University of Helsinki
My name is Iiris Ylinen and I am a bachelor student of forestry at the University of Helsinki. During the summer, I work at Viikki Tropical Resources Institute (VITRI), where I am doing my internship. Within the Erasmus+ FRAME project, I have been working on different tasks. I have been checking and filling out time sheets for the project, as well as reading and summarizing feedback surveys for capacity building trainings. Since I am pursuing a career in research, it was interesting to see how university staff work in practice. What surprised me was how multidisciplinary the project is. The project deals with forestry and climate change, but the focus is surprisingly heavy on social sciences.
Reading and summarizing the various project reports proved quite difficult at first. The texts usually contain many acronyms that require prior knowledge. I have been working for a little over two months now and find that reading the reports no longer gives me as much trouble. I have also noticed that my English, which is not my first language, has improved. I have learned skills such as time management and effective communication. Working on the project has given me industry-specific knowledge that will be very useful to me in the future.