Incoming Student Story: Mayamiko Kasonda from Malawi

Mayamiko Kasonda did her exchange semester in Metropolia in Spring semester 2022 in the field of Health Care and Social Sciences. She is studying nursing in Daeyang University in her home country Malawi. Mayamiko’s university has an agreement with Metropolia within which students are chosen to come to Metropolia for an exchange period. Mayamiko was hoping she would be selected and when she got the information she was excited about being able to make her dream come true.

Study experience at Metropolia

Mayamiko loves learning and describes studying in Metropolia as fun. Nursing studies in Metropolia consisted of theory and lab classes. Theory classes in Metropolia were more interactive than Mayamiko was used to. Lab classes were organized during the exchange on multiple different topics. Mayamiko got to practice emergency care, incubation, CPR and pediatric nursing, to name a few. Teachers have been very encouraging and guiding students throughout the courses. Being punctual is important in Finland and Mayamiko has also noticed this: “I like how people stick to time. Back home classes were extended easily and this hinders other plans”. Workload in Metropolia has been manageable, although assignments have been hard. Despite of this there has been more free time here than back at the home university. Best thing at Metropolia was interaction with other exchange students as well as Finnish students.

Free-time and Finnish Experience

Mayamiko arrived to Finland in March when it was still winter: “Weather was challenging at first, when we got to Finland there was still some snow. With time I got used to it and was really nice to see snow!”. Despite the weather and staying warm indoors, Mayamiko was visiting places on the Helsinki Metropolitan area: “The HSL public transportation card allows to travel around, that was really good”. Mayamiko visited Suomenlinna Fortress Island, Café Regatta and Helsinki Central Library Oodi, to name a few. Mayamiko also applied for a tutor at Metropolia, who was helping her especially in the beginning by guiding her to the apartment and introducing to others.

Biggest challenge during Mayamiko’s exchange was the language. She picked up some words but that was not enough for a conversation. Finnish people are known for good knowledge of English and this was also helping Mayamiko during her stay a lot. She also learned to interact with people in a diverse way and to understand differences.

Tips from Mayamiko:

1. Be open-minded to others
2. Be open to learning new things
3. Have fun!