Getting the hang of it
Kuva: Sami Seppänen
Last October, Frenchman Nicolas Plateau was chosen to chair the Vaasa section of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN, an international student organization promoting student exchange). After a slow start, the organization is now full of plans – and open to new ideas.
Unlike at other universities, the board of the Vaasa section of ESN is chaired by an exchange student. While this fits the overall spirit of the organization, it does make its work slightly more difficult.– The biggest challenge was starting it all, says Nicolas. Ideally, the ESN board should have been set up at the end of the summer already, but since the exchange students were only arriving then, and getting familiar with living in a different country, this would have been impossible. I was only picked as chair in October, and then I still hardly knew many things which are quite important for a job like this. You have to have the contacts, know the places, know where to turn to when you’re organizing an event.
Although the ESN board got a lot of help from the student union (VYY), figuring out the wheres, whos and whats around Vaasa wasn’t easy.
– I learned a lot from the other ESN section chairs, who attended the Finnish national ESN platform in Vaasa. But by the time the board and I got things running, the semester almost ended, Nicolas says.
Profits, pays, parties and plans
In the previous semester, the ESN organized only one event, a sits-party. On the other hand, this event not only managed to break even, but generated a couple of beers’ worth of profit too.– Of course we added the profit to our budget, laughs Nicolas. For the calendar year, the local ESN section has a budget of 800 € (allocated to it by VYY). But I try to run the organization so that it is at least self-supporting.
Nicolas, who studies business and management in Le Havre, is paid a modest pay for his works as ESN chair, but the rest of the board – around ten exchange students, without whom ESN would be crippled – is made up of unpaid volunteers.
The board has already planned some activities for the spring term: the next sits party is on the 27th of February (theme: carnival), and for the beginning of April, ESN has organized a trip to St. Petersburg.
– This is a different trip to the one organized by the University, he explains. The uni’s trip is on an exam week, which makes it inconvenient for a lot of students. And our trip won’t include company visits either.
The ESN trip will take place between the 2nd and 5th of April.
– We have been discussing other ideas too, such as a skiing trip to Seinäjoki – as long as the weather stays friendly for that –, and a trip to Stockholm, perhaps in the beginning of May, adds Nicolas.
ESN’s announcements are available through the university’s “Events” mailing list, and on the organization’s Facebook page. According to the chair, ESN is always open to suggestions and ideas about past and future events.
Get in touch with them through Facebook or via e-mail: esn-pj@vyy.fi
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