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Exchange students, organising for exchange students.
ESN Savo is the Kuopio section of the Erasmus Student Network. Here is where we came from, what we hold ourselves to, and who is running it this year.
Started by people who did not want their own exchange to end.
A small group of former exchange students in Kuopio knew exactly what the first weeks abroad feel like: exciting, slightly overwhelming, and enormously easier when somebody shows you around. So they started doing the showing around.
We are part of the Erasmus Student Network, active in more than a thousand universities across over forty countries. Everything we actually organise is local — built around Kuopio, the lakes, and whoever lands here this semester.
Nobody here is paid. Every trip, every sitsit, every welcome-to-Finland sauna is planned by volunteers who remember being the new person in the room, usually about a year ago.
What we hold ourselves to
The four commitments every ESN section shares, and what each one actually means on a Tuesday evening in Kuopio.
Diversity
Every nationality, background and language is welcome at everything we run. Nobody has to explain themselves at the door.
Inclusion
Nobody should spend an exchange feeling outside of it. If you arrive alone, someone will talk to you — that is the entire job.
Volunteering
Students give their free time to run this. It means we answer slowly sometimes, and it means nothing here is sold to you.
Internationalisation
Kuopio connected to a Europe-wide network, and Finnish students connected to the rest of the world without leaving.
How we got here
A handful of people and one event a month
Former exchange students set out to give Kuopio's incoming internationals a proper welcome, starting with whatever they could organise themselves.
Registered as an association
ESN Savo was entered in the Finnish Register of Associations as Savo ry on 3 June 2025, which is what lets us hold funds, sign agreements and work with partners properly.
A full calendar, twice a year
Orientation, weekly socials, trips and sitsit for the international students arriving each August and January — and a volunteer crew that turns over with them.
Who is running it
Volunteer roles, refreshed each term. Say hello at any event — that is generally how people end up on this list.
Who we are on paper
ESN Savo is the Kuopio section of the Erasmus Student Network. We are registered in Finland as Savo ry, business ID (Y-tunnus) 3540485-7, entered in the Finnish Register of Associations by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office on 3 June 2025. Registered address: Neulaniementie 1, 70210 Kuopio, Finland.
This website, esnsavo.fi, and every @esnsavo.fi email address are operated by Savo ry. The domain was provisioned for us by ESN Finland, the national association of the Erasmus Student Network in Finland, as it is for every ESN section in the country.