"The best thing about moving is being independent"

Freja Wallblom, 19, took the step to move from Stockholm to Luleå mostly because it was an exciting opportunity. "I moved to Luleå because it felt exciting to move away from home. But then it was mainly because of the internship," she says. She is now a project assistant at the university and is involved in a project on tribo-corrosion on Mars. "We're simply going to form a Mars-like environment where there is a vacuum and investigate how parts of space probes are affected by corrosion," Freja explains.

Abdallah Albalawi, 20, from Malmö, made the equally brave decision to explore northern Sweden with Tekniksprånget. "What made me take the step to move up to Luleå is, among other things, to try adulthood for real. Move away from home and take responsibility," he says. Abdallah works mostly with product development and has, among other things, been involved in streamlining how common household appliances, such as electric toothbrushes, are charged.

Both Freja and Abdallah have had a similar insight during their Tekniksprång - being an engineer is about being creative and solving challenges. "The first thing I learned was that there are no problems, there is only one challenge. And that's something that changed a lot of the way I look at things," Abdallah shares.

"I've realised that I want to be an engineer and study for this, because it's a lot of fun," says Freja, who would prefer to stay in academia and become a researcher.

Moving away from home has also been an important part of both of their journeys. "The best thing about moving away from home is that you get to decide everything yourself, of course. To be independent. And you have to move away from home at some point, so why not do it now with Tekniksprånget," Freja points out.