Kevin S.

Kevin’s work as a designer of spaces and structures often connects him to creative agencies and even headhunters looking for his unique skills. That’s how he found Islands of Brilliance. A head hunter happened to know someone at an agency who knew someone at IOB that knew that IOB was looking for people with 3D software skills to mentor. Whew - did you follow that? Call it kismet or luck, Kevin has been mentoring for IOB ever since.

He explains that he was captivated by the very first workshop he participated in. “The “aha!” moment was being on a zoom call (during COVID in 2020) with three kids making spaceships. He was bouncing back and forth between them, helping with the software and realized, “This is really fun. Yes, I love helping people, but this is really fun, too.”

Working with the students has changed the way he looks at his own work. “They have insights that are so very different. Mentoring has re-oriented my thinking process literally to think outside the box!”

To illustrate, Kevin shared that he has been working with a student that wanted to make a box. Yup, just a box. He explained to the student that there were boxes that could be chosen as part of the software - there wasn’t a need to make your own. But the student insisted that he wanted to make a different kind of box - not one someone else had made. The pair worked on the box for a couple of weeks as the student learned all the software needed to make the box he imagined.

“Working with autistic students has taught me patience.” The patience to work things through in the order that someone else needs. He explains that he is more aware now that autistic individuals don't think the same way. “Each student is different. You have to learn about how the student operates and adjust your approach to how they work.”

Mentoring has also taught him patience with the creative process. “I’m now more deliberate with my own projects. Instead of rushing in, I do more groundwork before starting a project.”

Why mentor? “If you are interested in learning more about the creative process, you can’t NOT learn stuff by working with IOB’s students. I’m more on top of new digital software so that I can keep up with what the students want to learn. They demand the new and so it keeps you learning – about yourself, too. You’ll learn:

• New technical skills.

• About other people

• Crazy art that you would never think of”

Simply put, he says, “It (IOB) is a happier place than other places.”