Wassup yall,
My name is Apollo, and I’m applying for the position of second (non-board member) Master’s & International Student Captain for the year 2024! I’m a third-year Digital Systems & Design student and I’ve been throwing myself at just about every avenue of Otaniemi’s rich student culture from the moment I stepped onto the Otaniemi sports field for VarASLähtö 2021 up until today. As somebody who has worked diligently to find my place here in our guild and our university despite any language barriers that may have lay in the way, I’d love to take the opportunity to ensure that international fuksis across our guild have all the resources, event opportunities, and motivation available to have just as great of a fuksi year – and every year after that – as I’ve had. I’ve managed to inspire and motivate numerous international students to take the leap of faith and get involved in student culture, something I’ve particularly done through songleading over the years, and I think it’s time to step up and truly maximize my ability to raise them up and get them involved in our guild and our university as a whole – not just as a friend, a songleader, a fellow student or a guild member, but as their captain.
Before I continue, I should once again clarify I’m running for the position of second MISC, as in the international captain that’s present in ASPU but is not on the board, and this is simply because a board position would require me to be fluent in Finnish which uhh yeah I’m not :D.
To springboard off of that, an overarching goal I have as MISC is to ensure that the newly-formed duo of MISCs really feel like captains. What I mean by this is that I want to ensure that both me and my eventual MISC partner feel like an actual awesome kippari duo, much like the bachelor fuksi captains, rather than a pair of people telling international students what to do. I’ve gotta give major props to the board for proposing having two MISCs going forward; I think that’s gonna do wonders for making the role more lively and exciting, both for the MISCs themselves and the fuksis they’re in charge of, and I have the spirit and energy to ensure that we will indeed be an awesome, hyped-up duo of captains.
With that in mind, as MISC I want myself and my partner to really work hard in encouraging international students to not only take part in “international events,” but to jump into predominantly Finnish-language events as well. I know it can be intimidating for a lot of these students at first, but as someone who doesn’t speak Finnish and as someone who has quite easily talked a bunch of DSD, exchange, and master’s students into at least trying out student culture (most of them have loved it!), I know it’s not hard to get a lot of engagement out of international students; I’ve done it before, and I’m excited to continue doing it going forward. In particular, getting to songlead at a lot of big sitsit has led a ton of international students to come up and talk to me about student culture and events, and getting to answer their questions with experience, foster connections with them, and inspire them to continue embracing student life here in Otaniemi is massively heartwarming to me, and a huge reason as to why I’m running for this position.
Beyond this, I want to govern in the spirit of collaboration. I want to work closely with the guild’s bachelor fuksi captains to spawn ideas for events and activities for both our international crowd and the guild as a whole, and I want to frequently communicate with KvTMK to organize as many university-wide English-language events as our budget and workforce will allow us to. I want to use my position to mobilize the international crowd – not just in our guild, but across our university.
In particular, currently there are several “international” sitsit organized in the fall semester, but hardly any in the spring semester; I would like to get hands-on and organize more sitsit throughout the year, or distribute the current load of sitsit across the academic year to better fill out the spring semester, giving spring exchange students more opportunities to take part in one of the cornerstones of our student culture. In addition, I’d be eager to have KvTMK put together more inter-guild sauna evenings, some sporting events, maybe some international-friendly cultural or corporate excursions, and potentially some events involving venturing into Helsinki so foreigners get to explore the capital (maybe collaborate with other Helsinki-area university/AMK international committees for an “International Appro”? Just an idea :D).
Furthermore, I want to really mobilize the AS International Committee to be more active in supplying events and inspiration for international fuksis than ever before, particularly through working directly with the entertainment and culture committees in our guild, as well as international committees from other guilds. From what I can tell (correct me if I’m wrong), the committee seems a bit stuck in terms of organizing things (i.e. low number of events this year), so having this additional collaboration and assistance should be greatly beneficial in achieving our objectives. Also, particularly considering I’m an English Bachelor student and considering the DSDeputy position is on the AS International Committee, I don’t think it would hurt to get at least a little involved in organizing activities with ETCo; I’ve heard that ETCo has “more budget than they know what to do with” (not my words :D), so having an additional voice in the form of an international captain in regards to how to direct the use of this budget for international-minded causes would be highly beneficial for everyone involved in my opinion.
With all this in mind, I think I have the right mindset, ideas, attitude, and motivation from personal experiences to step up to the plate and give our next batch of master’s and international fuksis an absolutely BANGER fuksi year, and an awesome foundation for more student years to come. Over this past year in particular, I’ve massively overhauled my work ethic, all-around motivation, and my mental and physical health, and I feel more equipped than ever to take my knowledge and the spirit I’ve brought with me around Otaniemi and turn all of this into the blueprint for a fantastic captainship. With more knowledge, motivation, and well-organized time than I’ve had before, I believe I’m ready to take up the reins and become one of AS’s Master’s & International Student Captains.
Any questions, comments and concerns can be directed to the comments or to my Telegram @realapolloailus. Looking forward to a lot of great work and great discussions ahead!
TL;DR:
Who? Apollo Ailus
What? For non-board Master’s & International Student Captain 2024
Why? Because I have the motivation, knowledge, ambition, and experience to give international students the best fuksi year possible!
Where? 02150 Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland
When? NOW!!!
How? Donate to my Patreon and subscribe to my YouTube channel
Otaniemi CV:
2023:
Guild: Lukkari, Halloped, Abisintti, Spring semester exchange student ISO
Other: Member (Halloped) of Degree Programme Committee for Aalto Bachelor’s Programme in Science and Technology, (technically) Vice Chair of Aalto A!dventures
2022:
Guild: Lukkari, MinIEn, DSDeetti, Trip-prentice, Spring semester exchange student ISO
Other: Vice Chair of Aalto A!dventures
2021:
Guild: Hyperfuksi