UNIC GENERATIONS’ LAB — Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Program (BIP) at the University of Oulu, Finland by Ahmet Kutluğ Alperen Kars

In life, there are certain times when one is not sure about a recent decision knowing that she/he will never be. My department of study choice coincided with one of these times. I was not sure about what to study and the major in economics was as engaging as my current field of study, computer engineering. As time went by, my interest in social sciences has also raised and I got totally confused about which way to go. After two challenging semesters, I have roughly been able to make up my mind, at least at some points, and turned my way to studying human relations as I was also curious about the integration of the refugees flowing as huge waves to our country. Going through such periods, one day I saw the announcement of UNIC Generations’ Lab, and the theme ‘Diversity and Inclusion covered under it. Considering my mindset at that time, this program seemed to be a rare and worthy experience for me and as I glimpsed the page, I realized that I was eligible to apply for it. I was not surprised but more excited when the results are announced; I started to wait for the departure day to come.

Apart from the one person that I met before, our other team members were also highly sociable and motivated, just like any other person in Oulu. For a while, I wondered why they were all so motivated but later I thought that is probably because of the eagerness of meeting new people and the comfort of getting rid of exams and projects. However, there were still some people, even a minority, who are still dealing with their assignments in Oulu, and they were relatively unhappy because they were missing all of the ceremonies. I believe I have a right to say ceremony for what we have experienced there; several workshops, city tours, various games I have never even heard of, the exciting study phase of our project, assorted foods of distinct taste, newly formed friendships with diverse people each of which have different backgrounds and many other opportunities with which I do not want to fill the page as they are numerous. I was very pleased to talk to almost everyone there. Nevertheless, there were special country delegates which I found the most synergic and energetic. Every session of the course was very enjoyable thanks to these motivated participants as well as the way the course was taught. Along with the guest lecturers, private group activities and snacks-drinks served during the breaks, the course was overall enjoyable and worthwhile. Our instructor was very caring and ready to provide help whenever we need, even outside of class matters. She was so conversable and amiable that I felt as if I know her for several months, not several weeks. Going together with this friendship-like relationship with her students, she was indeed able to introduce the methods of design and art thinking to us and show us the way of implementing them throughout our projects. Particularly some steps taught in the course were highly effective for our team to indicate the line we must follow and not pass beyond the borders of what we are supposed to achieve. In the beginning, I thought it might be overwhelming to stay focused in the lectures as each session was lasting for 4 hours but they passed just in a blink of an eye. Moreover, another aspect of this course that makes this experience unique for me was working with people from varying age groups as my peers. I was explaining my ideas openly and describing the path we must follow to my team members who were way older than me -some were even older than double my age-. It was my first time experiencing such a series of moments because up to that time, more or less everyone older than thirty-five years old in Turkey was treating me as if I was not a counterpart of them on either of my sides and someone needs to be advised. Working together with these partners in Oulu, we completed our project towards the end of the course and presented our solution as well as the case that is given to us at the Future Fest Event. Before participating in this event, I was expecting a bigger part of it to be allocated to us and our projects. However, this was not the case as there were many simultaneous sessions in that event, and all of our presentations as a class were just included in one of these sessions. This was perhaps the most important drawback of this course; another disadvantage was the insufficiency of online education. Since this course was a blended intensive program, almost half of it was carried out online and this online phase was apparently less effective than the other phase without any doubt. Even though we participated in five lectures online in total, we had just able to know each other in general at the very end of the online phase. The face-to-face part, however, was certainly more engaging as we could express ourselves more easily and communicate without making much effort. After each of these lectures, we were feeling the sweet tiredness of working on our cases for four hours but still, we had the desire to get closer to each other as participants. Another thing that I realized there was the manner of people from similar regions was also similar, just like in the case of the Croatian delegate and Turkish delegate as we two were closer compared to other delegates. I think this is not something arbitrary, but it is more likely to be stemmed from the understanding of languages -not just the oral language- as well as our manners. We had a lot in common with Croatian people including similar words and traditions, supporting the previous thought. However, all delegates from participant countries were sympathetic and I would love to keep in touch with almost all of them. Starting from the beginning of May and ending in the middle of June, this program, on the whole, was an unforgettable experience for me as it gave me the opportunity to meet with different people and learn many new things. I believe I am now more eager to join similar kinds of events than before, thanks to UNIC Lab.

Ahmet Kutluğ Alperen Kars