When dreams and talent come together, ideas, innovations, and companies are born, along with future professionals with the right kind of can-do attitude.
These days, a full-time job with an employer can be rare, and it may not even be of interest to everyone. Even if you are not aiming for self-employment, a business-minded approach is an excellent asset and springboard to your dream career path.
Below, four Y-kampus alumni talk about their experiences, passions, entrepreneurship, and how Y-kampus prepared them for the journey toward their dream.
Read the case stories and write one of your own.
One of the Student Activators, Satu Niemelä, was volunteering in Slush last fall. Satu was part of the construction team. Satu praises the experience because in Slush the organizers took good care of the volunteers and it was inspiring to build a big, international event.
I am meeting Kirsi Lempola and Zaida Harikko in Alakuppila café at main campus. Kirsi and Zaida are making a podcast about communication and how hard it can be. Their podcast is called Ilmaisuvaivoja. Ilmaisuvaivoja is a new compound created by Kirsi and Zaida and it's a combination of the Finnish words for expression (ilmaisu) and flatulence (ilmavaivat). The twosome prove to be as happy and bubbling in person as they are in their podcast. Many students in the cafe are trying to work with their laptops and do something reasonable, but our loud waffling really doesn’t help anyone concentrate, as I also have a very loud voice.
Sophie Nguyen shares her inspiring story about her year as a Student Activator
Esa Nikkilä was one of the lecturers in Y-kampus’ Johdatus yrittäjyyteen course. Esa is one of the founders and Chairman of the Board in all Day Agency. All Day is a program office that represents dozens of artists and entertainers. There’s also a record and merchandise store called Katin Tavara that operates under the company. Esa has graduated from TAMK Proakatemia in 2010 and he has done a lot after that. Now he has found his own direction and he is going forward with full speed.
Martina Piira is a first year student in Tampere University and she also has her own jewellery business. She contacted Y-kampus and now she has gotten into a mentoring group where she can improve her business while studying. Both challenges and success stories of being an entrepreneur are shared in the mentoring group. Read more about Martina's thoughts in this story.
In the core of Y-kampus there is a Student Activator team. The team consists of 14 students from different fields, all the TAMK campuses are represented. I went to talk to Lassi Rinne, Joni Mettälä and Satu Niemelä about what Student Activators do and what they have learned within the last year.
We are all in the hustle, especially if you are an engineering major college senior with an entrepreneurial mindset (that's me). We put great efforts into our works so that we have money to put food on the table and pursue our interests. And that cup of morning coffee is a great boost for any hustling we are about to undertake. Until one day, we realize coffee has become a staple fuel for our body and brain to function. And I started to question.
Maria Vaslova is a 3d year Energy and Environmental Engineering Degree Programme. She met the Sustainability and Impact Club last December and joined the challenge with a very ambitious one that will be continued during session2.
Candy Hio Lam is coming from UK and she studies business. She's an active member of the Sustainability and Impact Club happening at Y-Kampus since January 2020. During session 1, she picked a personal challenge to make her life more impactful and sustainable.
Antti Leponiemi has gotten a mentor through Y-kampus and that’s how he has gotten some pointers for his own business activities. Antti is studying social sciences in Tampere University and his company, Lepomieli, offers wellness coaching for its customers. But what kind of situations is mentoring really for? Read more about Antti's experiences in this article.
A small challenge is here to prepare the students for the big challenge to come. It’s something we can implement by ourselves, in order to improve our daily life. The aim is to nourish our motivation, in order to achieve concretely an impactful goal, to develop our sense of prioritizing things based on our motivation, to know how to be concise, precise and engaging while sharing about our challenge, and to refine our blogging skills.
This blog post is part of my personal challenge for the course ‘Sustainability and Impact Club’. In my challenge I try to understand how capitalism in general and the finance sector in particular can be more sustainable, and how we, the individuals, can invest our money more sustainably.
Tatjana Blum is part of the Leadership for Change program, Governance track. She's a member of the Sustainability and Impact Club happening at Y-Kampus since January 2020. During session 1, she picked a personal challenge related to impact and sustainability. She'll share her first outcome soon before joining a team to tackle a bigger sustainable challenge during session 2.
Last year Y-kampus had Johdatus yrittäjyyteen course of lectures. In the lectures entrepreneurs from different fields, most of whom were TAMK’s own alumni, came to share their know-how about different themes. The themes were for example startup entrepreneurship, finding funding for your own company and every lecturers’ own path with its ups and downs. One of the lecturers was Johanna Raiskio, one of the founders of Unfair Lean Marketing company. Johanna told me, how they do marketing in a different way than others and how she has become an entrepreneur.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started” – Mark Twain. Read Lakshmi Bangalore Gangadharaswamy's entrepreneurial story!
Petro Salminen took part in European Innovation Academy (EIA) in Portugal last summer. Petro talks enthusiastically about that experience. He studies to become a medianome and says that he has a little bit different background for getting excited about being an entrepreneur. He has his own production company where he does some filming while studying. “I applied to EIA because there I would get to do stuff with people from different fields. With people who are excited about entrepreneurship as well. It was a great place to combine different fields and create something new” Petro says.
Are you curious, brave and ready to throw yourself into new challenges? We got a chance to interview one of the teams that took part in our Innovation challenges course last autumn, and these students sure were all those things. This team spent their autumn finding answers to an assignment provided by Gofore. This story is about their exciting journey. Find out more by checking out the entire story here!
Vaula Berg is studying social psychology in Tampere University and she took part in Johdatus yrittäjyyteen course in TAMK Y-kampus this autumn. We interviewed Vaula while the course was still going on and asked her what is it like to study at Y-kampus.
Entrepreneur, private investor and business coach Juha Lehikoinen calls himself a worm seller. That name has deep roots in Juha’s childhood. Juha was 12 years old, when he saw a fridge in the back corner of a sports shop. “Why is that there”, he wondered out loud. The seller told him, that there are worms for ice fishing and they need to be kept cold. Juha saw immediately a great business opportunity. He asked if the seller would buy worms from him, if he would bring them to him. The seller promised to buy. Juha went home and spent the entire fall digging up worms from the ground. He had a wooden box for worms in the basement of his family home and if he remembers correctly, he would even go down there to feed the worms. When winter came he sold the worms to the seller.
Jussi Kurkela admits, that he wasn’t supposed to become an entrepreneur. His field was forestry while he was studying in TAMK and now he’s running a clothing business called Papu Design Oy with his wife. Papu Design focuses on design and sales of children’s and women’s clothes. Jussi gave his speech on Johdatus yrittäjyyteen course at Y-kampus in November. In this story you get to find out what Jussi thinks about entrepreneurship and what it means to him.
Veera Lehtismäki is the CEO of Soldem Oy and she goes to work every day with enthusiasm and common sense. Veera gave a speech on our Johdatus yrittäjyyteen course in November. We interviewed her and asked her how does a CEO of a sales company view entrepreneurship.
Iiro Peltola is a great example of how far you can go with determination and passion. He is a machine engineering student in Tampere University of Applied Sciences specializing in intelligent machines and devices. When his school started in 2016 he wondered, where could he make little bit extra income as a student. Pedal electric cycles (pedelecs) weren’t as general as they are now, so he thought that he could try to sell them online. He started an online shop and when the customer ordered and paid for a bike, he bought a bike for the customer. He started to get extra income pretty nicely and entrepreneurship started to look like a possible career plan.
InnoEvent, the innovation festival for Tampere Universities took place at Kauppi Sports Center last week (from the 4th to the 8th of November). We interviewed teams that took part in the event and asked them about their experiences about the week. This story is about a team that spent the week finding a solution for UMP Raflatac's assignment.
InnoEvent, the innovation festival for Tampere Universities took place at Kauppi Sports Center last week (from the 4th to the 8th of November). We interviewed teams that took part in the event and asked them about their experiences about the week. This story is about team number 43 or team Tisla that spent the week finding a solution for Patria's assignment.
Loads of energy, passion and attitude fills up Y-kampus’ Stage, when Sini Havukainen steps up to tell her own story of becoming an entrepreneur in a series oflectures called Johdatus yrittäjyyteen. This time the topic is being a start up entrepreneur and what kind of steps does it take to become one.
The team organizing our Innovation Festival has been working hard since January! InnoEvent will take place next week from the 4th to the 8th of November 2019 and all the hard work will soon be put into action! In addition to ECTS credits the organizing team will earn themselves a vast network and skills that are useful in the future. We interviewed two members of InnoEvent team and in this story you'll get a glimpse of what it's like to organize an event for 700 people.
It's time for us to introduce you to another team member! Maria is our coordinator at Y-kampus city center and we think she's rad. Here, she tells us more about herself:
Meet the Student Activator team 2019-2020!
Whether you are going to STREAM, SLUSH, TRIBE or Business Tampere events, or other opportunities to mingle, meet new people, and potentially make mad career moves, YOU MUST KNOW HOW TO NETWORK!
We are so excited to introduce commercialization expert Teea Mäkelä, who brings a world of experience and intellect to the upcoming C-LAB course! Read on to learn more about who she is and what she's excited about.
Today, meet Sean Cappone. Sean is a student, entrepreneur, and served as a junior mentor last spring. Read on to hear about his journey and experience in the Junior/Senior Mentoring Program!
Markku is a local businessman who has retired but keeps his passion for people and business alive by mentoring. He is wisdom, kindness, and has a sparkle in his eye. Today, he shares a little bit of his story and what mentoring means to him - he also shares the value for students to get involved in mentoring now!
Erick of EuroBol Trucks recently took part in the Junior/Senior Mentor Program. Here, he shares his lessons from his entrepreneurial journey and his experience in the Junior/Senior Mentor Program.
They say that the people you surround yourself with, you become. So take a moment - who do you want to become?
Are you ready to develop your entrepreneurial mindset? Here are a few practical ways to try it out!
Whether you choose to be an entrepreneur or you choose to be a doctor, nurse, accountant, or teacher, your mindset is important. Thinking like an entrepreneur and having a mindset that is resilient, accountable, flexible, creative, adaptive, and ready to take initiative will make you a desirable employee, excellent manager, and leader that people want to follow.
Every once in a while we like to highlight a member of our AWESOME Y-kampus team so you can get to know us a little bit better. This week, meet our fearless team leader Marika Vuorenmaa!
At Y-kampus, we are driven by our desire to train the next generation of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial-minded people. Yes, it's an awesome mission! But you may be wondering - what is entrepreneurship, exactly?
This is the story of how I became a student activator and changed my perspective of what really means to create an impact in the community. Becoming a student activator means being part of a community bigger than yourself which has the capabilities of creating long lasting impact to improve the development of students.
Kolme parikymppistä lääkisopiskelijaa marssii Y-kampus Keskustan ovista sisään. Tila täyttyy välittömästi heistä huokuvasta energiasta.
About two years ago in 2016, a Y-kampus article telling a bit about university spin-off company Braincare was published. Just before summer I got in contact with Katrina Wendel-Mitoraj and asked if she could afford the time to update us a little bit. Since then their path has apparently been full of learning.
Time to meet co-founder of Newspek, Topias
Today we get to know Antti (left in the picture). He is studying Computer Science at UTA and working as a Network facilitator at Y-kampus.
Meet Veera. She is a third year student of Social Psychology at UTA and a Network Facilitator at Y-kampus.
Elisa is studying Industrial Engineering and Managemen in TUT and working as a Student Entrepreneur Coach in Y-kampus. Read her thoughts about entrepreneurship.
Anatomy and physiology teacher and a coach, Minni talks about her favourite tools.
Henri founded the first and only board game cafe in Finland. Read the whole story.
Petri is a lecturer in Mechanical and Production Engineering at TAMK and he shares his thoughts about coaching.
Riia has been one of the student representatives of Y-kampus in 2016. She tells you what made her apply and take part in building new Y-kampus.
Elina and Anna are both nursing lecturers that engage students and share a coaching philosophy.
Nex we give you Heli, physiotherapy student and InnoEvent 2016 winner.
Santeri first got involved in Y-kampus because he likes to develop himself and open up doors for the future.
Anna is a Finn, who is an exchange student in Finland at the moment. Read her Finnish-German-Dutch-story here.
Edgar from Spain reflects about his time in Finland and making a business development case for Goodio Chocolate.
Being an entrepreneur gives you a possibility to do things differently. Do something important.
DREAM – Sakari Vyyryläinen knows you can become an entrepreneur just by having the courage to dream. The passionate airsoft enthusiast turned his hobby into a career by becoming a business owner before he even turned 18. The owner of Atom Airsoft Oy is a machine technology and product development student at TAMK alongside managing his airsoft specialty store.
INNOVATION – Giving it your all, and more. Katrina Wendel-Mitoraj knows more than most what it takes to launch a new product innovation. Still, she wouldn’t want to change a day of her experience as a startup entrepreneur. The founder and CEO of BrainCare puts 110% of herself on the line to improve quality of life for epileptics.
IDEA – A business-minded attitude is the lesson learned by Aino Hatakka, who signed her company’s charter in spring 2016, fresh from studying a Master’s in Environmental and Regional Studies. A new group of 20 fellow students had just been formed at the brand new Y-kampus premises at the University of Tampere.
COMPANY – When applying to schools in spring 2010, Tommi Keränen knew he would like to work on one of his ideas. His chose to attend Business Camp, which led to him eventually managing eTasku, one of the most popular expense and travel invoicing services in Finland, along with a group of friends.
Y-kampus Kauppi
Teiskontie 33 C 1, C-siipi
33520 Tampere
lauha.peltonen@tuni.fi
+358 (0) 40 801 6845
Y-kampus Keskusta
Kalevantie 4, A0-käytävä
33100 Tampere
maria.ruokonen@tuni.fi
+358 (0) 50 437 7138
Y-kampus Hervanta
Korkeakoulunkatu 7, 1. kerros
33720 Tampere
