How can we do the most good? The program is an eye-opening and rewarding 8-week programme for university students and other people interested in improving the world.
The program is an introduction to the principles of effective altruism. The weekly readings are followed by a group discussion. They make an excellent opportunity to deeply engage with ideas and strategies for effectively improving the world with the resources we have, and meet with like-minded people.
The participants will combine the head and the heart, as they apply rigor and rationality to questions regarding morality and altruism.
We are looking for students who will not be content with doing some good, and instead have the
ambition and drive to do the most good they can.
This week we’ll investigate what opportunities to do good we have available to us, come to terms with the tradeoffs we face in our altruistic efforts and explore tools that can help us find unusually high impact opportunities.
We focus on giving you tools to quantify and evaluate how much good an intervention can achieve; introduce expected value reasoning; and investigate differences in expected cost-effectiveness between interventions.
This week focuses on your own values and the practical implications that these views have. During week 3 we explore who our moral consideration should expand to, with a particular focus on farmed animals as a case example.
The program will be organized in Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere and Turku, and we especially encourage university students from these cities to apply to the program. We will also offer a possibility to participate remotely.
In order to get the most out of this program, Effective Altruism will be:
- Willing and able to commit ~3-4 hours per week during the
whole 8-week program
- Passionate about helping others
- Open-minded and flexible, eager to update their beliefs in response to persuasive evidence
We are committed to building a diverse cohort of participants. There is some evidence suggesting that underprivileged individuals tend to underestimate their abilities. We do not want the application process to dissuade potential candidates and we strongly encourage interested students to apply regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, etc. We also encourage both undergraduate, graduate and professional students, as well as individuals from all intellectual backgrounds and majors to apply.
Round 1: Fill out the application form. We will let you know whether you will proceed to Round 2.
Round 2: Complete a short reading, and attend an interview with a member of our team in which you will discuss your thoughts on the assigned reading.
The interviews will take place on March 14-20. We will let you know by March 23 whether you have been accepted to the program.
The participants will meet for the first time in the beginning of April.
Don’t forget to apply on time! We look forward to reading your application!
Effective altruism is global movement and philosophy focusing on finding out how we can use our resources to help others the most.
Effective Altruism Finland is a welcoming community dedicated to inspiring and supporting one another to achieve our altruistic goals. The program will be organized by local groups in Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere and Turku.
Visit https://www.altruismi.fi to learn more.
Every week you will have reading to do and a 90 min discussion session. In addition to that, we will organise social events where you can get to know participants outside your discussion group. We also encourage you to have 1-on-1 chat with a facilitator where you can discuss any question
All the readings are in English, so it’s good if you are used to reading in English. However, you don’t need to be a native English speaker, neither are we. Most of our facilitators are students who also speak Finnish, so there is the possibility to run Finnish (or even Swedish) discussion groups too. Anyway, we encourage you to have an open mindset. This could also be a good opportunity to improve your English skills, as you learn and talk with others about interesting topics!
The application period ends: 23:59 March 23rd.
Interviews on a rolling basis (we'll send you a link to book a time).
Acceptance confirmation by 28.3
The program starts in the beginning of April and ends at the end of May.
(The weekly meetups for each discussion group will be decided later)
80% of the spring 2021 program participants said they would highly recommend the program to their friends.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to program@altruismi.fi
More info on https://www.altruismi.fi