Nicholas Kujala

For Vice President of the European Youth Forum

I am running for Vice President because I believe in the European Youth Forum.

I believe in what we do, I believe in our vision and I believe in our membership.

This image contains Nicholas wearing a beige jacket and light grey cargo shorts. He is holding a large red-and-yellow flag with a ship in the middle. This is the flag of the student organization FSS. In the background stairs to Helsinki Cathedral.

Who am I?

Throughout my life, I have always had the desire to create positive change in my surroundings. Starting from the local level, I dedicated a decade focusing on the grassroots and local communities. During the past years, I’ve also had the privilege to work on an international scale, bringing forward the voices of Finnish youth and also European youth. I have always enjoyed direct action more than sitting in meeting rooms. As a changemaker, I have always defended the right to assemble and make our voices heard.

My vision for the European Youth Forum

I believe in the European Youth Forum. We have huge potential beyond what we are achieving today, both in Europe and beyond. To summarize my vision, I want to:

  1. Strengthen our role as a pro-European platform with common and shared values

  2. Co-create policy with the members to strengthen our advocacy and actively build the world we are living in

  3. Take concrete steps toward a more transparent YFJ, with special focus on a reinvented board-MO contact system

 FAQs

  • I am currently 28 years old, and will turn 29 the day before our General Assembly.

    I am originally from the city of Espoo in Southern Finland, and currently live in Vantaa, which is a nearby city next to Helsinki.

  • Outside of the YFJ I work as a weather observer at the Helsinki International Airport. I’ve worked for the Finnish Meteorological Institute for almost five years now, and really love my job.

    I am also a natural sciences student at the University of Helsinki. My main subjects are meteorology and geology. I have also completed some social sciences studies.

  • I speak multiple languages fluently, and also want to speak more languages in the future.

    Fluent: Swedish, Finnish, English

    Professional Working Proficiency: Norwegian

    Elementary Proficiency: German, French

    Very limited: Spanish

    I can also read the cyrillic and greek alphabets.

  • I work mainly with the youth participation portfolio. The most specific topic is the EU Youth Dialogue, where I focus on the European Steering Group (managing the EUYD), cooperation with the INGYOs taking part in the dialogue and the EU Youth Conferences.

    I have also attended the past two Youth Director Generals meetings (Spain and Belgium), advocating for the EU youth test and the future of the EU youth programs.

    Internally I have been on the statutory meetings team and also part of the EU elections team.

    Besides these, I have worked on multiple different portfolios, such as the MEET- project and some over-arching EU-Council of Europe partnership projects on youth participation.

  • I would say either a penguin or a koala. Penguins are very curious animals with great skills to adapt to different environments.

    Koalas are very chill, and they take each day as it comes. They are also very likeable.

Get in touch

Socials

Email

nicholas.kujala(@)gmail.com