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Irina Khramtsova, Ed. D. Associate Professor of Psychology Arkansas State University (USA) Baran Yadav, a physician from a farming family in the southern plains, as he was installed as the first elected president of the Republic of Nepal. Gradually, Nepal seems to be making headway as it forms a new government, but the process is often frustrating. I remain an optimist, which is not always easy. Recently, when I spoke with my father, a 36 ISSN-2162-3104 Fall 2011 Vol.1 Issue 2
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36 ISSN-2162-3104 Fall 2011 Vol.1 Issue 2
Journal of International Students
aid, make the biggest profits. I promised that I couldhelp after I return home to see what the group is actu-ally accomplishing.
The other day at a library talk I gave on Nepal,I was asked by an elderly lady if kids ever go to schoolin Nepal. I was living proof of that. But some miscon-ceptions about faraway lands never seem to diminish.
Deepak Adhikari in Pittsburgh
During my time in Pittsburgh, from 8,000 miles away Isaw my country descend into chaos. I left a monarchyand will return to a constitutional republic without aconstitution. It took three months for the elected mem-bers of the constituent assembly just to pick a presi-dent.
Still, it was a thrill to see on the Post-Gazetteinternational page -- my favorite -- a picture of Ram
Baran Yadav, a physician from a farming family in thesouthern plains, as he was installed as the first electedpresident of the Republic of Nepal.
Gradually, Nepal seems to be making headwayas it forms a new government, but the process is oftenfrustrating. I remain an optimist, which is not alwayseasy.
Recently, when I spoke with my father, aschoolteacher in Phidim, he asked me what I wasbringing home. What came to my mind first was:knowledge. And, of course, experience.
Living in Pittsburgh and working with the bestpeople in the news business has been remarkable. Ishall cherish this sojourn always. Thank you,Pittsburgh.Acknowledgements: The author wants to give the credit to the PittsburghPost-Gazette for publishing the full version of this article._____________________________About the Author:Deepak Adhikari worked at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as an Alfred Friendly Press Fellow in the sum-mer of 2008. He is currently a Nepal correspondent atthe French newswire Agence France-Presse inKathmandu, Nepal.His email is [email protected]
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Why study in Finland: RAMK, SAMK,and PBL
Irina Khramtsova, Ed. D.Associate Professor of PsychologyArkansas State University (USA)
In September 2011, I visited two universities in Finlandas part of Magellan faculty exchange: RovaniemiUniversity of Applied Sciences in Pori (RAMK) andSatakunta University of Applied Sciences in Pori andRauma (SAMK). It was such a wonderful and reward-ing trip that I decided to share my experience with stu-dents to encourage them to study abroad.
Arkansas State University is a member ofMagellan Exchange Program (http://www.magellanex-change.org/). The mission of this program is “to provideopportunities for students and faculty to have an afford-able educational and cultural immersion experience.” Idecided to apply for this exchange to foster my profes-sional development and to establish new contacts forcross-cultural collaboration in my area of research.
There are currently about 20 member institutions in theprogram from 11 countries outside of the USA. One ofthe reasons that I chose Finland is because I teach posi-tive psychology and Northern European countries areamong the happiest places in the world. The mostrecent studies of psychological, social, and economic
well-being put Finlandclose to the top of thelist. It boasts an excel-lent education systemand social services, highliving standards, boom-ing industry, and lowcrime and corruptionrates. It is sparsely popu-lated and offers breath-
taking forests, lakes, and rivers for hiking, trekking, orcanoeing.____________________________________Irina Khramtsova received her doctoral degree in EducationalPsychology from Kansas State University, and her B.A. in Philologyfrom Moscow State University, Russia. She conducts research in thearea of positive psychology, in particular, on mindfulness and morerecently on unity or oneness consciousness.
Photo:A Man in Aboriginal Dress of Finland with Reindeer
ISSN-2162-3104 Fall 2011 Vol.1 Issue 2 37
Traveling in the country is very easy and you do notneed a car because buses and trains can take you to anyremote place such as the Santa Claus residence inRovaniemi. Within the city you can walk or bike likemost of the Finnish students do even when it snows.
Living in Finland is not cheap (mostly becauseof high taxation) but college students there enjoy lotsof privileges and discounts on transportation, museumentrance, etc. University cafeteria lunch costs only 2.5euros and consists of a choice of salads, main dish, anddrinks: piima (sour milk), coffee, or juice. Food inFinland is wonderful, healthy and fresh, coffee is deli-cious, and in the summer and fall you can pick yourown berries and mushrooms in the forests and parks.
Helsinki, Capital City of Finland
Finnish language is very difficult for foreigners tostudy because it is very unique and does not belong tothe Indo-European group like English or other popularlanguages, but both RAMK and SAMK offer manycourses in English. Outside of the university, you maywant to know some basic vocabulary but most Finnsknow English, fairly well. They may be shy to speak itbut when they do –after they apologize that it is notvery good- they use correct grammar and rich vocabu-lary. They do not smile as much as Americans but theywill always help you if you are lost. But you will not belost once you learn some basic vocabulary in Finnish asthere are lots of signs telling you the way to “kuska”(city center) or other parts of town.
I felt very welcome at both RAMK andSAMK: my lectures on positive psychology and mind-fulness were received with enthusiasm by students andfaculty, my Finnish colleagues were great hosts, and Iwas honored by being invited to their homes and evento the sauna.
I thought that Finnish people were friendly andtrusting. I do not like to generalize based on one’s lim-ited experience but here is one example of what my
judgment is based on. When traveling on a train fromRovaniemi to Pori, I ordered my ticket online but wasunable to print it at home and hoped that I could do itat the train station. I was unable to print it in spite ofmy heroic efforts to understand the Finnish messageson the screen of the ticket machine. The ticket officewas closed and the passengers who could understandFinnish were unable to help me. I was a little worriedwhen I got on the train with a piece of scratch paperwhere I wrote my confirmation number and some otherinformation about my train ride. I explained to the con-ductor who of course spoke excellent English what hadhappened. It seemed like she had no way to check if Iwas telling the truth or not, so she just asked me to con-firm that I did pay for the ticket. I said yes and shewrote something in Finnish on my piece of paperwhich I presented later to two other conductors whodid not ask me any questions.
Both RAMK and SAMK have adopted aninnovative teaching method called problem-basedlearning (PBL). It is a type of student-centered peda-gogy in which students learn about a subject in the con-text of complex, real-life problems. The obviousadvantage of this method is that students are activelyinvolved in the learning process, they work on practi-cal application of their knowledge, and for internation-al students, an additional benefit is less dependency onlanguage and more on hands-on problems.
An example of this approach for those whostudy business is an Enterprise Accelerator atSatakunta University of Applied Sciences(http://www.samk.fi/research_and_development/enter-prise_accelerator). This is an innovative pedagogicalapproach combining regular degree coursework withstarting a new business and becoming an entrepreneur.
For those in the nursing program, there is theVirtual Center of Wellness (ENVI) which I toured atRAMK (http://www.ramk.fi/en/). This unit consists oftreatment equipment, patient simulators, and IT soft-ware. It can create a real-life multi-sensory incidentsurroundings including 3-D graphics, weather effects,sounds, and environment and future nurses can practicetheir skills and receive immediate feedback to theiractions.
If exchange students are not willing to committo a whole semester in Finland and do not enjoy coldweather or winter sports, the international summerschool in Pori or Rovaniemi is an excellent option. I donot know at this time what will be offered in summerof 2012, but there were some interesting courses inMay and June this year such as “Nature Trek inLapland” or “Russia as Business and CooperationRegion (including an excursion to St. Petersburg).”
Journal of International Students
