A big BUP thanks to Sinikka!
Sinikka onboard the tall ship Pogoria in the beginning of the BUP SAILs. Photo: BUP archive
The BUP has been around for more than 30 years. A colleague who has been with us for the whole ride is Sinikka Suomalainen who has been working with the BUP since the very beginning. In April 2024 Sinikka will retire from her position as Planning Officer at the Associated Secretariat and Finnish National BUP Centre in Finland. We wish to extend a big thank you to Sinikka for all that she has contributed with!
Sinikka has vivid memories from when she began working with the BUP.
– People were very enthusiastic, it didn't feel like something you had to do, there was great enthusiasm from everyone, says Sinikka.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the BUP courses were arranged in a completely different way, as working via satellite TV was a new possibility. It was a unique opportunity because it was just when it became possible to make this contact, it was before the time of mobile phones and Zoom, so more was needed to reach each other.
One personal memory that Sinikka has been reminded of by colleagues for more than twenty years is from the teacher's conference at Tvärminne Zoological Station, Finland, in 2000.
– Iryna Kriba, long-time Centre Director in Ukraine, wrote and told me that she remembered me from the sauna at the teacher's conference. I had the task of showing the ladies how to bathe in a sauna (with a dip in the sea in November); more people remembered the event many years later, and it was an exciting experience for many participants.
Sinikka has been working with events for BUP teachers for more than 20 years and she took part in her first SAIL (Sustainability Applied in International Learning) event in the year 2000. The teacher conferences organised by Åbo Akademi University have been organised yearly since 2004. For many years it was a physical conference, but a few years before the pandemic there was a change made according to the wishes of the participants. They wanted longer courses since when you participate in a conference it is often interesting and very new, but when you come home it is business as usual because you don't have time to get to grips with what you have learned.
– This led us to create the BUP Teachers Course, the fifth edition of which we have just completed. The structure is so that we have a six-month course with two workshops and that the participants work on a change project during the course. There is an advantage to working on your own project, you can get more out of it.
Sinikka and colleagues at a BUP intensive course in Uppsala in 2009. The participants are touching a pyramid built using the ISIS tools and the Pyramid-method. Photo: BUP archives
Sinikka thinks that there is a difference between the teacher events that the BUP hosts and other similar events, BUP teachers’ events are transdisciplinary and support teaching competences.
– What is usually not found anywhere is the support for researchers as teachers which is something special that the BUP offers.
When trying to summarise more than three decades with the BUP she has to think about it for a while.
– 30 years go by very quickly and meeting all the people I have has been very valuable. The BUP network has been a very nice thing for me to work with. I appreciate being part of the BUP, it has given me a lot.
For those interested in or new to the BUP she says that the BUP has very good activities for students, teachers, researchers, and rectors.
– Be sure to check out the range of events, I strongly encourage you to apply and participate in events, you will gain a lot from it.
Sinikka together with participants at the second workshop of the BUP Teachers' Course 2022-2023 held in Kaunas. Photo: Cecilia Lundberg
Retiring does not mean that Sinikka will be slowing down, almost the opposite.
– Now I will have more time for other things, I like sailing very much and now I will go to Greece in May and sail around the Greek islands. I'm also looking forward to spending more time in nature. I think it is a wonderful time to become a pensioner in April. I also have my own sailing boat that I'm going to look after, now I can sail whenever I want.