“I feel pos­i­tive about my pos­si­bil­i­ties here”

Niy­ati Kandikan­ti is an ambas­sador for Oulu Tal­ent Hub, and she enjoys net­work­ing. – There are many oppor­tu­ni­ties in Oulu to inter­act with oth­er inter­na­tion­al stu­dents and vis­it new places, Niy­ati says.

Who

Hi, I’m Niy­ati! I’m an ambas­sador for Oulu Tal­ent Hub, and I’d like to share with you some things about myself and my expe­ri­ences.

Born in the city of Hyder­abad, India, high­er edu­ca­tion stud­ies have tak­en me to many places in India, Ger­many and Fin­land. My pre­vi­ous edu­ca­tion includes a licen­ti­ate degree in phar­ma­cy, a diplo­ma in clin­i­cal data man­age­ment and stud­ies at Ulm Uni­ver­si­ty, Ger­many.

I have worked as a clin­i­cal phar­ma­cist, a bio­med­ical data man­age­ment intern, a uni­ver­si­ty lec­tur­er, a research intern in neu­ro­science, phar­ma­col­o­gy and tox­i­col­o­gy and microflu­idics and a post­grad­u­ate researcher study­ing extra­cel­lu­lar vesi­cles.

Why

Most peo­ple say home is where the heart is. With my dri­ving ques­tions aim­ing for bet­ter health­care inter­ven­tions, my heart is set on find­ing answers. I’m a health­care pro­fes­sion­al study­ing to be a bio­med­ical researcher. I am still as star-struck by the peace, the beau­ti­ful nature, and the love­ly peo­ple of Oulu, just as on my very first snowy Decem­ber day. There must be some­thing in the air that brings out the best in me.

I came across Oulu when I was search­ing for high­er edu­ca­tion in Europe. I found some inter­est­ing things about life in Fin­land and was attract­ed by the qual­i­ty of research, the flex­i­bil­i­ty of the pro­grammes and the inter­na­tion­al exchanges at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. While I turn 30, I’m soon to com­plete my dou­ble-degree Mol­e­c­u­lar Med­i­cine MSc at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

Career goals can be chal­leng­ing, but I have found Oulu to be a place that allows me bal­ance stud­ies, work and life. There are laws pro­tect­ing the safe­ty and well­be­ing of all groups of peo­ple, which gives me a sense of sta­bil­i­ty and secu­ri­ty in all dai­ly activ­i­ties – from the food I eat to the work I do.

What

Com­ing to edu­ca­tion, I like the high­er edu­ca­tion sys­tem here in Fin­land. My stud­ies are very flex­i­ble and per­son­alised, in that I can pick and choose the cours­es that I am inter­est­ed in to com­plete my degree.

Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty has two major streams in the field of bio­chem­istry: Pro­tein Sci­ence and Mol­e­c­u­lar Med­i­cine. I am pur­su­ing a dou­ble-degree MSc in Mol­e­c­u­lar Med­i­cine – a unique type of degree recog­nised by two dif­fer­ent universities—the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, Fin­land and Ulm Uni­ver­si­ty, Ger­many – where I com­plet­ed part of my stud­ies.

My favourite part of my stud­ies is the huge research com­po­nent involved and the inter­na­tion­al expe­ri­ence. Com­ing from the clin­i­cal phar­ma­cy dis­ci­pline, my bio­chem­istry lab skills were lim­it­ed. But now I am learn­ing new skills and I am work­ing with mul­ti­ple research groups focused on inter­est­ing top­ics. I feel much more con­fi­dent work­ing in the lab now while han­dling my own master’s the­sis project.

How

I enjoy net­work­ing. There are many oppor­tu­ni­ties in Oulu to inter­act with oth­er inter­na­tion­al stu­dents and vis­it new places, such as the annu­al ESN stu­dent cruise. I feel that the bal­ance between fun and respon­si­bil­i­ty great­ly improves my stu­dent expe­ri­ence in Fin­land.

I like tak­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to explore my team­work and col­lab­o­ra­tive skills. I get to take part in an activ­i­ty-packed life, as Oulu has sev­er­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents and pro­fes­sion­als to engage in recre­ation­al and proac­tive events.

At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, I have sev­er­al stu­dent posi­tions, includ­ing being a stu­dent well­be­ing tutor, stu­dent ambas­sador and a member/deputy mem­ber of sev­er­al stu­dent union com­mit­tees (FSHS Health Work­ing Group, the Stu­dent Well­be­ing Work­ing Group, the Equal­i­ty and Diver­si­ty Work­ing Group, the Uni­ver­si­ty Col­legium, the Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee).

I’m also an ambas­sador for Study in Fin­land. Well­be­ing Tutor­ing is an OYY (The Stu­dent Union of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu) project man­aged by the stu­dent union of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu and fund­ed by the Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion and Cul­ture. It is intend­ed to improve hob­by activ­i­ties for the phys­i­cal, men­tal, social and emo­tion­al well­be­ing of stu­dents in Finnish high­er edu­ca­tion. This pro­gramme helps me do many things I love, like mak­ing friends, vis­it­ing places, cook­ing, play­ing table ten­nis, tak­ing scenic walks, sup­port­ing my peers, etc., and shar­ing these hob­bies with them.

Where

I think more peo­ple should know what Oulu and Fin­land have to offer, as this is an undis­cov­ered des­ti­na­tion of inter­est. It’s not just the respon­si­bil­i­ties but fun events like the Maail­ma soi (a fun multi­na­tion­al event), cul­ture-themed fes­ti­vals like Japani-päivä (Japan day), Värikäs rav­in­to­la (colour­ful restau­rant), hob­by activ­i­ties, etc. I also have a new­found love for blog­ging and shar­ing my expe­ri­ences and sug­ges­tions with read­ers. I even got to meet a pop­u­lar singer (Auro­ra) at one event.

The Finnish lan­guage is a bit tricky, but the uni­ver­si­ty offers free lan­guage cours­es to stu­dents. Most peo­ple under­stand and speak Eng­lish well, so it’s not a prob­lem when you’re trav­el­ling or set­tling in.

What start­ed off with “Hei” and “Moi moi” to the friend­ly bus dri­vers who wave back to you before and after each ride, in the one year that I have spent here in Fin­land, my vocab­u­lary has cer­tain­ly been improv­ing. What with much help from my dear friends, and thanks to lit­tle exchanges with the locals, albeit with my bro­ken gram­mar, I was able to get through a ful­ly Finnish lan­guage-held inter­view for a sum­mer intern­ship. I see that as progress in the right direc­tion!

One thing I have noticed about myself is that I am much more out­go­ing now than before. In Fin­land, there are many beau­ti­ful forests and lakes where I get to enjoy the beau­ty of nature – a nature that’s con­stant­ly trans­form­ing and becom­ing more mes­meris­ing with every sea­son! Every time I step out, I feel recharged with ener­gy. I’ve noticed my per­spec­tive on chal­lenges chang­ing from the usu­al stress­ing out to down­right excite­ment!

In a way, this feels like my fresh start – to be more in con­trol of my life, career and well­be­ing. As for my career, things have been going accord­ing to plan so far. I feel pos­i­tive about my pos­si­bil­i­ties here, and Fin­land makes me hap­py about both my present and my future.

If you’re look­ing to apply for stud­ies in Oulu, Fin­land, vis­it the Study­in­fo web­site.

This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished at oulutalenthub.fi

Oulu Tal­ent Hub

• Oulu Tal­ent Hub brings togeth­er and devel­ops region­al oppor­tu­ni­ties and ser­vices for inter­na­tion­al recruit­ment.
• Oulu Tal­ent Hub offers tal­ents, for exam­ple, con­tacts with local com­pa­nies, match­mak­ing events and info ses­sions, com­pa­ny vis­its, a tan­dem mod­el for intern­ship pro­grammes and career coun­selling. For Oulu Tal­ent Hub, inter­na­tion­al tal­ent is defined as inter­na­tion­al spe­cial­ists, employ­ees, researchers and stu­dents.
• Oulu Tal­ent Hub aims to pro­mote inter­na­tion­al tal­ent employ­ment to com­pa­nies in the Oulu region and open up employ­ment paths for inter­na­tion­al tal­ent.
• Project part­ners are Business­Oulu, Oulu Cham­ber of Com­merce, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences and Oulu Voca­tion­al Col­lege.
• The project is fund­ed by The Euro­pean Social Fund, ESF.
• Learn more about Oulu Tal­ent Hub at oulutalenthub.fi.

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