Be the change you wish to see

"Who are the great minds, the innovators in my field? Who is leading the change in my profession?"

    Since I have successfully finished my first semester abroad in Norway, now it is time for the second semester to emerge. Starting February 2017, I am one of the two happy students pursuing their internships at Geert Hofstede Consortium, in particular the Master in International Communication (MIC) program in Groningen. In this time span of almost two months, I have been continuously working on interesting assignments which fit perfectly with my position within the MIC: visual communication designer.

   The working environment in MIC is great and uplifting, and you know why? Because people work together to make it so. My internship supervisor is Iekje Smit and, she also happens to be the program manager of MIC. I have a great amount of respect and admiration for every person in this office who is working their ass off to accomplish what they want and even though Dania Fang is in top 2, I have some particular respect for Iekje. Every day when I come to work I wake up happy in the morning, I am excited for going to the job I wanted and I feel prepared for new assignments from her.

   Why do I admire Iekje so much?
   First, because she is a highly proactive person with clearly defined goals and achievements in mind. Iekje is one of those "great minds" who are not afraid to express publicly their ideas or suggestions within the confines of the workplace and/or in external relationships. For instance, one morning she came to me and randomly told me she just had an awesome idea for our new office walls from the new Energy Academy Europe building: make a photography wall of all the MIC staff members and students. I was immediately captivated by the idea because I love anything remotely photography-related, especially having the freedom to develop this concept, plan it and manage it myself. Until this very moment, not even one week later, I have already taken photos of 3 staff members and the next photo session is scheduled with all the MIC students for the upcoming Tuesday - 4 days from now.

   Every morning at 9 AM - sometimes even earlier, she is in the office already talking on the phone intensively with somebody or running around to fix things. I don't know where she gets the energy, but she does own it when in the office. Whenever I hear some ideas, I know she is the starting point.

   Need I mention that she is also the one person who made possible for the MIC headquarters to move to the EAE building? One main reason why I appreciate Iekje that much is that she can think for herself and act upon her words. She is a strong, independent woman with a strong character and a colorful, charismatic personality. I once read this saying "Be the change you wish to see in the world". Well, I believe I found the person to inspire me to change, to evolve, to become even more curious and to discover even more, to question more and to not hesitate to ask anything. Moreover, I have learned while listening to her how much gratitude means and how much it is valued.

   What I mean is that Iekje Smit is inspiring in her effervescence, humorous in her randomness (singing, movie quoting and poem reciting), spontaneous in her sudden great ideas, so nonetheless, she is a life breath. 

Network crafting

   As a 3rd year student, I develop more and more expectations from myself with every day passing. That means I have to take steps further and ought to broaden my network and ponder upon which people in my 'field of expertise' I should talk to and why, what will the discussions be based on and what they can offer me in return to what I can offer them.

   The vision for my future is relatively well-designed, meaning that I am almost sure about which direction(s) I will be mainly choosing, as well as the reason behind this choice. Video production, photography and digital post-production tools, together with advertising techniques, photojournalism and facilitation; at least the last one requires some knowledge of cognitive and behavioral psychology. Having this data stacked in my mind helps me understand people's thoughts, (re)actions and thinking and, therefore it allows me to give better advice or simply to reply them more properly.

   While scanning my network, I have come to realize that there are not enough 'influencers' as part of it, as well as not enough photojournalists with focus on PR, advertising or design. I would like to have more role-models, such as people who give back to the world through their charity acts or simply help needy people without wanting recognition, or people who can share their own experiences to teach you something valuable that they have learned.

   During my semester abroad, I have met various people with various careers, such as professors, academicians, photographers, chefs, ski instructors, journalists, recent graduates who decided to remain in Volda, etc. What I want to say is that these people represented a great source of inspiration and motivation for me, as they were talking with so much pathos about everything surrounding them. They were happy to be alive, they knew well the notion of time management, had flexible jobs and they were doing what they love. For example, my photography professor was this 56-year old guy who had such an active personality, a decided, wise and clear mind and speech, who loved to translate the theory into practice. A couple of times, he almost rolled on the floor with an imaginary camera to show us how to take a photo, one other times he came really close to a classmate's face to show how the macro lens works with close objects and many other things. These are some of the true 'inspirers' for me, people who have something to offer to the world and they do it so well through their character.

   As for others, I would like to have Varun Pruthi in my network, who is an actor - but more than that, he is a humanitarian and a motivational speaker. He makes small acts of kindness, records it and uploads it online for viewers to see the needy people's reactions to his goodwill. I am learning a lot about photography and photojournalism, as well as documentary photography from Sir David Attenborough, who is a great source of inspiration for me because of all his thorough work realized in time, such as the Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough television series about natural history or his amazing, continuously developing sets of wild-life and world photographs.

   There are many inspirers around the world with whom I would like to connect, but first I need to know myself better and know what I can offer them. That is why I have created my own account on a phone app called "EyeEm", which is an online, public photography sharing/selling platform. It can be called my beginner photography portfolio. Also, every day I am going out of the house, I never forget to take the camera with me because I want to be ready at all times if something happens around. And I have learned from experience that there is always something happening.