How Karelia UAS made me stay TEXT Huong Ngo | PHOTO Salla Anttila
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y name is Huong Ngo. I’m 19 and I come from Vietnam. I’m now studying the second year of International Business (IB) degree program at Karelia UAS. Owing to the lack of high school graduation certificate at the application period; which is due to the regulations of Ministry of Education; Vietnamese applicants have few options of UAS that accepts discretionary admission. Therefore, lots of students take the entrance exam and move to other schools as long as they receive the certificate. But I didn’t. I feel quite satisfied with subjects and schedules. Most of subjects are relevant to group work and presentations in order to improve our teamwork skill and present speeches in front of the crowd. It literally works as teachers sometimes ask some of us to lead the discussion. Teamwork skills are specially enhanced according to the rule of teachers: “mixed genders and mixed nationalities”. We have chances to experience and exchange cultural differences. IB students of Karelia are lucky as well to have excursions to other countries. It is a trip of approximately a week to another country that students are able to meet and attend presentations of companies. The trip to Tallinn, Estonia last year enabled us to widely open our eyes towards a market whose have similarities to Finland with 6 presentations from different companies. Consequently, I’m really waiting for the trip this year to Stockholm, Sweden. Being located in Joensuu – a student city, is an advantage of Karelia UAS. There is a large number of libraries, both private and local libraries own by universities and the city. Students could find the silent atmosphere with huge resources of books, magazines, newspapers, novels, etc. Additionally, a campus of Eastern Finland University (UEF) is also situated in Joensuu. There are many courses and
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activities between Karelia and UEF so as to create an international environment for students. One more reason that made me stay in Joensuu is the “friend-family program” or “ystäväperhe”. Karelia UAS makes itself distinctive by running this program, which allows staffs and international students to exchange cultures in spare times. I found myself lucky to have such a foster family that I always feel happy spending time with them. Thanks to them and the program, I have opportunities to understand Finnish culture at some aspects and feel less homesick as well. We usually meet once a week at weekend, a way to relax and set work aside for a while. As a result of reasons above, I decided to stay in Joensuu and graduate from Karelia UAS. I’m sure you will have the same decision when you start in Karelia UAS.