I’m the “fiery 19-year-old free spirit” that Emilia Parikka wrote about in our first blog post called “In TAMK we explore entrepreneurship, team leadership and the city of Tampere”. In this blog post, I will continue our story at TAMK Proakatemia; what do we like the most about our studies, what are our plans for the studies, and what will our team company be focusing on?
In addition to our brave fashion icon Emilia, we welcome the perspectives from Ella Muja, our crazy effective teammate, and Kamil Wójcik, acclaimed team member and a father.
What do we like about our studies the most?
This year hasn’t been ordinary, illuminating the importance of our team and people around us. We love to work with excited people who have the energy and passion to get things done.
Kamil appreciates the support from the team, and Ella gets inspired when seeing the team and its members evolve. That growth is proof and a daily reminder that the team-based “teaching” methodologies are working. On top of this, Emilia values the flexibility of the school, and her favorite part is how we make an impact on our development and studies. Everything feels more meaningful when you are able to evaluate and decide whether or not the topic at hand is important or worth learning.
Personally, I agree with Emilia 100 %; we can shape our studies ourselves by choosing courses of our interest from the offerings of TAMK and Tampere University. Pretty much the only criteria for meeting your degree requirements is to show what you have learned. A trip to France to improve your speaking? Sure, just keep a learning diary! Interesting in a TED-talker in town? Check it out and write an essay about it! New passion to procrastinate? Keep a workshop around the topic! The possibilities are endless.
For example, part of our team participated recently in a project called the Global Business Challenge. For two months we worked with coaches and teams we didn’t know prehand. We gathered new connections from Ecuador, UK and USA, and worked with a well established company to help solve a problem they’d been facing. This project was the first of its kind, but still easy to include into our studies.
What are our plans for the studies?
Surprise surprise, our main goal for the school is to develop ourselves. Kamil wants to create connections that would allow him to pursue his ideas. Emilia wants to keep her main focus in leadership, while at the same time doing things like writing, possibly copywriting and improving language skills. Like many people in our team, Ella is interested in creating international connections and marketing. We have also invested in her modest nature to focus on project management, because she has so much potential for it.
When I started at Proakatemia I had no idea what I’d actually like to do with my studies. I decided to keep my eyes open and “trust the process” like our coaches encouraged us to do. It was amazing to notice how some people had a clear goal for their studies and the future, but others who were just interested in learning what their passion could be. I still don’t have a plan for the rest of my studies, but next I will focus on content creating. Video production, websites and many other things interest me, but if the timing is right, maybe I’ll hop on the same boat as Emilia and study the world of copywriting.
What will our company be specializing in?
Proakatemia is all about learning by doing. In practice, this means that a big part of our studies is to create and run a business of our own. The first-year students establish their team companies in January, after getting to know the Proakatemia environment, teaching methods and team members.
During the autumn semester, our team has had a good time getting to know each other, building trust and bouncing different ideas for our future team enterprise. In the beginning, we will probably focus on a couple different ideas and explore if they get wind under their wings or not. Luckily, if the project or idea goes south, we can still take the learnings and experiences with us and start something else.
Our team has been talking around ideas related to food, fashion and everything in between. Along with these ideas, part of our team is very keen to go in the direction of internationalization and marketing. We make a group of people from around the world and pre-existing connections are a good base for anything.
By the time of the application process for new Entrepreneurship and Team Leadership students starts again, we will have a much clearer image already. Feel free to ask for more information at any time, and hopefully our paths cross someday in the Proakatemia premises.
Learn more about the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Entrepreneurship and Team Leadership in TAMK Proakatemia
Written by: Iida Luhtala and Ella Muja
Brains picked: Iida Luhtala, Emilia Parikka, Ella Muja and Kamil Wójcik
