NHTV Application Letter

My Motivation Is To Motivate

Throw your dreams into space like a kite and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country…

- Old Chinese proverb

Since a long time I have been willing to become some sort of manager. Somebody that organises, leads, motivates and achieves. Throughout my life I have found that these four actions are things that I can be very good at. Sometimes I might need a bit of a push in the right direction. But once I get going they’ll have a hard job stopping me. I can be very passionate and devoted to the things I do. These are good characteristics, although it used to sometimes work against me when I have a certain perspective of my passion and I narrow my view to my own perspective.

In my social life as well as my work life I am mostly the organiser. In my social life this would be mostly with trips to friends to organising parties for friends. In my semi-work life this ranges from helping to produce school plays, open performance evenings and general open evenings, to being the coordinator of other workers in employment situations to co-organise camps for children.

And finally in my work life this concludes the company me and a friend started last year. Flyway is just a little company for lighting rental and a little drive in show for parties such as weddings, kids birthdays etc.

I love working with children, especially young teenagers. Generally known teenagers can be hard to motivate (looking back at myself not long ago). This is where a challenge lays for me. My years with the boy scouts have taught me that you have to have a place that motivates you and is also an outlet. You can steer people just a little way and help them on their path. Sending these people of with a little push and seeing them return with a lot of awesome experience makes a lot of trouble worthwhile. That’s what motivates me. Besides it also makes me appreciate the little pushes I had in life (I am still a ‘kid’ with still a lot to come but nevertheless).

As I mentioned earlier I have helped producing with school plays. I have fulfilled different roles backstage. Being a stagehand, stage manager, light technician, sound technician and even producer have been awesome experiences. On the open performance evenings I have been on stage playing piano in duets with various singers. That has been great to actually experience moving an audience with my performance. The applause afterwards is the goal for those few moments.

I like to set my goals high. It gives me something to work for and it feels great when I actually achieve them. Especially the last year has been a very high goal: going to New Zealand for a year as an exchange student. The proverb at the beginning of this letter describes it. My exchange is precisely that. It has taught me to always keep my view wide-open in every aspect of my life. I do everything that comes on my path and listen to other people’s ideas.

I’ve been brought up with a travel bug. When I was young I lived in England where I learnt my English. It has given me a great international perspective. For my international adventure in New Zealand I created a website: http://www.jeroen-nieuwzeeland.com/. Next to this online web log I have redesigned my New Zealand school’s website: http://www.ngaruawahiahigh.school.nz/.

Since the 2^nd year in high school I have been thinking of doing this course. It has been a goal for me in the past few years. So when the opportunity here in New Zealand came to work in a theatre I grabbed it with both hands. I was stagehand and follow spotter in a 2 month production called The Rollicking Adventures of Sue Narmi. The main reason to do this was to create a window to International Media & Entertainment Management but first of all to experience the cultural difference in such an abstract area of arts.

The theatre is the area of all arts I love most. I love the way all arts can come together. The way all different arts can form one play. You can dance and sing, with an awesome painting being your backdrop, whilst at the same time being interactive with the public for some ad-lib stand-up comedy. It fascinates me how people tell and show their view of life through their performance on stage.

After having done my bachelor degree in International Media & Entertainment Management I would like to become a theatre producer. It would be even better if it could be with children. Children that don’t have such a nice live as I have and to give them chances. Theatre is an outlet for everybody that participates, views and most of all enjoys it.

With this motivation I hope to have given a view of who I am, what I like and what I would like to achieve. But most of all, what motivates me to enrol to the International Media & Entertainment Management course at your tertiary education institute.

Sincerely yours,

Jeroen Wilms

Email: jeroenwilms@gmail.com
Homepage: www.jeroen-nieuwzeeland.com