This article is part of the series “Introducing Board 2020”. Here other articles of the series:
1. Communications, corporate realtions and worklife
2. Higher education politics
3. Social politics, vice chairman, well-being and sports
4. Associations and events
5. Municipal affairs, offsite campuses Lahti & FITech and international affairs
6. Culture and tutoring
7. Chair of the board
It’s been a crazy fast year with countless opportunities to grow as a person and learn something new. As a vice chairman of LTKY board and responsibilities in social politics, well-being and sports I have had an amazing year while doing truly meaningful work for the good of all the students of LUT.
A year ago, while the number of courses that I still had yet to accomplish grew shorter I decided to act on a thought that I’ve had for a few years and apply for the LTKY board. The hardest part of this was to decide for which roles to apply for. After doing some research on what the different roles consist of, I resonated most with social politics, well-being and sports. Nevertheless, now that the year is ending and I have seen the other members of the board do really great work on their areas, I am pretty sure that I would have enjoyed working on any other roles in the board as well.
During the first months of the year there were a lot of trips to different cities across Finland with the themes on advocacy training or meeting with other people with the same responsibilities. After the pandemic struk, all trips ended, but this was a great chance for me to work through a few courses that I had thought of dropping. Alongside of the nationwide cooperation with other student unions, I also did well-being advocacy work on the campuses. We cooperated with the members of the well-being committee in the making of Well-being weeks and other day-to-day subjects.
Even though the year was completely different for what I was prepared for, I am very grateful for it and everyone I got to work with. I encourage everyone to consider applying for the LTKY board. It is an experience like no other I’ve had so far.
Henna Pekkala
The author is member of LTKY’s board, who is responsible for social politics, well-being and sports, and also acts as a vice chairman.