Neuvonen, Jorna

Jorna Neuvonen

Exporting University Education and Expertise: International Engagement at UBC

 

“Great universities are bridges between communities and continents. Hubs of intellectual and cultural interchange, they embody the values of respect and service while expanding
opportunities for individuals to carry these values into the world.” (the UBC Plan).

In the last twenty years UBC has developed from a mid-size regional university to a large, internationally recognized university. UBC is currently hosting students from more than 150 countries and has built strong academic ties with universities around the world. The Faculty of Forestry has one of the most diverse student bodies on campus. Nearly 1/4 of our undergraduate students are international representing 27 countries and almost 60% of graduate students come from outside of Canada representing 41 countries. Faculty has strong ties with China, India and Europa in many levels.

 

Bio:

Jorma Neuvonen has been Director of Special Projects at the UBC Faculty of Forestry since 2007. He provides leadership and organization for new education and training programs, represents UBC Forestry in international fora, and coordinates international activities, symposia, delegations and agreements leading to the establishment of collaborations in research and education internationally. Besides academia, he has worked as a consulting forester internationally with work experience from Canada, Finland, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Philippines and India.

 

Jorna Neuvonen spoke to us in March 2013.

Midsummer Festival

Each June we have a booth at the Midsummer Festival on the grounds of the Scandinavian Community Centre. In addition to handing out information about our club, we also sign up new members. Everyone is invited to come out to enjoy this fun annual event. If you have time available, why not consider volunteering to help with our booth?

Christmas Party

 

In December, instead of our usual monthly dinner meeting, we have our annual Christmas party. Our guests are welcomed into the hall by the cheerful sounds of the Runeberg Choir. We have a fabulous Scandinavian Christmas dinner, followed by dancing to live music.

Monthly Dinners

Our dinner schedule for 2024 will be: Feb 14th, Apr 10th, TBD. Social hour starts at 6:00pm, dinner at 7:00pm and the dinner speaker starts at about 8:00pm. The dinner is Scandinavian and usually starts with herring and salmon open-faced sandwich appetizers and ends with coffee/tea and delicious Scandinavian desserts. The theme for the after dinner talk is usually business related and hopefully with a Scandinavian connection but we also schedule other speakers of interest. Two meetings of the year we have no speaker. Instead, in February we have our Annual General meeting where we discuss business for the upcoming year and elect our new board of directors. In June, we have our annual joke-telling contest and discover who, among us, is the best teller of jokes.