We’re gettin’ the band back together! We got the Finnish Five—Carolyn Andrews, Terri Gustafson, Mark DeLonge, Nick Roster, and myself—back together, almost a year to the date from when we traveled to Finland to study their educational system. We reunited to attend the International Affairs Forum’s Ambassador’s Dinner at the Hagerty Center to welcome Leena-Kaisa Mikkola, Ambassador of Finland to the United States. It was a privilege for our group to participate in the evening as honored guests and to share how our journey abroad has inspired some ideas at NMC. A huge highlight was watching Terri Gustafson moderate the talk with the Ambassador—she did a fantastic job leading the conversation! If you’d like to learn about where it all started, check out The Finnish Five: A Journey Through the Finnish Educational System.

Another major highlight of the night was getting to present Ambassador Mikkola with a special gift: our prototype NMC “Haalarit” hoodie. Inspired by the patch-covered student overalls popular across Finland, our version adapts the tradition into an NMC hoodie: a popular piece of college attire in the US. We presented the Ambassador with a hoodie decked out with an array of NMC and regional pride, including an NMC Nursing patch, Great Lakes Maritime Academy patch, Police Academy patch, Dennos Museum patch, Construction Technology patch, and cherry and Michigan patches.

In Finland, the student overalls are a visual resume of a student’s social life and academic journey. Acquiring patches is a central part of the academic culture. Students primarily earn patches by attending academic or social events like orientations, program meetings, or career fairs. By the end of their degree or program, no two pairs of Haalarit are identical, and their coveralls serve as a unique diary of that specific student’s social and academic journey. The overalls are rarely discarded, instead becoming cherished lifelong keepsakes that physically preserve the memories and friendships of their college years.

We haven’t gotten the idea up and off the ground at NMC as of yet, but we are still very hopeful to get the concept endorsed and funded at some point in the future. In the meantime, a huge shout out to Carolyn Andrews, who used department funding to get a prototype of the Haalarit hoodies rolling this semester for students in the Construction Technology program. 

Finally, a massive thank you to Alex Tank and the International Affairs Forum (IAF) team for inviting us and including the Finnish Five in such a memorable evening. We’re excited to keep building on our experiences and to bring a little more SISU and belongingness to NMC!