Staff Interview with Juuso Myller

What makes World Campus International special?

World Campus International offers multicultural programs packed with chances to learn about the culture of the country we're visiting, to make connections and friends there with all the other participants from around the world, and to improve oneself by working in a multicultural environment that requires constant adaptability to changes and people around you.

In particular, WCI offers you the chance to stay in a host family, giving you the opportunity to learn about the local culture, customs, and interact with the people on a grassroots level. We have a saying that once you've been a participant of World Campus, you will forever be an alumnus of World Campus. This means that even after the program, most people are tightly connected with other participants, the staff, and in particular their host families, who they often come to feel are their true families in the country they visited. We are proud that we can offer people chances to become outreached and adaptable, international, and hardworking global citizens.

What inspired you to work for World Campus International (WCI)?

When I started studying in University of Eastern Finland in 2015, I took Japanese as a minor subject. During one of the lectures Hiro Nishimura, the CEO of World Campus International (WCI) held a presentation about the World Campus Japan program and I and a friend of mine decided to apply. During the program that summer I fell in love with Japan and the program, and how it helped young people grow out of their shells and bubbles, learn about Japanese culture, and work together in a multicultural environment. 

The objective of WCI is to nurture youth into "global citizens", people who can adapt to changes in their environment and people around them and work in an international group where everyone has a different background and a different set of ideals. As a participant, I vastly improved my communication skills, adaptability, group skills, and self-confidence. I feel like the program offered me a possibility to become a better, more global person and I felt that I wanted to share that feeling with other people. After that summer, I applied for a counselor position and here I am.

Describe a typical day at work for you.

While every day in World Campus Japan program is different, as a program counselor I have many things that I need to take care of every day. Every day all of the program counselors meet before the participants arrive and go over the scheduled activities and anything else that needs to be taken into consideration for the day. World Campus Japan has a rotating system, where one of the counselors in turn is in charge of one of the cities where we are staying. They are responsible for keeping up with and updating the schedule and working with the local partners within that city. They also run morning and afternoon meetings, where they will go over the schedule of the day with participants and direct any internal activities that may have been planned, such as dance practice, Japanese 101, etc. 

Every counselor spends the day participating in the activities with the participants. WCI aims to have the staff be a part of the group and that means that during the activities and in group situations program counselors don't stand out from the rest of the participants, in general. However, we are responsible for guiding, helping, and controlling the group(s) of participants all the time, and also act as on the spot translators between them and the local people. We also offer the participants personal guidance and emotional support whenever needed.

On top of the city running and support roles, counselors have their specialized jobs as well, ranging from technical jobs to interpretation to social media management. My job has been social media management, photography, and something we call "Thank You cards." These jobs mean that I'm running around with a camera all the time during the day, sometimes filming vlogs for our YouTube channel and spending a good part of my evenings with my host family updating our social media, editing written blog entries, and preparing the cards. In this sense, it;s an around the clock job.

What is your favorite part of your job?

The favorite part of my job is definitely guiding the participants and offering personal counseling. I enjoy working with people and leading groups of people. I feel that I can positively impact the lives of the participants in the program with my guidance and support, and I want to ensure that everyone can enjoy the program as much as possible. Furthermore, I enjoy making new friends and the social aspects of this job offer a great opportunity to get to know people from many different cultures and backgrounds. 

What challenges do you face in your role and how do you overcome them?

Sometimes there are schedule changes and changes in plans that mean that we have to adapt to a new program very quickly, which is challenging, but also fun. The relative unpredictability of every day in the job is what motivates me the most. We are working with many factors affecting the program and every now and then there is a change somewhere that needs to be addressed. The most important thing is to convey this to the participants and make them understand that the schedule they are given is not set in stone, but that changes can and most likely will occur. Situations like these require adaptability and quick thinking.

There are also sometimes internal conflicts within the group or someone might be facing an emotional crisis. While these situations are natural for participants in a multicultural, intense group program in a foreign country and staying in a host family, it is our job to solve them. Every rule violation, internal conflict, or emotional crisis is solved by us through talking with the people involved and reaching a mutual understanding in that way. So far, I feel that we have succeeded very well in this and managed to diffuse any problematic situations or provided emotional support quickly before they have negatively affected our group or any individuals.

In what ways do you help support participants throughout their time with WCI?

As program counselors, we are all the time with the participants during activities, guiding them and helping them to adjust to any change. By participating among them we lead the way and set an example to them. By being present all the time we are more like senior participants rather than outsider staff, which enables us to befriend participants and truly be present whenever they might need support. The most important thing is that we are part of the group and friends to the participants, and we want to learn about them and help them enjoy the program as much as possible. We are also trained to provide emotional support and diffuse internal conflicts should any arise.

What do you hope participants take away from your programs?

World Campus International aims to make our participants into "global citizens." I hope that our participants learn to recognize their own skills and use them in a constructive way in group situations. I hope that they learn to work in a multicultural environment and with different people, and become more adaptable to change. I also hope that they make friends and connections with other participants, their host families, and local people.

Why should someone choose World Campus International over their competitors?

The most important asset of our programs is the host families. Few programs offer a possibility to stay in multiple host families during the program, each of the families excited and committed to hosting you. World Campus host families are not paid by World Campus International and their motivation is to learn about the cultures and the people that stay at their homes.

This two-way "give and take" approach is also paramount to World Campus International. The participants enjoy the culture and activities during the program, but also spread happiness and their culture so that our partners and the local people can learn as well. This is especially evident during our visits to schools or elderly homes, where the kids or the elderly take us in with amazing excitement, ready to learn about us and our cultures. I've talked about "partners," but the kind people organizing the local activities feel really more like an extension of the core family of participants and their host families. In essence, on top of activities and experiences World Campus International truly offers connections, friends and families.

What advice do you have for young people thinking about going abroad?

Be open-minded, be flexible. As you're traveling, you're a visitor in a foreign culture and it is important that you respect the local ways and customs. It also helps tremendously to form new friendships. Furthermore, friends are always great when traveling, whether you're traveling with a friend or if you have local friends. Locals usually know the best places and the hidden gems. World Campus International offers both friends and locals to help make your trip a unique one. You'll have traveling companions and insider access to the culture and areas through your host families and local partners, so just bring your open mind with you.

Where do you see WCI expanding in the coming years?

World Campus International has aimed to expand to other countries for a long time. As of now, on top of the World Campus Japan program we have World Campus Norway and World Campus Finland programs that are available for Japanese youth. I hope that WCI can expand to many other countries around the world so that people can learn about a multitude of different cultures and that we could offer the program to a much wider audience. The concept of moving between different cities and staying with host families during the program also makes it possible to have programs that span multiple countries, which I would love to see happen in the future.

What hopes do you have for the future of the field of international education?

I hope that in the future people join more programs like ours that offer them possibilities to make international connections and grow as global citizens. You can only learn so much in school or academic environment about interacting with people, the best way is to go and do it yourself. Traveling and/or participating in programs like this should be expected of young people. Staying in one place, surrounded by similarly opinionated people leaves youth in echo chambers, without a chance to challenge their ideas and learn about other cultures and ways.

By pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone they learn more about the world around them and themselves even, recognizing their limits and formulating their own opinions with the help of diverse input of different people around them. And most importantly, they learn to appreciate and accept people despite their differences and different opinions.

What does meaningful travel mean to you?

Meaningful traveling is about learning as you travel. To learn as you travel, you have to be open-minded and ready to challenge yourself, step outside your echo chambers, and stretch your comfort zone. This way I can experience the real things that I didn't know that I wanted to experience. Sticking too close to plans and tourist spots limits one's ability to get those experiences and also to make local friends and meet local people. Being open-minded and searching for real local contact helps you to understand their culture, ways, and thoughts, and challenge and improve your own.