As the first thing during my scholarship year, I got to visit New York to have what can only be described as the coolest week of my life thus far!
I flew in from Finland to attend the 51st annual Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society (OWUSS) Awards Weekend, and when I landed in New York on the 28th of May I was feeling a mixture of pure excitement and fear. Luckily that fear turned into excitement as I started meeting the amazing people who I would spend weekend with. The absolute highlights from this weekend were meeting all the incredible people that are part of OWUSS, the awards ceremony, and getting to see the presentations of 2024 returning scholars and interns.
The weekend was a whirlwind! Full of events, presentations, and meeting a lot of new people. I was so excited to get to meet and talk to so many of OWUSS alumni, and people who give their time and energy to keep this amazing society going. It was also a huge honour to be presented as the 2025 European scholar as the first-ever Finnish scholar!
After the incredible weekend filled spent with the amazing people from OWUSS, I got the opportunity to partake in the Blue Generation program as part of the Oceans Week. These days were also some of the best days of my life, as I got to meet even more people who are truly passionate about our oceans and their protection. We heard many incredibly interesting presentations by experts in their perspective fields, got to spend time at the Explorers Club (a life-long dream), got to partake in some insanely cool workshops, and even visited the New York aquarium. And for my personal highlight of the Blue Generations program: I got to meet Dr. Sylvia Earle, who has been one of my biggest heroes and inspirations ever since my childhood!
After the week in New York I headed back to Finland to work on my masters thesis. The week left me feeling more excited and confident about the year to come, and I can’t wait to meet all the incredible people during my travels or at the latest, back in New York in a year. This was truly an amazing way to start my scholarship year! You can continue to follow my journey through blogs, or hop on my Instagram!
Thank you again so much to the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society for making this opportunity possible. Also an extra warm thank you to all of my amazing sponsors Fourth Element, DAN Europe, Halcyon, Backscatter and Suunto for helping me on my journey!
