Leevi Härkönen

Hello hello!

My name is Leevi and I’m a second-year student majoring in chemistry and materials science. I have had an interest in our association since my first year here and by last spring I already was both an official and an ISO. Now I’d like to get even more involved and help Prosessiteekkarit  improve, so I’m applying for the board 2023.

I’m applying for Head of Study Affairs especially because I genuinely enjoy studying here at Aalto. Here I’ve had the chance to study things that interest me and things I’d like to learn more about. However, our School is not perfect, and I would want to be the voice of us students as a student representative and make sure that the school respects out rights as students.

As Head of Study Affairs one of my duties would be guarding our members’ interests. Since this affects all of us, I think transparency regarding it is particularly important. Active communication in this regard ensures that everyone interested knows what is happening and has a chance to voice their opinions. I would also like to improve communication between the Head of Study Affairs and students. I want to represent the will and opinions of our entire community, not just mine.

I would also be responsible for the association’s abi-marketing together with our abi responsibles. When I was deciding where to study, I kinda stumbled upon Aalto by accident by just Googling “chemistry engineering.” Applying was a difficult decision because I didn’t really know what to expect from this degree and information was not very easily accessible. I hadn’t even heard of Prosessiteekkarit before a month prior to starting my studies. I’m glad to see that today on the official Aalto webpage there is a lot of information readily available. I think the key points in marketing are easily obtainable information packed in an interesting and high-quality format that is also accessible to everyone. It’s also important to highlight our community as students and to enforce that everybody is welcome to Prosessiteekkarit as they are.

Marketing is not done alone of course, but with abi responsibles. It’s important to let the abi responsibles have a say in what the marketing will look like. Within the study committee cooperation is essential and tasks must be divided so that officials have the energy to do them. The work the officials do should be enjoyable and the result should reflect their capabilities.

Should you have any questions feel free to leave them down below or send me a message on Telegram @leeviha 😎

1. What substantive or structural issues would you like to influence in our studies? What do you think are the best ways to influence?

The current academic catalogue is from 2022 to 2024. When I began my studies, the academic catalogue was for the years 2020-2022. The transition between these two was difficult and confusing from time to time. I hope to make the transition between the current and the next curriculum period easier and less confusing. The student should know what academic catalogue to use and Sisu should work with that curriculum period. I also want to make sure students have a chance to be heard during the planning of the next academic catalogue. I strongly believe that the School would gladly hear students’ thoughts and take them into account when making decisions. I’m sure that many good ideas remain just as ideas if there’s no-one to hear them. This brings me to the next question:

2. How would you improve the communication between the university and the students?

As Head of Study Affairs, I would aim to make voicing complaints and ideas as easy as possible by improving our anonymous feedback form and possibly by arranging casual events where I could talk with students and gather their comments and ideas and pitch them to the School. This could be arranged for example during PysähdysTauko.

3. What do you think of the study-related part of PT’s website? Do you find areas for development?

To my disappointment the only English webpage on our website in the study-related parts is the Major guide for Master’s Programmes, and that webpage is also kind of broken. The Finnish counterparts need a lot of work as well and once updated they should be translated to English. The website is in need of a general overhaul.

4. How would you develop the association’s study-related events?

I would like to have more cooperation with research groups! In practice this could be an event where one or several groups would come and talk about their research to students that are interested in their research. I also think that the Professor cafés are a brilliant event and would make sure to organize them next year.

5. What are hallopeds (student representatives)?

Hallopeds or student representatives are the voice of students in the decision-making and development of the university. As Head of Study Affairs, I would work as a student representative in various committees in the School of Chemical Engineering. I think the most important part of being a halloped is gathering comments and ideas from students and bringing them to the attention of the School so they can be accounted for in decision-making. Every student should know what student representatives do and who they are so they know who to contact should they have any feedback or concerns regarding the development of the School.