Onni Lavikainen

If you were Fuksi Captain, what would be your goal for the next 1.5 years? 

If I am elected as a Fuksi Captain, my primary goal will be to ensure that new freshers are integrated into the teekkari culture both within the community of process engineering students and the broader Aalto teekkari community. 

Another goal of mine is to foster interaction between international fuksis and domestic CHEM fuksis, and to organize joint activities for them. I still fondly remember the collaboration I had last autumn with a few international fuksis while planning and producing the fuksi yearbook. I believe this can best be achieved through close cooperation with the International Captain and by organizing activities designed to help CHEM and CHEM eng fuksis get to know one another.

A personal agenda I have is to promote teekkarispeksi propaganda amongst the incoming fuksi generation, as there are currently too few students from chemical engineering involved in the production of these speksis. I also look forward to the opportunity to get to know the other board members and my fellow Fuksi Captain.

Students who do not feel that they belong to a community or have friendships with their fellow students at the beginning of their studies often lag behind in their studies. How do you manage to integrate all fuksis into a community or help them to find their own group of friends? 

It is important to encourage the first-year students to actively socialize both within PT and outside of it. The most crucial phase of this integration is Orientation Week. I believe it is essential to highlight the various opportunities that university life offers during this time. In particular, I would emphasize that it is easy to find friends, both within and outside the guild, as long as one makes the effort to seek them out. Within the guild, there are groups such as the sports club, the crafts club, CanCan, and ManCan, as well as various projects led by first-year students such as the fuksi yearbook, the fuksi overalls badge, and Kavitaatio. I would promote these to the first-year students as excellent ways to meet new people. Personally, I might never have interacted with CHEM Eng students during my first year had I not taken the opportunity to be in charge of the fuksi yearbook. The same goes with my current friend group. I might not have found them if I had not taken on the role of ticket sales coordinator for Kavitaatio.

Beyond the guild, there are numerous other associations at Aalto through which first-year students can better integrate into the broader Aalto teekkari community. Groups such as Aalto Gamers, Otakut, Teekkarispeksi, Dissonanssi, and Retuperän WBK are great examples of communities where first-year students can engage in meaningful hobbies or activities, meet students from other fields, and build friendships with them. 

It would also be important to organize events for those who are not as focused on alcohol. I know from personal experience that one might choose to skip events because many of them involve alcohol, and it is quite unpleasant to spend time sober among students who are mighty drunk.

PT has over 200 fuksis starting each year. What challenges and opportunities do you see this bringing to PT’s fuksi education? 

Having a large number of first-year students brings both many opportunities and challenges. With over 200 new students joining annually, the guild welcomes a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds and with different perspectives. They can contribute excellent new ideas to improve the guild and its activities. Furthermore, a large intake increases the likelihood that every new student will find at least one person to make friends within the guild.

Unfortunately, this high number of new students also creates challenges regarding how well the Fuksi captains can attend to the well-being and personal situation of each individual, as they have less time to dedicate to every student. In the worst-case scenario, this can lead to one or more students feeling neglected or abandoned by their peers in the process engineering guild, and the broader student community, which could result in significant mental harm for the individual.

How would you promote equality between Finnish- and English-speaking bachelor fuksis? 

It would be important to collaborate with the International Captain and the ISOs for the Chemical Engineering program, as their experience gives them the best insight into the needs and challenges of Chemical Engineering freshmen. I would also like to hear directly from the Chemical Engineering students about their wishes, concerns, or any issues they may have regarding their current or past freshman year.

 It would be valuable to organize events designed to help CHEM eng fuksis and other CHEM fuksis get to know one another. Such events should be held throughout the freshman year to ensure regular interaction between the two groups, rather than only having it at the beginning of the year. 

English-speaking fuksis should also be encouraged to get involved in the guild’s activities. In particular, projects led by the fuksis themselves would provide CHEM eng students with opportunities for regular interaction with non-English-speaking CHEM fuksis.

Being Fuksi Captain is teamwork. What kind of partner would you like for yourself and what kind of partner would you be? How would you maintain a good atmosphere and working habits with your partner? 

I am not picky when it comes to people. I can be friends with all kinds of people. Although I do hope that my partnering fuksi captain would be open and communicates with me actively so that both of us are up to date on everything relevant.

By nature, I am open and flexible. I hope we can plan our activities well in advance so that we aren’t caught off guard by deadlines.

I would maintain a good atmosphere and working habits by communicating with my partner actively and taking on my fair share of the responsibilities that we share together.

I also hope to become friends with my co-lead, as that would facilitate our collaboration in organizing the orientation and integration process for new students.