My name is Viktoria Ude, I am 18, soon to be 19 years old. I live In Tallinn, Estonia. This August I have started my first year of studies at Xamk, Mikkeli. My major is Business Administration and Wellbeing Management, and the first year of this course is taught fully online.
To be honest, I was debating for a long time, if this programme is the right choice for me. I was choosing between an “artsy” programme in the Netherlands and a Wellbeing Management course in Xamk. Eventually, I chose Xamk, and I have few reasons for why this studyprogramme is better option for me right now.
CHOOSING XAMK?
First of all, the location. As I live in a capital city of Estonia, it only is a 2-hour ferry journey to Helsinki, which makes it reasonably close to my hometown. This was an important aspect in my decision. Also a big factor was a free education (everyone loves free education 😉). Moreover, Wellbeing Management is a very unique course and it is only taught here, In Xamk. I am showing interest in wellbeing field, as I am a former professional ballerina and I definitely know something about wellbeing and health.
I would say that the entry exams were complicated. First task gave me a hard time. For the first task we had to create a video, where we just had to answer given questions, but one rule that made this task complicated was the fact, that the video could not be longer than 2 minutes. I understood that the questions were not the kind of questions where you could answer shortly. Long story short, filming and editing that video took me about 9 hours. I was 70% sure, that I will not get into the second round of entrance exams, but I somehow did! Yay!
Next round was an actual entrance exam; it was a math exam with some logic tasks, which were hard for a person from High school of humanities, as I was. If I remember well, there was also an essay task, that was not hard for me at all. After submitting that entrance exam, I was sure that I would get through either because of my essay or because of my skills in mathematics. In the end I was invited for an interview via Teams with Marjaana Roponen and Pia Jääskeläinen. It was my very first-time using Teams and my worst nightmare happened – the call crushed because of bad signal. It obviously was okay in the end, but that definitely gave me a mini heart attack.
STUDYING IN XAMK?
Even though it feels good to be a student in Xamk, I cannot fully feel like a real student because I study from home and fully online. It doesn´t actually feel like I am a university student just yet. However, I think the programme is great and very versatile and interesting. You are learning everything from how to use Microsoft office tools to anatomy of a person, I definitely did not expect to study something this different and versatile. I saw that I actually already know a lot of things from some subject, because of the high school courses I did, but maybe it is good that I have a bit of revision material at first and have some time to dedicate myself to lessons I knew nothing about before.
I suppose that at this point, the most interesting part about my studies are my course mates, who represent different age groups, different nationalities and cultures. This was one of the main reasons why I was looking into education abroad – to get to know different people from all over the world. It is a great feeling to find something in common with a person, who does not share same culture with you. International students are creating a unique and special vibe that I absolutely adore.
I am so happy to end up in a place like Xamk, where students are being cared about and respected.
Speaking about future career is very hard for someone, who is only 18, just finished high school and is trying to understand himself and his interests in the first place. This question has been asked a lot during these first three weeks of studies and I had to find at least something to tell to people. Even if I end up having a career of a freelancer, as I desperately want to work from home and have a flexible schedule. I wish to be able not only work, but also live my life. I think that after completing a course like Wellbeing Management in Xamk, it is possible to build such career. Xamk is an amazing place, where teachers actually care about their students, their wellbeing etc.
The best memory of being a high school student was graduation and leaving school (finally 😊), as the teachers created a very toxic environment and it was hard to take after 12 years of studies. Also a great memory was Covid-19 quarantine time, i found myself really enjoying online education, which lasted for the last 3 months of 11th grade and around 7 months of 12th grade. I think this also played a role in choosing a flexible half online/half on campus course in Xamk.
– Viktoria Ude, student at Xamk