Minna, a first-year student on the sports line at the Leppävaaran lukio general upper secondary school: “The teachers have been lovely. Everyone’s been welcoming and relaxed.”

Minna Mannonen is a first-year student on the sports line at the Leppävaaran lukio general upper secondary school. Minna moved from Kotka to the Helsinki metropolitan area for upper secondary school to be closer to cheerleading practice. Her first impressions of the school and her studies have been really positive.

Minna Mannonen is a first-year student on the sports line at the Leppävaaran lukio general upper secondary school. Her sport is cheerleading. At the time of this interview, she has been in upper secondary school for just over a month.

Minna went to lower secondary school at Karhula School in Kotka. She used to travel all the way from Kotka to Helsinki for cheerleading practice. “If I got a lift to practice, it took an hour and a half each way. By public transport, it took two and a half hours each way,” she says. Her lower secondary school was flexible, as she was on the sports line there as well. The travel times sound extreme, but it didn't bother Minna too much, as she had time to do homework or revise for tests on the way. Even so, she looked for an upper secondary school in the capital region so that the commute to practice would be reasonable. “Now I have an easy journey to school, and it’s only 20 minutes to practice,” Minna says happily.

When picking a school, Minna searched online for information about the Leppävaaran lukio general upper secondary school. “I also had a look on Instagram to see what the vibe was like.” However, she didn't attend the open day, nor did she know anyone at the school beforehand. She moved from Kotka over the summer and, at just 16 years old, is already living on her own, apart from the weeks when her mother is working in Helsinki.

Now that classes are underway, her first impressions of the Leppävaaran lukio general upper secondary school have been positive. “The teachers have been lovely. Everyone’s been welcoming and relaxed,” Minna says. She has already got to know the students in her own group well. She is looking forward to classes mixing up more. “The facilities are really nice and quite a bit bigger than back in Kotka,” she adds.

At the time of this interview, her first exam week is still to come. It doesn’t seem to make Minna nervous in advance, as the study and careers adviser has clearly explained how exam week works and when she should start revising for tests.

Upper secondary school has felt more relaxed than lower secondary. Minna finds the teachers more laid-back and not quite as strict about everything the students do. “I was nervous about starting here, but it hasn’t been that bad. At first, the 75-minute lessons felt strange when I was used to 45-minute ones,” Minna notes.

Working on a computer has required some adjustment, since her lower secondary school relied entirely on printed books. She has also had to learn where everything is located in the digital learning environment. “I still need to remember to bring my laptop from home – I’ve almost forgotten it a couple of times,” Minna says with a laugh. She has enjoyed working on a laptop, as having all the materials in one place makes things much easier. There’s a genuinely modern feel to it.

Minna has been doing cheerleading for eight years. This marks her third year with the Golden Spirit Dragons in Helsinki. On the mixed team, she has been both a flyer – the person being lifted into the air – and a base. Success has already followed: bronze and silver at the European Championships, and bronze at the Finnish Championships. “Winning medals and achieving success are the best parts of the sport – the reward for all the hard work. And my teammates, of course, are what I love the most,” Minna says. Next year, Minna plans to try out for the national team.

Autumn is the training season in cheerleading, with the competition season following in the spring. The season ends with either the national or European championships, or both. For Minna, the training season means putting in 15 hours of practice a week. Students on the sports line have morning training sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. On top of these, Minna has four evening practices a week, not to mention her own gym workouts and runs. Once a month, the team holds a weekend training camp with eight hours of practice a day. “Still, my Friday and Saturday evenings are usually free,” Minna notes. That leaves her enough time to live a normal teenage life.

After upper secondary school, Minna might be interested in studying law. Her advice to ninth-graders applying for schools is to make their first choice the one they genuinely want to get into. “There’s no harm done and nothing to lose if your number-one choice doesn’t work out,” Minna says. She points out that the grade point average requirements for different upper secondary schools can vary quite a bit from year to year. For those worried about how tough upper secondary school might be, Minna offers a couple of tips: “It isn’t that hard, and you’ll manage just fine as long as you put in the work during ninth grade.”