The advocacy sector’s 2025 recap

Heidi Elers, educational affairs

Looking back at this year, it’s honestly hard to believe how many things I’ve been doing. 

Being in charge of educational affairs meant that my calendar was filled with meetings. I cooperated on campus with the university staff and working groups and of course with the board members responsible for educational affairs at our subject organizations. 

Additionally, I was Chair for VYY’s Advocacy Committee and organized four committee meetings with our Advocacy Specialist Elli. The meetings were nice and versatile. Sometimes we got enthusiastic speakers visiting from the university, and once we held a workshop to reflect on how to reach and involve international students in our academic community.

“Hustling” on campus has been a pleasure, because I’ve initiated conversations on topics that concern us students and gotten to know new people. 

In addition to work on campus, national politics played a major role this year in my advocacy. I participated in writing three comments, one of which even raised interest in national media. In April, we commented on open university degrees, in August on the limit to rights to study, and now in December, on the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Vision for higher education and research 2040. 

As highlights of the year, I’d point out our mutual trips and the tight community among educational affair representatives in the student movement. Especially memorable were the periphery meeting in Vaasa last spring, the National Union of University Students in Finland SYL’s educational affairs sector days in Helsinki in May, and the SYL General Assembly in November. What they all had in common was getting to spend time together and share these experiences with my colleagues. I also got to know awesome people who wrestled with the same topics in other student unions.

As you might be able to tell, VYY has given me so much more than it has taken. I wouldn’t change this for anything.

Julius Pentti, municipal affairs

The first thing that comes to mind is the municipal and county elections held last spring. We created an election programme, which raised locally valuable points and reached local politicians. It was an interesting example of local advocacy and of the passionate personas and community advocates that exist in municipal politics.

Important meetings with the city administration, Members of Parliament, and Ministers have taught me the importance of preparation and studying. A clear approach and expertise are key when meetings are short, and the chance to improve students’ position is up to your delivery. It’s been wonderful to see that decision-makers appreciate student advocates, and to observe how different people bring their own personality to work to unite different people.

Advocacy work in the Student Union has developed my knowledge in advocacy and broadened my understanding of the challenges our community faces.

Juuso Tynjälä, international affairs

Above all else, my year in advocacy and the Executive Board was educational. Other adjectives include memorable and fun. Despite the positive adjectives, the year also included moments when I wanted to be somewhere else. Luckily those were a very small minority.

The highlights of my year were travelling to EUNICE trips together with our board member responsible for municipal affairs, organizing various events, and meeting new people. On the side, the general hangouts with the people in Konttori were quite pleasurable. Although no one takes minutes during a coffee break, I feel that these moments were also important to my work.

Having a responsibility in international affairs had its quirks: as an Executive Board member, I was part of both the advocacy and the community sectors, so I sat in a lot of meetings this year. The job requires you to know what’s going on in both sectors, so I got the best of both worlds. 

I consider it most important that I had the freedom to do things like I wanted. For example, we visited our students in Pori and as a trip, it was one of the best ones. 

I look forward to introducing my successor to the job and following their work. After all, I’m only the second Board member to be responsible for international affairs. I feel like now we’re getting started!

Maaria Salminen, social affairs

As a Board member responsible for social affairs in VYY, the year has been busy and full of meetings. I’ve gotten to know stakeholders diversely and to be the students’ voice on many levels from internal university meetings to the Finnish Parliament.

It’s been awesome to notice that decision-makers want to hear students’ points of view. In my job, the best part was being able to use my own creativity from solving problems, creating a new event concept, or being involved in checkpoint events.

In addition to my responsibility, the best part of the year was our Executive Board and the Board members’ cooperation. When I’m grey and old, I’ll look back on our joint trips to seminars and the Kyykkä World Championships. My year in the Board has introduced me to people I hope will stay with me in the future!

Finally, give a piece of advice to yourself a year into the past.

Heidi: Trust yourself and your skills. You’ll learn and succeed when you put yourself out there. Don’t let prejudices stop you. 

Julius: Seize the moment and make use of the specialists. At the start of the year, you’ll be like Bambi on slippery ice, but with good confidence and knowledge you can impact important matters and influence opinions.

Juuso: When you get involved with VYY, they’ll tell you about the application Slack. It’s really important that you sometimes open the app, because people send you messages.

Maaria: A year is so short. A calendar and the staff are your best friends.