Heikki Isotalo will start as the new Advocacy and Communications Manager on Wednesday, the 7th of February. Isotalo has worked as a student active in Turku and is now moving to AYY from the Helsinki University Student Union.

Isotalo graduated as a master of political science from the Helsinki University in 2016, majoring in political history. He feels that the task of student unions is still close to his heart.

“My studies are not that far in the past, so I can still understand the perspective of the students.”

Isotalo has a long history in student unions, both as an active and an employee.

“I did my bachelors’ degree at the University of Turku, where I was a board member and later board chairperson of the Turku University Student Union. I was also involved in different kinds of student organizations and positions of trust”, he lists.

During the last year, Isotalo has worked in the Helsinki University Student Union as an expert in educational policy.

“I worked in communications and journalism in between, but after graduating, I ended up back in the student union field”, he remarks with a laugh.

Advocacy and Communications Manager is a new job at AYY. The Manager’s task is to plan, lead and implement the advocacy work of the Student Union and act as the team lead for the advocacy and communications teams.

Isotalo applied to AYY mainly due to the reputation of the Aalto community.

“Aalto University and AYY are special in the Finnish university world. There are all kinds of things happening and there’s breaking of old structures to build new ones, which excites me as well”, Isotalo says.

Isotalo believes that students of different fields of expertise meeting and the forward-looking atmosphere of the Student Union will make him grow as a person, too.

“The most interesting thing about this job is how we can get AYY’s influence to grow and how to involve students in all fields of expertise. It combines the student union’s role as an influencer and upbringer: We need our members in order to succeed!”