Meet our Project Team: Marketing & Partnerships

TEXT ELSA SAARINEN

The smallest of them all, Marketing & Partnerships team wraps up the Project Team intros. The team is a bit of an outcast with only four members and more separate roles, but it is still just as important! Social Media Coordinator and the mastermind behind particularly Dare to Learn Instagram, Elsa Saarinen, shares what it's been like for her to be in the MaPa team.

I remember feeling a bit confused and unsure on what I wanted to do and what direction I wanted to go with my studies, and as I was looking for new challenges and opportunities to gain more experience on content creation and marketing, I happened to come across Dare to Learn’s website. I was curious, and remembered hearing about Dare to Learn before, so I decided to take a closer look and ended up applying to the Project team, and I’m so glad I did it. 

I belong to the the Marketing and Partnerships team, which is a smaller team consisting of three volunteers and our team leader. All three of our team members have different roles and different areas of focus: our Startups coordinator focuses on coordinating collaborations with startups, while our International Relations Coordinator acts as a contact person for our international partners, and I, as the Social Media Coordinator, am responsible for updating our social media channels and producing content together with our Head of Marketing and Partnerships. Just like the other teams, we work closely with our team leader, who is always there for us to answer our questions. Like the other teams, we meet (remotely, for now) almost every week and discuss our individual projects and things we have going on for our roles. What’s so great about this role is that you really get to build and shape your role and responsibilities to fit your skills and interests. After all, volunteering at Dare to Learn is all about learning!

Even though we have only had one chance to meet face to face with our whole project team, I know that our project team consists of some truly talented people, and I’m super excited to be a part of all of this. The current situation has really showed us the importance of learning, teamwork, and being open-minded, and Dare to Learn feels more relevant than ever.  I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this team, and I’m confident that together with these great minds, we will make Dare to Learn 2020 amazing! 

​I felt like I needed something fun and more "hands on" to do besides my studies. The opportunity to run Dare to Learn's social media sounded like it would be both a creative outlet for me, and a great opportunity to learn more about social media, so I decided to apply.

Elsa Saarinen, Social Media Coordinator
Marketing & Partnerships 2020