Category: Local Student Task Force

It’s here!! The local task force is looking for new members!

It’s that time of the year again! We’re more than excited to announce that we’re looking for new members to join our Una Europa Local Student Task Force! This is a group of student volunteers working together with each other and staff members to raise awareness about Una Europa among University of Helsinki students in addition to working together with students from the other 10 Una Europa universities to co-create events, ideas, campaigns, and other initiatives.

If you are wondering why you should apply for the local task force, you can take a look at our blog from last fall when we were recruiting local task force members, answering some of the most common questions you might have and what’s really the deal with this local task force! 😊

The most important thing to know about the local task force is that we’re open for all students, from bachelors and masters students and also PhD candidates. All programs and faculties are welcome and we are open for both international and Finnish students. Basically, we are interdisciplinary and international and aiming to be as inclusive as possible!

Currently the Local Task Force is organized in three teams:

  • The communication team
  • The events team
  • The network and community team

You can read more about the activities and tasks of each team in this Google Doc.

While we have a structure in place, there are plenty of place for new ideas, suggestions, and creative proposals! This is a work in progress and constantly developing.

We are looking for people who are:

  • Interested in trying out new things
  • Looking to challenge themselves
  • Able/willing to communicate in English (no need to be a native speaker 🙂 )
  • Excited to work with a team and create things together
  • Proactive and engaged
  • Committing to participate in regular meetings and taking the responsibility to implement ideas

What has the local task force been doing so far?

Great question! This blog is a good example of one of the things! The communication group is responsible for the blog, where one student is the editor of the blog and other students contribute to the blog.

The event and networking teams have been organizing events and gathering people, connecting with new collaborators and been thinking up new ideas that you will soon hear about for this spring or help to plan if you join the Local Task Force!

Check out these blogs to see a bit more what the Local Task Force has been up to the past fall:

Pikkujoulu in Guidance Corner

Fresher’s Adventure Una Europa activity

Joining the launch of the Micro-Credential in Sustainability

What’s next??

This spring will only increase the opportunities for the Local Task Force members to dream up, plan and execute activities. We will be at the guidance corner, Sustainability Science Days and much more! The Local Task Force will soon be planning the program for spring, so new members will be able to still participate as well.

Una Europa is a community of people who want to imagine the future of higher education and what we think European collaboration could look like. It’s for people who like working together to achieve big things and create new initiatives. It’s a chance to work together with other students, staff and academics within the University of Helsinki and also with students and staff from across our 10 partner universities.

We hope this sounds as exciting to you as it does to us!

If yes, please don’t hesitate, but click right here, to start your application for the Una Europa local task force at the University of Helsinki!

If you have any questions, you can contact Stinne Vognaes, Una Europa student engagement coordinator (stinne.vognas@helsinki.fi).

Events Calendar

Here is the continuously updated list of Una Europa Helsinki events:

JUNE:

‍🌈 29/6 Pride Café with the University Library (15:00-17:00, Kaisa-talo Guidance Corner)

ENjoy the summer ☀😎!

You will find more info about our events in the Telegram group.

For joint Una Europa activities, see the Una Europa Calendar of Events. Older events organized in Helsinki can be found in the Events Archive.

Una Europa Local Task Force goes Fresher’s Adventure!

Hi everyone!

Last Thursday, you had the chance to meet us at the Fresher’s Adventure, a traditional kick-off-the-year event organized by the Student Union. Although the weather wasn’t the best, we were lucky to get a spot under the roof (in a beautiful room in the main building), and spent the afternoon giving away points, patches and candies to competing teams for our Una Europa-related activities.


What tasks did we prepare? There were two options:

The first one was a game called General Knowledge. There are 11 universities in the Una Europa network, located in 11 European countries. Quite a number, right? The competing teams had the challenging task of identifying pictures of the campuses of all 11 of them, and on top of that matching them with the right university logo. Although it was a tough task, all our participants did a great job, and hopefully also learned a bit more about the diversity of European uni life.

The second task was a game of charades: one person had to act out a specific university, while the rest of the team had two attempts to guess which one it is. Also, not a particularly easy task, but the teams came up with some great sketches that even we couldn’t help but laugh.

Do you know what the Leuven and Krakow campuses look like, and what is the logo of Sorbonne or the Freie Universität in Berlin? Would you have the courage to act out the universities of Zurich, Dublin or Bologna? If you want to give it a try, join us next time we are in the Guidance Corner, or at any other event – we will let you know in advance on the blog and in our new Telegram group. Or join us at our next meetup event on Monday 17th October in Thirsty Scholar from 17.00 (more info in the Telegram group 😊).

Very adventurous greetings from Sara, Eugenia, Helena, Saana, Yasmin and Jace!

Apply for the Una Europa local student task force by 9.9.2022!

“I joined the local task force to meet people and make some new friends – coming to a new city as an international student can be tough on social life. In Una Europa volunteers, I found a great bunch of funny, kind, enthusiastic people from all around Europe who are passionate about the organization’s mission, believe in European integration, and want to help make it happen. Needless to say that they are also a great company to go for a beer after the work is done, and chat about our experiences with living in Helsinki both as seasoned locals or fresh newcomers. So if you’re looking for a nice community and volunteer work with EU purpose, join our next meeting – we’re already excited to meet you :)!” Helena Drdlova

We’re excited to launch our fall application for the Una Europa Local Student Task Force. We had a great experience this spring with the inaugural task force, so great that many of them are continuing with us this fall, but we also have increased our ambitions and are therefore looking for creative, curious and proactive students to join the team!

What is Una Europa?

Una Europa is an alliance of 11 European universities, collaborating to create innovative and unique educational offerings and other curricular and extracurricular activities for you and you 600.000 fellow students at these universities!

This includes a 2-credit MOOC on the impact of AI in Society (start studying here), challenge-based learning initiatives such as Una.Together (we’ll launch the next challenge in spring 2023), and the student congress (currently open for applications for fully funded participation in Krakow this fall). These are just a few examples of our initiatives and opportunities that you might be able to participate and help develop if you join the local task force.

What does it mean to be part of the Local task force?

Being a member in the local task force here at the University of Helsinki means that you will join a team of motivated and enthusiastic students! We are open for all backgrounds and study fields and levels of study. Currently we’re a mix of both international and Finnish students and range from bachelor to master to PhD students. We meet every other week and plan activities, events, brainstorm and implement activities.

A big part of the work is helping to create awareness about initiatives (such as those mentioned above), but you will also be part of defining future initiatives of Una Europa (both here in Helsinki but it can also be on the European level!) and work on how students can be more involved in what Una Europa should be now and in the future.

Una Europa is a young initiative (we’re only three years in) and we have just received funding for the next four years. So how can this kind of exciting, close collaboration between 11 universities benefit you and your fellow students here in Helsinki more? How would you like to engage or collaborate with you fellow students across Europa? What kind of initiatives and conversation do you think we need to have about the future of higher education here in Europe? What opportunities do you see within such a network? These are some of the questions we’re trying to answer.

Sure, that sounds great, but what are some concrete things you do?

Well, to be honest that is up to you! In spring we were hosting both formal events discussing about the different universities in the alliance, sharing about the opportunities and promoting multilingualism. We did take-overs on the Student Union Instagram and the University of Helsinki Instagram. We were part of organising a huge event for all the universities in Helsinki. We also had a few social events and collaborated with other internationally minded associations here in Helsinki. In the fall we’re planning to do even more social events, to give students here in Helsinki more of a taste of the student cultures in our partner universities, get the chance to engage in more European networking with fellow student local task forces in other universities and do more events and awareness raising. But any good ideas are warmly welcome!

Hm okay, you say international student associations, is this only for international students?

No definitely not! Una Europa is for all students, not matter your nationality, whether you’ve been abroad or not or whether you’re new to Helsinki and Finland or not! We primarily speak English to allow everyone to participate, but we’re very nice and friendly and you don’t need perfect English to participate! This is also a place to grow and learn and most of us are not native speakers 😊 What we are looking for are people with an open mind, interested to work in an intercultural environment and to participate and challenge themselves to do new things!

We hope to receive your application for the local task force, it will be open until 9.9.2022. If you have any more questions don’t hesitate to reach out to the student engagement coordinator for Una Europa Stinne Vognaes (stinne.vognas@helsinki.fi). When you are ready, you can apply here.

Apply for the Una Europa Local Task Force!

Are you:

  • Interested in the future of European higher education and student involvement?
  • Motivated when you can shape how a project is developed?
  • Looking to work with like-minded students in an international environment to make an impact?
  • Ready to use your voice to change hearts and minds at the University of Helsinki and in European higher education?

Then this is for you!

Una Europa is a European University Alliance, where the University of Helsinki together with eight other European Universities are striving to create a common European campus and build the European university of the future. Among other things this includes developing joint degrees, virtual and blended mobility, building a common student community and developing new formats of education and mobility.

Una Europa has five thematic areas: sustainability, European studies, Cultural heritage, One Health, and AI. If any of these themes or topics are of interest to you, there is a place for you in the Una Europa Local Task Force!

We are recruiting students for two teams to bring awareness about Una Europa among our students and make sure that all our students can benefit and participate in this alliance.

Communication team:

  • Develop, strategise and create content for the Una Europa Helsinki blog (where you are currently reading this)
  • Brainstorm and write stories for internal channels about Una Europa
  • Social media – work with the Student Union, the University of Helsinki social media team and others to create and share news about Una Europa opportunities
  • Support the monthly student newsletter
  • Work with the Una Europa Student Board – they are launching a publication for students across Una Europa and this team will be supporting that
  • Help create a long-term and sustainable communication strategy for Una Europa at the University of Helsinki

Community engagement team:

  • Connect with like-minded student associations and strengthen the networks for communication and common advocacy, events and other initiatives
  • Networking and coalition building between relevant stakeholders – help develop a strategic vision for how to embed Una Europa within the university
  • Plan and host events for students about topics within the scope of Una Europa, both online and in person, including monthly events at the Guidance Corner
  • Create campaigns and other initiatives together with the communication team
  • Work with the Student Board on Una Europa level to localize and co-create events including the student congress for all Una Europa students

The content and roles of the two teams and the team members will be co-developed with the selected applicants during February. The aim is for the two teams to work in close collaboration and define the tasks on an ongoing manner. This is an open and co-creative space. We want you to share your thoughts and ideas, and to think and dream big!

What’s in it for you?

  • You get to be part of a motivated team of fellow students passionate about education, learning and internationalization!
  • The opportunity to work in an international environment, both at the university and also within the wider Una Europa student community
  • Be part of creating something from scratch that has the attention of the university leadership and will make a difference both at our university and on European level
  • Access to financial and staff resources to make your ideas into reality

If this sounds like something for you, apply right here!

The deadline is Friday 28.1.2022 at 23.59.

Additional information:

  • The working language of these task forces will be English.
  • When applying for these positions we are expecting that you will be available throughout the spring semester (February-May/June), but this can be negotiated. There will be space to indicate your situation in the application form.
  • In terms of time commitment we would prefer that you are able to spend at least a few hours on this every week (2-5 hours) and also attend meetings every two weeks. This is a initial aim, but we are flexible and considerate of each student’s situation.

Selection will be done the first week of February and all applicants will be informed when selection has been finalised. We approach this with an open mind and therefore don’t have a strict number of positions. The number of selected participants depends on the number and motivation of applications.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the project coordinator for Una Europa and student engagement Stinne Vognaes at Stinne.vognas@helsinki.fi.