By Tessa Taskinen EBA15B
One of the topics of first week’s Communication for Global Business presentations tackled motivational speaking. I recently attended a demonstration which concerned the student benefit promise, on Wednesday 9 March 2016 in Kauppatori. Some of the speeches delivered there were very motivational and others less motivational. In this event, there were speakers from chairpersons to administrators coming from all sections of educational institutions; universities, universities of applied sciences, student unions, even from high schools and vocational schools. Some of the speakers, and their speeches, were actually really good and I was very surprised by this.

I was there mostly on principle. In the first place I did not want to listen to any speeches but figured that I had no other choice if I wanted to make a stand. However, while listening to these well-written and well-rehearsed speeches, my opinion changed little by little. The speakers talked about why the student fund should not be cut and how the students really need it. They gave examples of people who could not have survived without the grant and were guessing what would happen in the future if the student fund was reduced. They made some very valuable points on how we are required to study at least eight hours per day plus homework but we do not have enough money to live like this so many of us have to work at least part-time at the same time, and how we are the future of the country so more attention should be paid to us.

As supposed, the reduction of the student fund is exactly what happened. The whole thing goes back to the last election where politicians were promising that the student fund would not be reduced because studying is important (which it is!). They promised to support students so that all students who have the right to vote would vote for them and they would be elected to Parliament. However, after the election was over, they no longer give a damn about the promise. I know that things are not as black and white and that something needed to be done but they still dealt with the issue in a wrong way in my opinion. I wanted to show all the members of Parliament and other politicians as well that it is very wrong to promise one thing and then do the opposite and that is why I went to the demonstration in the first place.

When the speakers were delivering their speeches, I soon realised that I obtained new perspectives on this issue and felt motivated to think about the situation from a different point of view. Some of them really caught my attention and I want to thank these people for sharing their thoughts with the public. I admire the courage the presenters possessed and hope that someday I can be as brave as they were and stand up for myself and my rights. In the end, however, my point is that these people really gave value to the event because of their motivational speeches.