Take a little bit of Zack Morris from Saved By The Bell, add some Screech and a whole lot of design- and storytelling wizardry, and you get Benjamin – a hipster who does way more with his computer than browse social media all day.
Decisions, Decisions…
This guy was studying Communication & Multimedia Design in Breda. It’s a higher vocational education program (“HBO” in Dutch). He chose it because of the extensive creative thinking involved.
HBO’s are more practically oriented than universities, but that doesn’t mean that it’s an entirely different ballpark. Ben noticed that he struggled with practical classes (such as inventing a narrative based on a random collection of photographs) and thrived in those that were heavy on theory… so he started thinking.
He thought about the fact that others had often said they thought that he wasn’t cut out for university. He thought about the fact that, despite these discouragements, he’d always wanted to try to go. He talked it over with a lot of people and ultimately made a decision.
Come September, Ben will attend university!
How Hackastory Fits in the Picture
You might be wondering how Hackastory fits into this picture. Well, in Benjamin’s second year in Breda, a friend of his who works for Hackastory asked him to help out during a hackathon. He’s done jobs off and on for the company ever since.
That’s Ben in the top row on the left!
Albertine, our lead Hackanaut (as we here at Hackastory like to call ourselves), already knew what Ben was capable of – what his strong points and assets were. When she learned of Ben’s commendable decision to start university and the fact that he would be in between studies, she invited him to come work for Hackastory in the meantime. His other option would have been to work in a cinema, which would have been a waste of his talents. He’s been here since October.
Growing Just by Doing
He joined Hackastory at a busy time, right before their hackathon in Prague, when there was lots of business to take care of. He was thrown in the eye of the storm. But that’s cool, Ben can handle that; he’ll take on anything you throw his way.
Who is to say that Benjamin didn’t take the right turn when he dropped his Multimedia HBO curriculum? Who is to say that one should peg oneself as either a storyteller, coder or designer? Ben doesn’t. He’s growing in the company just by doing, running with the chance he’s been given and working hard.
That’s what matters.