Congratulations, you're in the right place! From the right sidebar you can find some useful information about living in Finland and studying IEM in Prodeko - please start from the "Welcome to Prodeko" -page. Here, and from the "Survival Guide" you can find the most important information!
Right now the most important thing to do is to join to the Telegram group of freshers' 2025! The Telegram group for IEM exchangers '24 can be found here and the Telegram group for IEM Masters' Freshmen '24 can be found here. Make sure to join to get to know your fellow exchangers/masters' freshmen and to stay updated on all the fun events we have planned for you!
You can get the first taste of student life in the beginning of the orientation week on Friday 2nd of January 2025 at the Head Start! At the Head start you'll get to know your fellow freshmen, your BIGs (= tutors) and other students of Prodeko! The studies and the student life really gets going during the Orientation Week. The Orientation Week for the Spring 2025 is from 2nd to 4th of January. The week includes an orientation to being a student and getting to know the secters of Otaniemi. Pro tip! Make sure you book the whole orientation week free, as there is a programme from morning till night!
If you have any questions or worries, just contact the Captain of Master and International Students! For the year 2024, the Captain of Master and International Students is Siiri Keränen. Her email address is maisterikvkapteeni@prodeko.org, phone number is +358 40 8091338 and Siiri can be found on Telegram @siirikeranen.
A short reminder about our information channels, all of which you can find from the top bar: Guild > Information channels. The most relevant information channel is email, so read it carefully. You will receive all guild-related information after you have been approved as a guild member in a meeting of the Prodeko board. More information about joining Prodeko can be found from Guild > Joining the guild. After joining, once a week, the Minister of Media and Information Technology will send you a weekly bulletin, where you can find all the upcoming events.
As earlier mentioned, another important channel is Telegram. It's similar to Whatsapp, but more commonly used within Aalto University. Just load it and check which other channels to join from here. On Telegram we have many relevant groups for you!
The guild has a lot to offer for international students. To begin with, the guildroom is a perfect place to get in contact with other internationals or Finnish students of Prodeko. No matter if you just want to grab a coffee between lectures or hang out with some friends, it’s always a good idea to visit the guild room as there are couches, a pool table and consoles, among other things.
Moreover, Prodeko organizes a events such as sitsit, sauna parties or a farewell party at the end of the semester. Participating in these events is not only a good opportunity to spend some time with other students, but also to get to know the student culture in Finland and it’s traditions! Some of the events, such as sitsit, are held in Finnish, but the guild is working on improving this and there is always at least one sitsit per semester held in English, to introduce you easily to it’s rules and songs.
Those of you staying at Aalto for their whole master degree can also benefit from Prodeko’s network. The guild’s alumni and company network offers the possibility to get easier in contact with companies when searching e.g. for an internship.
Furthermore, Prodeko organizes company excursions, often also in English! For degree students, Prodeko gives the opportunity to participate in cultural exchanges or educational seminars all over Europe as part of ESTIEM - the European Students of Industrial Engineering. Such events are even financially supported by the guild.
Welcome to Finland
Finland is a country of 5.5 million people located in northern Europe. The 340 000 square kilometers area of Finland consist of beautiful lake areas, large forests and the rough wilderness in Lapland. In the south of Finland there is the Baltic Sea but elsewhere Finland is bordered by Sweden, Norway and Russia. Of these three countries Finland has formerly been part of first Sweden and then Russia. Finland became independent in 1917. Finland is a republic and nowadays our president is Alexander Stubb.
Finland’s culture has many different and extreme elements. A great thing in Finland is the variance in the weather during the year. The snowy cold winter in Finland is quite exceptional and people from all over the world come to visit Finland during the winter time to experience it. The snow and ice enable various winter sports. Downhill skiing centers attract lots of tourists to Finland, and skiing isn’t the only thing you can do there. You can for example go skating, ice hole swimming or on a snowmobile safari.
In the summer time the weather is warm and sunny at its best. Then people spend time at their summer cottages at a lake and in the nature. The amount of summer cottages is one of the highest in the world as also the amount of lakes. During the summer there are also lots of music festivals where people like to listen to great music and get a little drunk in good company.
Cultural specialities
When talking about the culture of Finland you just can’t forget to mention sauna. There is a sauna available for use for nearly every one living in Finland and finish people go to sauna more often than in any other country in the world. For students, drinking beer and singing is very common in the sauna.
There are many extreme some might say crazy world championship contests held in Finland every year. Just to mention few there are competitions in sitting in an ants’ nest, swamp soccer, throwing a boot and wife carrying.
Of course there are also normal sports in Finland. The most popular sports here are ice hockey and football. Internationally the national team of Finland does quite well in ice hockey but in football Finland isn’t that good at all. In Finland we have also created a version of our own of baseball, which is played pretty commonly. And as well as doing sports finish people sure like to watch different sports and cheer their own favorite teams.
As a developed country and belonging to the European Union Finland’s culture is all the time becoming more the same as the culture of other European countries. The traditional foods such as karelian pie and mämmi are still eaten but there are also kebab-pizzerias and McDonald’s restaurants in every town. But even though the cultures are becoming alike in the world, we have some really nice specialties here in Finland!
