Jourdyhn Williams was exposed to the creative arts pretty early on in her life. Her earliest memory of actively participating in the field is of her father taking her out to weekly movies and discussing them later. This experience was formative in helping her understand where she belonged in the creative process. “He was exposing us to different genres,” she explains, “and the way I feel coming out of a movie theater — I want to be a part of the process that creates that experience for others.” She realized after exploring the field further that she wanted to be on the business and production side of the industry. (more…)
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From very early in his career, Raymond Cho ’21 has nurtured his entrepreneurial spirit. His BA in Accountancy and Financial Management from the University of Portsmouth led him to his first full-time job at an accounting firm in Singapore. Although it was a great fit for his degree, he quickly discovered it wasn’t the right career path.
Instead, he launched his own business: an e-commerce platform for online gamers in Singapore to trade digital currency. After a year, the company merged with NHN, a Korean IT company, and Cho moved to Bangkok. For three years at NHN, he managed mobile game operations in five countries across Southeast Asia. His job performance—including being ranked as the No. 4 top-grossing apps in two of the five countries he managed—translated to a quick promotion to a game business operation lead. He was the youngest in the company’s history to ever fill that position.
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When Allyson Gimbel ’21 was an undergraduate at Tufts University, she already had a vision of life after college: She wanted writing and storytelling to be at the center of her career.
Although she hoped to major in communications and media studies, the subject was only available as a minor. So she studied English instead, deciding to minor in communications and media studies, take every media class she could, and work as an intern on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
After graduation, she was ready to launch a career focused on educational and mission-minded media, so she joined the country’s largest PBS member station— New York’s WNET—as a research assistant to the president. (more…)
By Priyanshi Katare
‘Dan’s Mystery Hat Box,’ was a defining video in Daniel Cassin’s journey as a TikTok content creator. The video was focused on Cassin’s call-to-action to help raise funds for his time in the MSLCE program and Chicago area shelters. To his surprise, it got over two thousand responses. Cassin was able to utilize that video to raise funds by making hats for those who responded but that is not where his journey as a TikToker began. Before his mystery hat box became a viral success, Cassin was using his platform to explore digital theater and to keep his relationship with the creative arts alive. (more…)
From drawing and singing to writing and performing music, Adjunct Professor PJ Loughran developed an early love for the creative arts.
“All I wanted to do was find a way to have a life doing those things,” he says. “I was fortunate to come from a family that didn’t dissuade me. My parents saw what I was interested in, and they supported it. And, most importantly, no one ever warned me that it could be difficult.”
After graduating from New York’s Parsons School of Design with an illustration degree, he struggled to pick a career path: music or art? He had always been interested in both, and very much wanted to pursue both … so he did. Loughran landed a regular column illustrating for The Village Voice and began performing his songs in New York City nightclubs as he worked toward becoming a published illustrator and performing artist. (more…)
By Priyanshi Katare
‘Anywhere Is Home’ is a podcast run by student Julia Relova that explores the concept of ‘home.’ Through her work, she is providing a creative space for people to discuss and challenge the linearity attached to the idea of personal and homely spaces. “I’m trying to go beyond just understanding ‘where’ home is,” she explains, “but also what and who makes it home and when it becomes home.” According to Relova, the concept of home is universal and there is a common thread that connects all of us. This forms the basic premise of her work.
Relova chose podcasting as her medium because she loves talking to people and knew that she could utilize that to her advantage. “A lot of the time on the podcast I let the person talk as much as they would like before I interrupt,” she explains, “I think that’s really powerful in terms of storytelling because not many people get to tell stories the way they would want.” Her interview process is focused on furthering such stories. “When it comes to storytelling in a non-script form, there is a lot of opportunity for me to dig deeper and get more context,” she elaborates. (more…)
When Veronica Bustoz was a student at Aquinas College, her life was consumed by theatre. “If I wasn’t in class then I was definitely at rehearsals,” she explained. However, it was her college’s production of ‘Those Shining Lives’ that has stayed with her throughout her professional career. Growing up, Bustoz didn’t have access to arts. It wasn’t till she was in high school that she was able to participate and learn about the theatre community. “I started with ushering and then moved on to the costume crew,” she elaborates, “ and then I was in a play myself and I loved it so much.” When she started out at the collegiate level, she dabbled in technical work along with performance but found her calling in stage management. “I got to see a little bit of everything during the production. It was exciting and it kept me engaged. I knew this was it for me,” she explains. (more…)
by Priyanshi Katare
A semester abroad in Australia changed Audrey Jones’ professional journey. The trip opened up her horizons and gave her the opportunity to understand where she saw herself fitting in the future and why she wanted to do the kind of work she was doing. It inspired her to take a massive step towards her career in the business side of the creative industry by changing her major at Belmont University in Nashville from Performance to Creative and Entertainment Industries. By working for marketing agencies and creative agencies, Jones eventually found a space for herself in storytelling with content creation and casting, where she can engage with the clients more closely. “I just really enjoy being hands-on and being a part of the process that is oftentimes the beginning of the bigger picture,” she explained. (more…)
When you sit down to watch a new movie or enjoy your favorite sitcom series, do you ever stop to think about what you’re learning?
Nathan Walter, an assistant professor for the MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises program, has spent years evaluating strategic messages, media psychology, communication ecologies, and the correction of misinformation. Whether we realize it or not, he says, the media we consume can influence our daily habits and thoughts; research demonstrates that engaging stories can play a valuable role in helping people process new, difficult, and controversial information, as well as adopt certain attitudes and behaviors.
As she was growing up in China, photography and film always helped Wenli Liu ’17 feel connected to creative industries across the globe: Almost everyone can understand, interact with, and relate to these mediums.
That lifelong interest led her to earn a BFA in Photography, Art Administration, and Visual Communication at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When she returned to China each summer, she interned for a TV series, a video news agency, and The Walt Disney Company.