Studying Adventure Education at HUMAK Tornio campus as an exchange student

Tornio is a town in northern Finland, where the Adventure Education Course for Erasmus exchange students takes place. The course has been a part of HUMAK program since 1998. It had been designed for up to 20 foreign students coming from different European countries. It offers an opportunity to get a three-month long experience of studying in the arctic part of Finland. The Finnish Lapland is a perfect place, as the rough climate provides challenging new experiences for students. It gives a possibility to perform many outdoor activities, like kayaking, climbing, hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, camping, etc. Students learn many technical skills, but more importantly, while performing activities, they gain knowledge of the main principles and goals of adventure education.

Adventure education focuses on three most important things, which are group skills, environmental skills and individual growth. All these skills are taught to students during the course.

International students form a group. They spend most of the time with each other. Together they live, have lectures and organize various projects. Along the learning process students are given more and more responsibility and as a group they go through stages of group development. During the first month there are kayaking and climbing trips organized for them. They get to know each other by camping, cooking, eating and performing activities together. All these teach them various skills, like cooperation, sharing, helping, being respectful, tolerant and supportive. At the end of the course, on their own, they plan a winter excursion. When everything runs smoothly and the trip is successful it increases the students’ self-confidence and belief in themselves and others. Being in a group certainly adds a new dimension to the whole course. Group skills not only are important in adventure education, but also in everyday life.

Interactions with other people give endless possibilities for learning and developing personality and character, which is another goal of adventure education. During the course students learn about themselves - their abilities and weaknesses. It also teaches them to be creative, train their imagination through solving problems. Adventure education builds character and gives people lots of joy and satisfaction.

During the course students learn to appreciate nature and its beauty. They become aware of environmental issues and learn to treat nature well. They are taught the “leave no trace practices” and the respect of local communities. Considering environmental issues is a significant part of adventure education.

Exchange students study and live on the campus of Peräpohjolan Opisto. They live together in a row house or a student dormitory. Delicious meals are provided in a canteen at a reasonable price. They have a chance to attend free time activities, for example pool kayaking sessions. They also have a possibility to join a climbing club, which meets three times a week at the local indoor climbing wall. It’s a great way to integrate with Finnish students and other locals. Integration between the international and Finnish students is a significant part of the course. Every student has a personal Finnish tutor. That person helps them with all the problems that they may encounter at university and while living in Finland. Adventure Education students also organize projects for Finnish teenagers and spend a week working in local schools and youth centers. All these experiences give them understanding of the Finnish culture and customs and Finland in general. They also learn basic Finnish words. Along the course, together with Finnish students, they attend theory classes that take place at the campus, but most of the studying happens outdoors, during performing activities. The emphasis is put on practice which is later connected to the theories. Students learn skills, perform activities and then analyze their own and their friends’ experiences. That’s why learning comes so easy at the course. Most of the time students don’t even realize that they are learning.

If you are an active person, an outdoor enthusiast, you would like to improve your leadership and activity organizing skills, try climbing, sea kayaking and learn other outdoor skills you will definitely enjoy the adventure education course in Tornio. Don’t worry if you are not expert in these sports. The step by step learning process will effectively increase your abilities. But don’t expect to just have fun all the time. Sometimes there is a lot of work with written assignments and organizing projects. To study here you need to be self disciplined, hard-working and open minded.

This year there is 12 of us taking part in the course. We come from 5 different European countries – Germany, Poland, Wales, Portugal and the Netherlands. We’ve been here for two months and it’s been a lot of fun so far. We love the action here. There is always something going on. We also feel that we’ve learned a lot. Some of us fell in love with Finland, with its beauty and charm. Even in our free time we organize short excursions, travel Lapland and enjoy outdoor life. There is definitely some magic to this place, with its amazing Northern Lights and long summer days. A few of us were disappointed with Tornio at the first sight. But it didn’t take us long to discover that it doesn’t matter that it’s just a small town, where a wooden church, a brewery and a few pubs are the biggest attractions. Together with its surroundings it has a lot more to offer, especially for our field of studying.

Kamila Wilkowska and Jaroslaw Szarkowski
Adventure Education 2007 students from Poland

Photos: Kamila Wilkowska and Kai Lehtonen