International Business student Toni has been one of the Marketing Ring team members during this academic year. Marketing Ring is a group of students who, for example, visits high schools and vocational schools and promotes HAMK to potential applicants. Read about Toni’s experiences about being part of the MR team!
Tell about yourself
Hi everyone! My name is Toni Pihlajamäki, I’m 21 years old, born in Finland and I live in Tampere at the moment. I’m studying IB (International Business) for the second year now at HAMK Valkeakoski campus, and I have really enjoyed my time studying here. I was nervous in the beginning of the studies in the first year, but the amazing international atmosphere inside our campus and classroom showed me that I had nothing to be nervous about. Everyone here in HAMK from teachers to students are super friendly, and I have got the opportunity to be part of many great activities during my studies and the Marketing Ring, which I’m going to tell you about now, is one of them.
What is Marketing ring?
Marketing is a project provided by HAMK in your second year of studies. There you get the opportunity to market HAMK and IB by travelling around Pirkanmaa region visiting different high schools and vocational schools. To be part of HAMK Marketing Ring we needed to send an application email to one of our staff member, Terhi, who then informed who got the opportunity to be part of the team. In the beginning we had few meetings with the team where we learned few good presentation skill tips and decided who are going in which schools during the project.
How was it & what did I learn?
I remember being really nervous going to visit the first school as a part of the Marketing Ring team and to give a 45 minutes presentation in front of a classroom full of random people. But already during the second school visit I wasn’t nervous anymore at all because I knew I was there talking about a topic that I know and like about. I was one of those guys who are afraid to go and give a presentation in front of a class, but after Marketing Ring I haven’t been nervous anymore. The improvement in my presentation skills has been really noticeable and for that I can thank Marketing Ring for.
For me the best part of the Marketing Ring was the opportunity to travel and meet new people all around our region and events marketing HAMK and our degree programme. The best part of Marketing Ring got to be that I got to visit my old high school where I use to study, and say hello to my previous teachers and new students. After all I have nothing negative to say about this Marketing Ring project that HAMK has provided us, and if there is a first year student considering to apply for the Marketing Ring, I can warmly recommend to do that.
I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope you are having a wonderful day!
-Toni Pihlajamäki
