Board Member Julia's Blog

Hii! My name is Julia and my responsibilities in the KY board 2026 include New Students, Academic Affairs as well as Probba.

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In May 2025 I was completely sure I would not apply to the KY board for a second time and in the beginning of last fall I took on other volunteer responsibilities. Still, later in spite of my earlier thoughts, I had a feeling that I wanted to do more in Otaniemi and its student community. Thus, I began to consider applying for the AYY or the KY board. In the end, after some conversations during last year's Autumn Festive Week I made the decision to apply to the KY board after all. 

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Before this year I have done volunteer work at KY and AYY as well as some other associations within Otaniemi. I would say that the experiences outside of KY have given me lots of perspective and more context around my board responsibilities, which has been very helpful when navigating with different stakeholders at AYY and elsewhere. 

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All my board responsibilities have involved quite a lot of communication and cooperation with the school (mainly aalto BIZ but also University level) as well as our student union. They have gone well hand in hand because there are many matters that intertwine: planning of the new bachelor’s program in Technology, Business and Design and Probba’s move to Otaniemi to name a few. 

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I would say that my normal week consists generally of all kinds of meetings around campus, close co-operation with Atte regarding Academic Affairs as well as with KY’s New Students sector, and not forgetting the common time when we work with our board. There is some individual work like preparing for meetings and general planning for example, orientation and so on but most of my time is usually spent working with others. One thing I have really enjoyed about my board responsibilities this year has been the possibility to meet and work with so many different people from different backgrounds inside and outside of Otaniemi.

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I would describe this year with three (or four…) words: instructive, (extremely) busy and invaluable. 

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If you have even the smallest of urges to apply for KY board 2027, I would highly recommend doing so. If you are curious about what working in the board entails or have questions regarding any of my responsibilities don’t hesitate to send me a message and ask!

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I hope you a lovely fall <3

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Julia Särkkä

New Students, Academic Affairs & Probba 

Julia.sarkka@ky.fi 

TG @juliasarkka