Communications is present in all work done for the student body, which is why my role in the communications sector gives me a grandstand view of all the exciting things that TREY’s second year is bringing along! Whether it’s a poster about the spring’s tutor recruitment, influencing the renewal of the university’s information systems, the brand new TR3fest event or discussion about which animal will be in this year’s Organisations’ Kick-off patch, the chances are I have something to do with it! Communications is a fun cross-section of advocacy and event planning as well as building our community. Every day is different.
Even though every day includes answering emails, making social media posts and dabbling with things such as overall patches, videos and folding table tents, they’re all unique and thrilling adventures. In that regard I’m lucky because I have never been sorry to wake up early to go to work. I have always known that the coming day will offer me fulfilling work for the better future of students.
One of the most rewarding things about this work is feeling needed: if a tree falls down in a forest and nobody is around to communicate about it, will anybody know? No one knows about invaluable advocacy work or about a great event if someone doesn’t communicate about them. It’s a great joy to be around to share the fruits of the work of the Student Union. It’s also rewarding to see how my colleagues skilfully use the knowledge they have gained from the communications orientation to tell about their own tasks and handiwork. In the end, we’re all a part of communications.
It has also been rewarding to witness what TREY communications and our brand have grown into over time. I have had the honour to be a part of their construction since their first steps. I have sketched the structures of the websites of the old student unions on an A3 paper and pondered with their communications coordinators over what the TREY website should be like. With the brand team composed of people from the old student unions, I have voted on how many pillars the TREY logo should have. I have participated in writing every document that guides TREY communications and TREY brand – what fun it has been for such a document-writing enthusiast! On the morning after TREY’s brand launch, I hung the new brand sheet at the break of dawn in the rain on the wall of the dark Hervanta campus parking hall while the cable ties snapped in the cold, and even then, I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. I have also frantically searched for the old sheet that disappeared last spring. Work as the Specialist in Communications of the Student Union has entailed continuous learning, growing and experimentation, but above all it has been unforgettable.