"We Have More Things in Common Than We Think": Insights from Nadira Sultana’s Internship
Nadira Sultana worked as an intern at LADEC from May to November 2024, focusing on international customers and the challenges and opportunities they face when starting a business in Lahti. This article shares Nadira’s reflections on her internship experience, including her contributions to service development, network-building, and promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging through a workshop – all driven by her passion and creativity.
In the span of my six months internship, I worked with the support services and entrepreneurship and development services. I focused on international customers & what kind of challenges and opportunities they get if they want to set up a business in Lahti.
The reasons I applied to the internship were because it totally matched with my study background (international business) which I’m passionate about and I believed that I would be able to develop current services for international enterpreneurs.
I emphasised on making information more accessible for international customer as well as improve services where our business developers can provide their insights in a way which is time efficient.
LADEC gave me lot of opportunities to explore different events where I got to make connections and see what can be done for different international groups of prople.
The workload for this intern position was appropriate. I never had to wonder what task is next for me because Ladec is involved with a lot of different stakeholders. There was always something to do!
I had the creative freedom to discover task for myself. For example: I have always been passionate about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. So, I proposed to the team that we should hold a learning session regarding this topic. We ended up having an interactive workshop!
I always like to mention that realising the importance of DEIB is the first step and taking action regarding it quickly is the second step. As Ladec has definitely started to take the road, I’m sure it is going into the right direction with the DEIB. This learning session was voluntary, but the room was full of ladecians. It shows how committed the employees are to learn about a new concept and apply it in their workplace.
My colleages always inspired me about language skills. I could practice my spoken and written Finnish with my colleagues and also the people who wanted to practice their English they could do it with me. So, it was beneficial for both of the parties.
I’d also like to mention something that was very surprising to me during my internship. My colleague, Henrik Yli-Seppälä actually started his school life in Bangladesh. We had long and insightful conversations regarding his stay there and how it has changed a lot now. We also discovered that my friend’s grandmother was their family teacher!
This made me realize how close we are as human being even though we’re born in totally different parts of the world. We surely have more things in common that we think.
Overall, this was a valuable experience for me and a beautiful learning experience! Thanks to everyone for helping me succeed in the internship.
LADEC staff together with Nadira Sultana, marking the end of her internship with a coffee gathering, acknowledging her valuable time with LADEC's personnel. Photo: Melina Laaksonen