By Jonothan Hunt

 

 

Passion for people.

 

 

I didn’t win a scholarship. So now I’ve another challenge. It’s a little daunting.

 

Make 14K.

 

Few ideas:

 

• Start a wildly successful business selling air.
• Make friends with the DUP.
• Work for the BBC.
• Make a slightly dodgy charity.
• Crowdfund and offer something back in exchange.

 

The last two seemed the most likely to not cause issues, so I looked into them.

 

Crowdfunding

 

+ If I can make people passionate, I might make considerable funding goals.

 

+ I can offer my skills in exchange for funding.

 

– If it doesn’t work out, it could potentially be a lot of time taken and lost (but experience gained).

 

Loan.

 

+ Quick guaranteed money.

 

– One of the reasons I didn’t go to uni was loans. But the SCA is worth any loan.

 

Both.

 

This crazy hybrid of loan and crowdfunding would start off with the loan (I HATE being late with bills etc.), and then crowdfund the hell out of people.

 

So now I’ve got to make people passionate about my journey. And I’ve got a feeling that “I want to learn to advertise really well” won’t cut it.

 

Maybe something more along the lines of: “Do you like ads?” “No!” “Well I’ll make them better!” Because, after all, that is my goal.

 

I said in my presentation at the interview stage of getting into the SCA, that I wanted to “light up the real high-street, yellow pages…” and that’s what I’ll tell potential crowdfunders. I have a great passion for people; their stories, their lives. I want to improve lives.

 

Take Channel 4’s ad Meet the Superhumans. It made many people passionate about the Paralympics in 2012. But beyond just attempting to get ratings, Channel 4 educated people about what the Paralympics meant those participating. This extra mile to do good is an inspiration for me.

 

I’m aware that this do-good attitude can be seen as very naïve. But I’ve spent literally my life dreaming of doing good things; the first thing I wanted to be when I was young was “a plumber that worked for free” after I heard about how much it would cost to fix our fallen down ceiling after a leak.

 

Since my early school years I have told myself stories, practiced hypothetical speeches, come up with fantastical plans- all to combat problems with our society.

 

One was to build a big town hall near a slum in Lagos, India and I would ask around 20 people to come and build a few houses around this town hall.  They would then in turn get to live in these houses- while helping the next ring of residents build their homes and maybe a farm and a moat every now and then for transport. I dreamed of a TV show about developments. Eventually this ring would grow to be a huge and beautiful community. Of course I then grew up, reality struck and my ideas started to become more geared towards how I could follow up my passion with advertising and people and do great things beyond my imagination.

 

It seems I have struck gold. The School of Communication arts looks like the best of any starts I could find. I’m bloody excited.