“The municipal elections are now behind us and they have kept the board member accountable for municipality affection quite busy for the last months. This task has made it possible for me to affect the thing I see important. Student advocacy has been done in many different levels and different methods. Through World Student Capital network’s co-operation, we have been able to bring the voice of students forward to municipal council members, coffee table discussions and social media.
Voting creates a foundation for democracy and under the elections we encouraged students to vote with a three-part long video series among other things. The videos each presented a field of municipal decision making that greatly affects students. They were so fun to make and each participant got to affect the outcome. Also, we organized election events in all campuses and an election panel discussion in the campus of Leppävaara.
Next we are going to renew our program for municipal politics and I have time to focus on other projects as well. For example, we are throwing a campaign in co-operation with Laurea to make Work-based learning (Topi) more known amongst students and lecturers, which is a great way to acquire competence in your own workplace. Now I can start the development of our student representatives project.
Spring has been going so fast for me, in the mean while I have obtained so much experience and professional growth from the work I’ve been doing in the board. There has been a lot of work to be done and there is more to come, but when you like what you do and think positively about it, you can feel joy of doing it. Facing challenges and surpassing oneself give confidence that bring great advantage in the life to come. It’s a good position to continue towards the upcoming summer.”
Juha Rautiainen
Member of the Board
Municipality affection, student representatives