"Right after I graduated my master´s in West Nordic Studies at the University of Iceland, I knew I needed to visit the very place where I had learned about that master program in the first place. When I used to read the UArctic newsletter in search of various opportunities and international exchanges information, little did I know that one day I would have been one of the people behind those very news".

Francesca stayed with us as an Erasmus+ Trainee for 10 months, from August 2021 to June 2022. Besides helping out with the posting of news, she acted as a support staff in various events such as our board meeting in Reykjavík, Iceland and the 3rd meeting of the Assembly of UArctic in Portland, USA.

"My roles and tasks within the Secretariat have been varied. This allowed me to gain valuable assets, namely multitasking and organizational skills. The work of UArctic is incredibly interesting and significant and has allowed me to discover events, initiatives and institutions all over the Arctic that I had never heard of. With its Thematic Networks (TNs), scholars and researchers all around the world are connected in a solid web of knowledge exchange and cooperation".

Thanks to her editorial background, she worked closely with Shared Voices magazine managing editor Hannele Palviainen. Part of her tasks as an editorial team member were reaching out to possible writers, conducting interviews, working with editing and transcriptions and writing articles for the 2022 issue of Shared Voices.

"The name of the magazine comes from the organization’s motto: “With shared voices.” With Hannele’s guidance, I was able to be creative with the content, I undertook interviews and edited articles. I must say that these tasks were facilitated by my previous experience with the Student Paper, so I thank Stúdentablaðið for that!". 

2021-2022 was a busy year for the UArctic International Secretariat as we had to re-learn how to manage in-person capacity and the organization of face-to-face meetings. 

"I have tried to be very active on social media platforms, namely Twitter and Instagram because they are the tools I use every day and that I know best. I hope to have had contributed in the promotion of UArctic´s work and initiatives by engaging with the digital audience"

After 3 months of work on a project funded by The Icelandic Centre for Research and undertaken in cooperation with the University of Iceland and the National Museum of Iceland, Francesca has just started her PhD in Museum Studies at the University of Iceland where she investigates the relationship between museums and born-digital art. 

"I am grateful for all that I have learned at the Secretariat, I feel like I have grown a lot and acquired crucial skills that will be useful in my future career. Thanks for having me!"

We wish you good luck with everything and we´ll see you...in the Arctic!