEVELOPMENT
EVENT PLANNING
Hello there, have you ever heard of event management? If not, now, can you spend 5 minutes thinking about events held weekly by a student organization in your university or powered by a company in your city? I am sure that you will be amazed by the number of events occurring around you. But do you know what event management truly is and how this fast-growing industry contribute to global business activites? Firstly, let’s take an insight in Event Planning. It is the process of planning and coordinating events. Usually, it starts from the beginning till the end, which goes through a number of different steps including: - Brainstorming ideas - Forming overall concepts - Listing neccesities - Developing budget - Selecting venues - Negotiating with third parties - Ensuring the flow of event - Tidying up after event - And moreover. The word ‘event’ here comprises both of informal and formal. Informal events can be EDM festivals, outdoor activities,.. And formal events should be business –related ones or wedding ceremonies. Recently, it has been considered as an efficient tool in marketing and promoting products. Through an event, a company may effectively communicate to its potential customers and stakeholders as they can directly interact and ‘try’ products presented there, which positively affects customers’ buying behaviours. It, somehow, is beneficial for Business students to check this trend out. There are two sides, which are Client and Agency. Client is known as a company who want to hold an event and Agency will help them to turn it into real life with their knowledge and specialities. For instances, in Slush 2017, Sun Effect was their event agency who provided technical solutions such as lightning, sound, setting up and transportation. Long Nguyen 6
PROFILE
Hanyu Zhao For this issue, I interviewed Hanyu Zhao, an IB exchange student from Northeast Forestry University, one of the top universities in China. What do you usually do in your free time? As you know, in China the student don’t have much free time. So once I have free time, I will play basketball or computer games with my friends to release pressure. There is no doubt that I enjoy the feeling when the ball cast into basket. What is your favorite basketball team then? Houston Rockets. It’s universally said that Yao is the most successful Chinese player in NBA. Generally speaking I have the 'Rockets feelings '. What kind of sports do people in China do the most? Ping pong is the hottest sport in China. Chinese table tennis team always win the championships. So it not rare that Chinese call it as 'national ball'. Is there any special exercise in China? Martial arts and tai chi. Kung Fu is kind of related to martial arts.
Lingli Jing
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BOOK REVIEW “How short was the road from that decision to this moment? The question ached like a bruise.” - Jane Harper, The Dry The dry was written by jane harper an Australian awardwinning author. The book was published in 2017 and the genre of the novel is mystery, thriller, fiction and crime investigation. If you are into mysteries, solving crimes and decade unknow mystery than this might be for you. The novel set is located in a small community farm called kiewarra. Kiewarra is now in the midst of a terrible drought. The farms are failing and tempers are frayed as temperature goes high. The novel unfolds two mysteries. First the hadler family murder and second an old mystery, where a girl called Ellie deacon who is supposedly have drowned herself, died. The mystery starts by three bodies that were found in a farm house and it appears that Luke hadler has killed his wife, son and then he killed himself. His childhood friend Aaron Falk is now a federal agent officer and he is back in town after he and his father fled from the city for the first time in two decades, to figure out what really happened. Did his best friend killed himself and his family or where they murdered? As the common opinion of the community is that money troubles have caused the death of the hadler family. Also as secrets unfold and questions arise why did Aaron and Luke lie about their whereabouts in Ellies death and why Aaron was a suspect of Ellies disappearance or did he have anything to do with it? Did the people forgive and forget about Aaron and lastly was there really any connection between the two incidence Luke’s death and Ellies? As tension rise and Aarons arrival doesn’t go unnoticed but Nevertheless, he teams up with the town police man to uncover the mystery. I think the novel is interesting and well-plotted thriller mystery that ones you start reading you will end up wanting to now the whole story.
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Hafsa Farah
EXCHANGE VIEW Connections, connections
My journey in XAMK hasn't been that long - started autumn 2016 and now graduating this month. I have been going full steem ahead, so now it is a good time to take a deep breath and start looking back: what are the valuable things I'll be taking with me from this journey, what are my wise words for other students? I have probably mentioned some of these already, either here or in XAMK's Instagram, where I was a star for a week - one of the best weeks of my life, I now know how it feels to be a celebrity with maaany followers! But to the point: there are many great courses that are beneficial in my opinion to ALL students and those are: International Negotiations (was hed by Sara Zabai) and Intercultural Issues in Finland (was held by Sara Zabai, Slaveya Hämäläinen and Hugh Clack). I highly recommend everyone to choose those courses - they teach you interesting things about not only others and other cultures, but also about YOURSELF. Another thing to emphasize is networking. I used to think that networking is about getting to know as many
people as possible, about being super social at all times and I saw it as something very tiring. Now I have learned that it doesn't have to be anything forced. It just means that you should always keep your eyes open: even Tinder can be a place to get contacts, not just the romantic ones! So think outside the box, be active in social media, try to look for people that are interested about similar topics than you are. LinkedIn is a great place for easy networking and nowadays it is actually very important also when applying for jobs. so I suggest you go and create a LinkedIn profile asap! You can connect with me, too, if you want: www.linkedin. com/in/suvikarell/ Also, be active already during your studies - Insider and PatteriES will look good in your CV. Go to exchange or get your practical training done in another country, there are many possibilities, the world is out there! Suvi Karell
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DOKI DOKI LITERATURE CLUB! DISCLAIMER: 1. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. 2. SENSITIVE CONTENT FOR THOSE WITH MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS.
Doki Doki Literature Club!
– a seemingly light-hearted and bubbly visual novel that lets players hang out with four incredibly cute girls in a Literature Club after school, which was developed by Team Salvato for approximately two years and eventually released in September, 2017. Although being categorized as Visual Novel on the Steam store page, the game itself has a terrifying twist. After playing for ~ 1.5 hours with casual dialogues and options, it’s gradually disclosed as a Psychological Horror when one of the main characters committed suicide in her own room. For that sole reason, Dokai Doki Literature Club! has become one of my most favorite games that I have ever played ever. As mentioned, the game started out with the player being introduced to the girls in the Literature Club of their school, each with their own unique personality and features, and their apparent mission is to strive to please one of the girls (which is common in Dating Sims). I did not realize that was I got to do in these kinds of games, thus got my first playthrough all messed up. The second time around, I was being more cautious and considerate and it turned out much better. Everything seemed normal and perhaps even a bit boring at first as the player has to go through lengthy conversations with all of the girls, which makes the poem making scenes surprisingly interesting, although all you do is choosing the words that suit each girl. The twist eventually arrives when one of the girls, whose name is Sayori, opens up about her depression and decided to hang herself shortly after the confession. This is when things begin to get horrifyingly funky.
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Perhaps the most successful thing that Team Salvato had managed to achieve in Doki Doki Literature Club! is the mind-blowing fourth-wall breaking element. The club president – Monika turns out to be self-aware the whole time, who is, predictably, in love with the player. This being said, she tries to make all the girls unlikable and kill them off one by one. The intriguing thing here is when they die in the game, their character files are deleted as well. Gradually, Monika starts to take over the whole game, including the dialogues, your options and visual effects. The player eventually loses all control and however hard they try, it always ends up with the deaths of all the other girls except for Monika. The game does not truly end until the character file of Monika is deleted as well. Doki Doki Literature Club! is one of the most unexpected games which can leave you empty and traumatised even after weeks of playing. I know I am. Going in blind, I had had multiple goosebumps and chills while playing. The game gets you scared in its own way, not with jumpscares and dark images, but with the deceivingly innocent-looking appearance, which hides numerous gritty backstories behind. This is only part 1, so please stay tuned for part 2 in the following issue next week, as I will tell you even more plot-twists and hidden meanings of this God forbidden game. Goodbye! Le Trang
STUDIO 123 Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi 19.01 - 25.01.201 STUDIO 1 OPERA: LOHENGRIN (S) | 23€ | 3h50min La 12:00 Tue 18:00 STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (12) | 12€ | 2h32min Sat, Wed 18:45 TUNTEMATON SOTILAS (S) | 10€ | 3h Fri, Mon 18:45 KAIKKI OIKEIN (S) | 11€ | 1h26min Every evening 17:00 DOWNSIZING (7) | 12€ | 2h15min Sun, Thu 18:45
STUDIO 2 FREDINAND (7) | 10€ | 1h45min Fri 17:15 Sat - Sun 15:15 Tue 17:15 SOLSIDAN (7) | 11€ | 1h45min Sat - Mon, Wed 17:15 THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (7) | 11€ | 1h45min Fri - Tue 19:20 THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (7) | 11€ | 1h45min Fri - Tue 19:20
STUDIO 3 VIULISTI (12) | 11€ | 2h05min Sat - Sun 15:00, 19:40 SYNKIN HETKI (12) | 11€ | 2h05min Fri, Sun, Tue, Thu 17:15 C'EST LA VIE -HÄÄT RANSKALAISEEN TAPAAN (S) | 11€ | 1h57min Sat, Mon, Wed 17:15 RODIN (12) | 11€ | 1h59min Fri, Sun - Tue 19:40 IDÄN PIKAJUNAN ARVOITUS (12) | 11€ | 1h54min Sat, Wed 19:30 Students/armed services, pensioners 1€ discount on all full priced tickets of 10€ or more
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PATTERIES STARTUP PASSION 24TH JANUARY 2018 10:00 AM AT PAJA PROJECT SPACE FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: sabine.suorsa@ xamk.fi. 12