Gaming/Narrative Creation – Kevin Grace
Kevin Grace is a Narrative Design Director currently working with Mojang. Before Minecraft, Grace worked on Halo for 13 years. This was the opposite of working on Minecraft because the narrative in Halo was direct and to the point – the main focus was on other elements. However, when working on Minecraft, Grace’s focus is on storytelling and world building across all Minecraft games and trying to enhance the narrative experience for the player. This includes the RPG game Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends, the strategy game he had originally been asked to work on when he joined Mojang. Grace described that his job is to “put in infuriating mysteries in the game” that allow the player to create their own meaning for it. Such as, why do the endermen do what they do? Grace ended the talk by answering questions, emphasising the importance of teamwork and communication in the creative industry.
Carolina L.
Psychology/Coaching – Dr. Meret Wedell-Wedellsborg
Dr. Meret Wedell-Wedellsborg is a clinical psychologist at Rigshospitalet in Denmark. She has achieved a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and a Ph.D. in Business Economics and has published her book, “Battle Mind.” After introducing herself, the talk centered on nine pictures shown on the board, experiences, or memories students were allowed to choose from to hear their connection to Dr. Wedell-Wedellsborg. These pictures ranged from dog sledding to a Rorschach inkblot. She discussed the dog sledding picture and how 2 Danish officers had fallen through the ice with their dogs – Dr. Wedell-Wedellsborg then had to land on the ice near the location of the accident and debrief the other officers, all while pregnant. Furthermore, when asked about the inkblot, Dr. Wedell-Wedellsborg asked us what we saw. She discussed how the most common answer is an animal but how a fragmented mind would see, for instance, an island at the bottom of the inkblot.
Carolina L.
Entrepreneurship and Sustainability – Carolina Petterson Ruiz
Carolina Petterson Ruiz graduated from the IB in 2012 and went on to study at the Stockholm School of Economics. She went to work at PWC, but, having grasped most opportunities presented to her, ended up in the “world of football”. From there, Ruiz founded her own company called Twenty7 to support and guide those involved in football in Europe – such as football clubs and associations – to follow EU directives and regulations. The talk was rounded off by Ruiz providing the students with two different models to bear in mind if they were considering starting their own company: the first focused on the desirability, feasibility, and viability of your idea, while the second focused on a step-by-step approach before attaining the final product/idea.
Carolina L.
Education and design – Ryan Kingsley
Mr Kingsley, spoke about education and design and is no stranger to SIS, in fact he is SIS’ very own design teacher. He highlighted his diverse career, with a degree in Computer Engineering, but artist at heart. He emphasised the importance of pursuing what your heart desires and not being “stuck” in a path that isn’t your own. His career at SIS started as a maths teacher, and then as head of the department. Nowadays, you can find Mr Kingsley half of the time at school, teaching design, and the other half in his art studio, following his passions.
Gioia S.
Engineering – Vikram Nanwani
Vikram Nanwani was the speaker for the inspiring Engineering career talk I and many others had the opportunity to attend. Vikram first talked about his upbringing and education path, which was fascinating to hear, especially since he attended an International school like SIS and then Cambridge University. He then focused on the different subsections of the broad field of engineering such as mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineering. He also mentioned that moving between these different fields isn’t as difficult as it may seem to be and that in most teams there are people needed from multiple fields so it doesn’t define where you will be working. For example, you can be a mechanical engineer working at a company designing airplanes.I also found it interesting to hear about his current job in the field of water technology as the intersection between technology and water and waste management is something that makes a large impact on our society without being well known. I found his talk about engineering very motivational and encouraged me to think about a degree in engineering even though it wasn’t something that I considered beforehand. In a LinkedIn post made by Vikram Nanwani about the event he stated that “I hope I was able to open their eyes to the opportunities, dispel some myths and maybe inspire some of them to make this career choice”
David L.
Healthcare – Anders Dahlstrom
Dr Dahlstrom started as a med student here in Stockholm, at the Karolinska Institute, with a specialisation in paediatrics. In his very impressive career, he was part of many important research on nutrition and how kids are affected by it. He continued his career in Stanford and then UCLA where he pursued his research with livers. He shared with the students the difficulties of continuing his studies in America, as there were language barriers and he didn’t feel at home. Overall, it was a very educational experience and encouraged a lot of questions from students.
Gioia S.
Business/Entrepreneurship – Katherine Salisbury and George Friedman
In this session, students got to meet two business entrepreneurs who created their own company together, Katherine Salisbury and George Friedman.
Katherine Salisbury initially studied law and became a corporate lawyer at White & Case and Simpson Thacher in NYC, specializing in international M&A financings and banking. Her husband, George Friedman, was in the IT industry before getting into business and entrepreneurship. Using their combined skills, they founded Qapital, a personal finance app in the States. They wanted to build an app to help people save, invest, and spend their money wisely. This app is similar to Revolut, however, when creating this app, they considered the fact that people are predictably irrational with money and they wanted to help with that. They recently sold Qapital and are now creating a new company. In this session, they also discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of being an entrepreneur. They explained that while it is nice to be their own boss, they still have to put in a lot of effort and work extra hours for a business to successfully grow. However, they also said that as long as you are passionate about a project, it doesn’t feel like work at all.
Sara A.
