Opis­ke­li­ja­ta­rina Magda­lini Stavridi

From south to north

Magda­lini Stav­ridi, tourism and hospi­ta­lity mana­ge­ment student

My story starts in sunny Rhodes, Greece where I was born and lived for more than two decades. Living in an envi­ron­ment that’s hectic in the most beau­ti­ful way, surroun­ded by thousands of tourists every year made me want to learn more foreign langua­ges and fami­lia­rise with diffe­rent cultu­res. I come from a bilin­gual family. There­fore, Greek and Finnish were spoken in my house and I atten­ded both Greek and Finnish schools in Rhodes. Next language adven­tu­res were German and English, which I studied in a language school for about seven years. Ancient Greek and Latin were also taught in high school, and they were my favou­rite subjects.

After finis­hing high school, I worked in the tourism industry for about five years in Greece and Spain. During those years, I reali­sed that tourism is the field I want to work in because it combi­nes everyt­hing I enjoy; getting to know foreign langua­ges and cultu­res and travel­ling. Furt­her­more, it is a very promi­sing field full of poten­tial and opportunities.

That was when Karelia UAS entered the picture. I had always wanted to live in Finland at some point in my life as I have Finnish origins as well. I wanted to improve my Finnish language skills and I was very curious about the life in Finland in general. Thus, it was clear Finland was going to be the country I was going to study in. I also decided that the area of Eastern Finland would be more suitable for me as I perso­nally feel that the welco­ming and warm perso­na­lity and menta­lity of Eastern Finns would make me feel more at home.

But why Karelia UAS though? I did a thorough research of diffe­rent educa­tio­nal insti­tu­tions and I figured this one would be most suitable for me and my future goals. Karelia offers diverse and exten­sive educa­tion in tourism and hospi­ta­lity related subjects. We go through everyt­hing from accoun­ting to tourism trends and from statis­tical mathe­ma­tics to project deve­lo­ping. We arrange various events, partici­pate in inte­res­ting projects, travel and learn diffe­rent langua­ges like German, Russian, Spanish, French, Chinese or Japa­nese. We do fields trips in Finland and abroad, and Tallinn, Berlin and Saint Peters­burg are some of the places we visit. Students can do interns­hips abroad or attend a diffe­rent univer­sity for some part of their studies in another country. I did my first interns­hip in Scandic Grand Place hotel in Brus­sels and I am currently working on finding a trai­nees­hip posi­tion in London. Next semes­ter I hope to attend classes in Cale­do­nian Univer­sity in Glasgow as an Erasmus student. So far, my studying adven­ture in Karelia UAS has been very giving and has helped me grow in many ways. The future seems brigh­ter than and for me it was the right choice for studies for sure.

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