Hamira Kanwal:
SEMA program has been a very transformative journey for me as I learnt my core competencies and areas of improvement as well. With the program’s combination of academic understanding and real-world projects and workshops, I received a well-rounded and hands-on experience that gave me the insights on how to bring social change. All the preliminary knowledge, guidance and research needed for my own project setup is provided during this program and of course the journey has been amazing with supportive faculty.
Mykhailo Dryzhyruk:
I am Ukrainian and started SEMA in 2021 physically. Next year russian invasion held me in Ukraine with closed borders, so I had to finish the studies in online mode during a war in Ukraine. It was both an extreme and existentially consistent period for me both as an international student and a citizen of a bombed country. I am thankful for an opportunity to make a scientific research in such conditions, and happy to reveal an entrepreneurship and activism for bringing social changes in Ukraine.
Eveline Vente:
Participating in the SEMA program was exactly what I needed to bring my Social Enterprise to the next level. There wasn’t a course in which I didn’t learn anything new… From designing the business model to creating a transmedia marketing plan. All lecturers were involved on a personal level, providing tailored support and thinking out of the box to make every interaction the most valuable experience possible. I did so many cool things thanks to the network I established here, like organizing a professional photoshoot, shooting a brand video, writing an impact report, starting a crowdfunding, and pitching my idea at STARTERtallinn. In fact, there wasn’t an opportunity left unseized to collaborate on my enterprise.
One of the highlights of the Social Entrepreneurship Masters Programme was to participate as a project leader in the LIFE/ELU project. How often do you get the chance to create your own brand video with a team of professionals?! The students were incredibly knowledgeable, skilled, and if course FUN to work with. The result is a highly refined video that I still use almost every day to promote the work of my social enterprise. Obviously that’s what you get when you put a bunch of like-minded individuals together with a team of fluffy alpacas… So thankful for this experience that TLU provided me with!
Venika Krishna:
SEMA program played a crucial role in the creation of Counseling Souls OÜ. It gave wings to my dream of taking my work and expertise of working for Mental Health to global platform. It not only provided me with valuable exposure to internationalization but also gave me the opportunity to train under some of the best professors, who guided the development of a social enterprise focused on improving mental health.
Counseling Souls OÜ- Enhancing Mental Health & Career Guidance across Borders is a social enterprise that provides culturally sensitive and effective educational and counseling services, to people across the world, with especial focus on migrants, expatriate issues, trauma, those at risk of leaving education and training early or at risk of social exclusion.
Merle Praakli:
“I applied to the Tallinn University Master’s Degree in Social Entrepreneurship course after completing an online course of Social Entrepreneurship in the University of Oxford – Department for Continuing Education. I decided to undertake the short online course when Covid-19 pandemic started and it certainly grew my interest in the field of which I did not previously have a great deal of knowledge.
When I came across the detailed overview of the Tallinn University Master’s Degree in Social Entrepreneurship, I knew that was the next step to take in my academic journey. One of the key elements that I was very impressed by was the variety of practical and theoretical courses offered during the two years of studies. Another important factor was that the lecturers of the degree have such different backgrounds and most of them are leaders in highly performing institutions across all the sectors.
As Covid-19 pandemic was then still very present when the studies commenced, the lectures and seminars were quickly adapted to take an online format. This form of degree studies gave an opportunity for all the students to better manage their time and find the work-study-life balance that best suited them. Estonia is globally recognised for the digital competences of its population and it translated very clearly to the setting of the online degree studies – not only the students were able to successfully participate in lectures and seminars, but we were also learning to use a number of important programs.
From business development models, and project management to open innovations systems, and civil society and social innovations we gained valuable theoretical and practical competences that most of the students were able to use directly in their professional lives. Additionally, we were challenged to hands-on courses that gave us real-life experience in writing a project and applying for local or international funding for it, participating in a hackathon with our own business ideas and later organising one for youth, and conducting large scale surveys and interviews for data collection for the masters thesis.
Having graduated the SEMA course successfully, I have not only already gained valuable experience assisting the management of a global scale non-profit organisation, working as a junior researcher for a project that partnered with Tallinn University, and participated as a social entrepreneurship advisor on several start-ups, but am now able to confidently pursue a career in other fields with a positive environmental and societal impact that are increasing globally in the labor market.”
