Aalto Ventures Program has the honor of receiving the prestigious Aalto Education Impact Award 2021. We’re grateful and humbled, but we didn’t get where we are now on our own. We’d like to thank all the schools of Aalto University, the teachers we’ve had the privilege to work with, all our collaborators and partners, the amazing support we’ve had from the university management, and most importantly all the talented students we’ve taught — and learned from — over the years.
Seeing how our students grow during a course, seeing their motivation and dedication, and spotting those breakthroughs and Heureka-moments they have is what drives us in our work, and what makes us want to work even harder providing all Aalto students with entrepreneurial capabilities.
An entrepreneurial mindset is a critical skill needed to navigate the fast-changing world. Having an entrepreneurial mindset doesn’t mean you need to start a company — it means taking ownership of your work and seeing problems as opportunities for innovation rather than as threats to be avoided.
At the heart of AVP’s operations are startup learning experiences and entrepreneurial education integrated throughout teaching in all Aalto schools, supported by AVP’s communication and innovation teams. The Aalto DNA is perfect for entrepreneurial teams, as we’ve seen through the advent of the Finnish startup ecosystem. Through the collaboration between our new cross-cutting approaches of radical creativity, sustainability, and entrepreneurial mindset, we envision a future where all members of the Aalto community can direct their brainpower towards reaching sustainable development goals by building like an entrepreneur.
This award is a token of the long way we’ve already taken towards that future, but there’s still a long road ahead. Our next steps are focusing only on sustainability-related problems on our startup courses, helping researchers in Aalto University create business with their world-class research, shedding light on sustainable development goals via our new Unfolding Tomorrow event series, and making sure our students focus on their own well-being on our Good Life Engine course. We hope you’ll join us on the journey.
Check out all the Aalto Award winners at aalto.fi
