Crust x CS Alumni Talks
Recently, our Creative Sustainability students’ association Crust organized an alumni panel. Our burning questions to the alumni encompassed their first job in sustainability, the valuable and surprising skills they use, and how the program prepared them for the future.
Roosa Laakso (Expert in R&D projects, Demos Helsinki), Ville Pellinen (CEO of Lapinlahden Lähde), Anni Leppänen (Strategic designer & change leader for futures) and Iines Toivanen (Research Scientist, VTT) came to us to share their professional adventures since graduating from the Creative Sustainability Master Program. They offered insight into their transition, the work they do now, and their philosophy. The event brought to light valuable expertise on how undertaking sustainability into professional life can translate within organizations in Finland. It was also a moment of honesty without brushing away challenges, and sometimes the precarious nature of caring. Some of their most interesting learnings were how they’ve kept developing as humans after their time at Aalto.
Key takeaways
What we will remember among other shared thoughts from our guests is to not be afraid of taking a jump from one field of work to another. Like Ville going from the start-up world, to going back to school for Creative Sustainability, to now being CEO of Lapinlahden Lähde in Helsinki, a place dedicated to well-being. Anni, who has been working for the city Helsinki for several years, now works as an independent expert for different organizations and is a part of the Falay Transition Collective. As more recent graduates, Iines and Roosa illustrated what comes with transitioning between from the master’s to working life as researchers. They all demonstrated the effort it takes to adapt with a current support system, or one you will build along the way.
They also encouraged us to not shy away from experiences that might seem unrelated to the job you want to do. Everything learnt is knowledge to apply in various circumstances.
Student reflections
To highlight the importance of alumni events, we asked fellow students Meri, Catalina, and Elena to share their experience and what they will remember as future professionals:
ElenaIt was wholesome the way they spoke about community and how valuable it is to have
[someone] with similar values to you.
We were inspired by how many different paths you can take after graduating and the ways alumni carved their own path, while they shared ideas of how we create opportunities for ourselves. They liked how the panelists talked honestly about the challenges faced with their careers and felt they could relate.
CatalinaIt was cool to hear about the surprising skills they ended up needing in their current fields and to
realize that how you choose to make use of your skills is just as important as your education
Elena found it wholesome the way they spoke about community and how valuable it is to have one with similar values to you. Meri appreciated alumni’s advice as helpful and actionable, while noticing their different stages in careers bringing different perspectives. Catalina was happy to hear about the different paths you can take as a CS student and how the fields they ended up in relate to their academic interests.
After the panel, alumni and students had the time to mingle, bringing in the opportunity to ask more specific questions. All three shared the same excitement upon finding the alumni really open to connecting and even offering career advice. Meri, Elena and Catalina found this point most important: Being nice to others everywhere you go rather than transactional networking, and that getting to know people in your community is equally important as studying the subjects. And to illustrate this, Idil Gaziulusoy, the program director within Creative Sustainability, added a note about starting connections and future partnerships over offering cake.
We hope to hear more often about fellow Creative Sustainability alumni and welcome warmly their presence to share their experiences. Many thanks to our guests Roosa, Ville, Iines and Anni; and to Elli for organizing and Maria for leading the panel.