{"id":514,"date":"2019-11-12T13:50:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T11:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/?p=514"},"modified":"2019-11-12T13:51:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T11:51:40","slug":"hanken-is-a-world-of-its-own-my-time-here-at-hanken-is-probably-the-best-time-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/2019\/11\/12\/hanken-is-a-world-of-its-own-my-time-here-at-hanken-is-probably-the-best-time-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanken is a world of its own &#8211; My time here at Hanken is probably the best time of my life."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>A young man who had spent a good part of his formative educational years dissatisfied with the education system in his country soon found his niche in the world of Finance. Now, studying at the Hanken School of Economics, that very young man sees hope that with his experience he will be able to bring about the change his country so desperately needs.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery alignleft columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"501\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/11\/IMG_20190819_122021_cropped-1-501x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"516\" data-link=\"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/?attachment_id=516\" class=\"wp-image-516\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/11\/IMG_20190819_122021_cropped-1-501x1024.jpg 501w, https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/11\/IMG_20190819_122021_cropped-1-147x300.jpg 147w, https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/11\/IMG_20190819_122021_cropped-1-768x1571.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/11\/IMG_20190819_122021_cropped-1-1568x3207.jpg 1568w, https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/11\/IMG_20190819_122021_cropped-1.jpg 1846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Growing up in a country like Pakistan has never been easy if you do not come from a background of privilege. For the struggling middle class even basic rights such as quality education become a matter of allotment at birth:&nbsp; if you are born into privilege, you will get the best education and if not, you are on your own. Seeing this disparity, I began to lose my motivation to study. I was by no means lazy, nor was I someone who refused to do well just because it was not handed to me. But because the universe works in its own mysterious ways, I somehow found it in me to strive to do well in life and ended up getting admitted to one of the top-tier universities in Pakistan.&nbsp; During my time in the Accounting and Finance Program at the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, I met Dr. Hilal, who introduced me to Hanken, having completed his PhD from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The more I heard\nabout his experiences, the more I began to live vicariously through him. All\nthe reasons for my lack of motivation began to seem more like a bad dream, the\nmore I envisioned myself studying here. And it wasn\u2019t just the quality of\neducation that had me sold on Finland. Here I was seeing myself spend time in\none of the safest and happiest countries in the world. I knew no matter how\nmuch I imagined what the Northern Lights would look like, my imagination would\nnever do justice to the real thing. I dreamt of trekking in the forests in the\nsummers and going skiing in the winters. I even began looking forward to\nall-nighters if I could drink famous Finnish coffee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I knew the\nodds were never stacked in my favor. As much as my parents supported my dream\nto study at Hanken, they didn\u2019t have the financial means to help fund my master\u2019s\neducation. As I was assessing my options, I came across the GSBN Scholarship Program.\nIt was as though the program had been hand-crafted especially for me. I ticked\nall the boxes: I came from a developing country on their list, I had maintained\na strong 3.5 GPA in my bachelors, I had work experience at one of the most\nsought out MNCs in Pakistan. Yet part of me feared rejection. After envisioning\nmy life in Finland and Hanken, the fear of rejection was almost crippling. I\ncannot possibly put into words the happiness, relief and excitement I felt when\nI got accepted into Hanken School of Economics. There are way too many words\nand yet they still are not enough to encapsulate the feeling. It was almost empowering\nbecause I saw a future not just for me but for my country and my countrymen. I\nknew from the minute I got my acceptance that I would use all that I would\nlearn in the upcoming two years to play a part on bringing about economic\nchange in \u201cNaya Pakistan\u201d (New Pakistan), as it is being called in recent\ntimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is fair to say\nthat my time here has lived up to all the expectations I had. Hanken is a world\nof its own. With so much diversity, it is as though all the world network is\nconnected at a single platform.&nbsp; These\ninternational networks that we are forming during our time here will prove to\nbe so much more important when we all go out in our respective fields and find\nthat we are all still connected and available to help each other whenever the\nneed may arise.&nbsp; The learning environment\nat Hanken is a safe space. Competition is healthy and we have student unions in\nplace to make sure whatever needs and concerns we have, are given a proper\nvoice. We have both mental and physical health services available to make sure\nthat our time here is well utilized and that the pressure that comes with any\nuniversity experience does not get too much to bear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hanken is also\ninvested in our future. It has provided career counseling services so that\nstudents do not get overwhelmed when the time to step out in the real world\narises. They also serve as a link between students and future potential\nemployers to ensure that we make the best use of our education.&nbsp; Similarly, there are various opportunities to\nget help on assignments and thesis work without any registration required.\nHanken also encourages us to grow into multi-dimensional individuals and allows\nus to study non-degree modules. So not only can we dip into other interests but\ncan do it in universities other than Hanken to have a diverse experience. To\nput it in a nutshell, everything about Hanken is essentially wholesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also goes without saying that the faculty at Hanken is unparalleled. With highly esteemed scholars, doctors and well experienced professors, there is nothing more a student could want. My time here at Hanken is probably the best time of my life. It has steered me in the direction I want to go. I have already made plans for my doctorate and it doesn\u2019t end there. I have decided that I want return to Pakistan and not just teach, but actively partake in the new technocratic government as the country make its Hail Mary attempt to undo decades of malfeasance. I also want to be a success story, if not for anyone, at least for my family that privilege is not the key to success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sohaib Ahmed, Master&#8217;s student in Finance<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A young man who had spent a good part of his formative educational years dissatisfied with the education system in his country soon found his niche in the world of Finance. Now, studying at the Hanken School of Economics, that very young man sees hope that with his experience he will be able to bring &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/2019\/11\/12\/hanken-is-a-world-of-its-own-my-time-here-at-hanken-is-probably-the-best-time-of-my-life\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Hanken is a world of its own &#8211; My time here at Hanken is probably the best time of my life.&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,9,10,6],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nb-blog","tag-gbsn","tag-hanken","tag-hankenshoolofeconomics","tag-masters","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":519,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/nordicbrilliance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}