This spring, we at Adventure Apes had the pleasure of welcoming Poorani Elangovan Kuusela, a Tourism Management student from JAMK University of Applied Sciences, for her internship. From day one, she brought enthusiasm, curiosity, and a strong desire to learn about how a small Finnish family business can make a big impact in sustainable tourism.
JAMK blog wrote about Poorani’s intership.
Poorani started by familiarizing herself with our safety practices and guiding principles, shadowing our team in the field and observing daily operations. Step by step, she took on more responsibility — supporting the coordination of a familiarization trip for Indian school principals, working with local tourism networks, and exploring new destination ideas.
For us, giving an intern real ownership and trust is essential. We believe learning happens best not just through observing but through doing — and Poorani embraced every challenge we threw her way.
What made this internship truly special was how naturally our values aligned. At Adventure Apes, we believe outdoor adventures should be inclusive, responsible, and rooted in the local community. Poorani quickly connected with this vision — especially our work in making nature experiences accessible to people with different abilities. Seeing her grow more confident in communicating these values to others was inspiring for our whole team.
Internships are not just about students learning from us — we also learn from them. Poorani brought a global perspective and fresh ideas that enriched our team’s thinking. By the end of her internship, she had built meaningful industry connections and gained practical insight into how sustainable tourism works in real life.
