June, 2021 (#6)

In this issue:

Alumni

• Gatis Eglītis'00 becomes the first ever alumni Minister

• One of Us: Katya Firyan’03 (née Pogrebnaja)
  

Association

• Interviewers wanted for the last stage of Alumni Scholar Selection (Jun 28-30)
  

School

• Class of 2021 brings 100 new graduates to our family
  

Feature by Aisma Linda Ķiesnere'13

• Recipe for corporate sustainability: an ingredient list (text or podcast)

The joy that's hard to describe, feeling of accomplishment (maybe the first one of such magnitude) and also relief — that's how we all felt graduating from the SSE Riga. This June we celebrate another stoic 100 joining our ranks with an extraordinary graduation event(s). 

Prosit! Līgo! Cheers!
Marta Metuzāle’20,
Sorina Solonaru'20,
Katya Firyan'03,
Akmis Lomsargis’00

Click photos for details..

Paldies to the AA’s President Inese Jureviča’00 for sharing some news from her personal network with all of us. If you or your friend have more, kindly fill in this three-question-long form or bookmark it for the future. Alternatively you could also reply to this email.

What can one say to another person, so that it’d be received in a meaningful way? My journey in creative writing started from this question. At that moment I was living in Goa, going through a divorce, or, more precisely, hiding from it in a place some used to call a paradise.

Goa felt like a place where time has stopped, so it was very convenient to get lost there. Especially if you wanted to. And when mine and my friends’ business visas were not prolonged, leaving for the home country with problems I didn’t want to face, somehow wasn’t an option. There also was this groupthink stuff — everyone was staying. We thought, we’ll pay a fine, but meanwhile our lawyer will apply for visas again, and we could continue working.

The situation escalated, when shortly after receiving the notice to leave policemen showed up at our door and asked to show our passports.

President Inese Jureviča’00, Anders, and Morten greeted and welcomed each of the three graduation ceremonies. Congratulatory speeches were given by Marija Dvorņikova’21, Lauris Zalva’21, Samanta Mežmale’21 along with the Master of Ceremony Sāra Zdanovska (Y2 and past SA President). The alumni of Class of 2020, who had not picked the diplomas up earlier, were also able to attend a belated ceremony in the afternoon and take official photos with Morten and the Rector. The emotional load was too high even for the sky which broke up with the rain during the last session. 

(also available as 13 min. podcast)

We have a famous cook Martins Ritins in Latvia, who once said a now legendary phrase in his cooking show: “If you have nothing left in your fridge, take out the salmon…”

Did that confuse you a little bit? Well, it should have. I might be speaking in metaphors, but this is exactly what some employees are going through when they are said to implement sustainability management in the company. They get minimal budget, and to be honest, only passive support of the top management; however, they are expected to make a significant progress in implementing sustainability management practices in the company. But let’s take couple of steps back and I will explain you a little bit more where I am coming from.

Sandra Facinelli'12 (née Jāņekalne) and Aisma Linda Ķiesnere'13 in Je Joue.

Thanks for reading until the end. Let's finish with a piece from SSE Riga art collection.

What's the meaning of it? The viewer is invited to observe how both paintings and their hues change depending on the viewing angle. As well as to think about the amount of energy concentrated in the units of the painting.

Source: Elizabete Fleišmane'??, 2017, "What even is this?" — The SSE Riga contemporary art collection, Insider #150.

Alumni Insider
insider@alumni.lv

This newsletter aims to provide you with quality time by consolidating all you need to know about fellow alumni and our future generations in a single email, published monthly every fourth Thursday.

You can contribute by sharing relevant news (question, photo, idea) or an article to the alumni group and/or emailing to the editors. We will publish your news in the next (if received by the fourth Monday) or the following newsletter.

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Editorial Board
(in formation from Insider Chiefs):
Sergey Nizheborsky'96, Dmitriy Medvedjko'00, Irina Harlampjeva'01, Jonas Jokstys'03, Lina Banyte-Surpliene'05, Tomas Sudnius'06, Edgars Cerps'07, Marius Zemaitis'08, Vaidotas Lasas'09, Karolis Liaudinskas'10, Ginvile Ramanauskaite'11, Jekaterina Kolbina'12, Tatiana Arventi'13, Viktoria Pilinko'14, Valeria Gavrilan'16, Maksis Gauja'18, Elizabete Fleišmane'??, Marta Metuzāle'20, Daniela Gerda Baranova'21, Una Narnicka (Y2), Kristers Šavalgins (Y1).

Old issues
Jan, 2021 (#1);
Feb, 2021 (#2);
Mar, 2021 (#3);
April, 2021 (#4);
May, 2021 (#5);

Erratum
If you've noticed any mistakes or omissions in this issue, kindly hit reply.