124 TRANSFERABLE SKILLS Photographer / Snake Breeder / Office Manager Kat Nguyen Photography / Wild West Wigglers / Lansing Forge, Inc. Lansing, Michigan After graduating, Kat realized she had an interest in photography, and is now the official Event Photographer for the Grand Rapids Asian Pacific Festival and the Chicago Gaelic Park Irish Fest. Recently, she was the Photographer for Lansing’s LGBT+ Pride and has used her film skills to capture action-packed moments. She is also an Office Manager for Lansing Forge, Inc., but her passion is her snake business, where she rescues Western Hognose snakes and cares for them. She hopes to start a program that pairs rescued snakes with neurodivergent kids, as they can be great pets for them. Kat loves her work and feels that it is an honor to bring her photography to nonprofits and other events that promote the celebration and education of underserved communities and cultures. “You are not a failure if you use your film skills for something other than big Hollywood films! These skills transfer beyond that and limiting them to just that profession is, in my opinion, unfair.” KAT NGUYEN Class of 2021 www.instagram.com/ katnguyenphotography/ Retro Arcade Owner Pinball Land, LLC Sparta, Michigan Since he was a teen, Ryan worked at his father’s company, Mobile Ed Productions, a production company and talent agency for educational assembly shows that toured the country. He helped write, develop shows, and build props. He attended Eastern Michigan University for business and education, but realized his passion was film and video. He began doing wedding videography and promotional DVDs for small businesses and entertainers, including a Las Vegas magician, before going back to school at GVSU. For his senior thesis, he produced a feature film, Zombie Apocalypse. After the release of Zombie Apocalypse, he focused on making his own features and working as a Director of Photography, among other roles, on other projects. He returned to working for Mobile Ed as company president in 2016, but COVID soon devastated the industry, which was when he turned to opening his arcade, Pinball Land. It was recently named the Best Family Fun Center in Grand Rapids, and Ryan is proud of being able to bring joy to people with his arcade. He still uses his film and video skills to create entertaining promotional videos for the arcade. “Don’t hold back! Do it NOW! There’s not going to be a better opportunity than RIGHT NOW for you to experiment, ask questions and work your ass off. ” RYAN THOMPSON Class of 2010 www.imdb.com/name/ nm2675841/
