Rohan Raj, a creative and spirited fourth year BBA student, gives insight into how he made the most of his time as a Golden Hawk. Rohan has made significant contributions to the Laurier community through his videography, as an icebreaker, and in entrepreneurship.
What have you been involved in during your time at Laurier?
Since joining Residence House Council in first year, I’ve been heavily involved at Laurier throughout these four years. House Council gave me an opportunity to meet new people and I’m obsessed with meeting people, so it was the perfect marriage! All my other involvements are in a way a by-product of my involvement in first year. Myself and three others I met through House Council created Goliath Media House, a video production venture to serve the Waterloo market with mindful content. I was referred by someone who liked the videos I had made for House Council to join JDCC and I became an Icebreaker because my mentors from the council pushed me towards it. I think my experience at Laurier demonstrates how important your beginnings are.
Videography is an important hobby of yours, how did you become interested in it? What was the best project you participated in at Laurier?
This sounds ironic but I selected business school to develop my creativity. I’m obsessed with marketing and brand communication because I’ve been a graphic designer and videographer since I was eleven years old. When I came to Laurier, I didn’t want to stop being creative and I wanted to keep learning more. There’s a belief that corporate marketers are boring strategists and agency marketers are hipster creative types. Since coming to Laurier, I’ve become more interested in how to balance the strategic and creative side of brand communication. For example, I’m currently working on a video campaign at PRISMRESOURCES, but for the first time I’m using big data to figure out what the campaign’s message should be.
The best video project I’ve worked on at Laurier was the promo for Hawk Weekend. It was purely a passion project that pushed my creativity and led to meeting a lot of new people. Looking back, I’ve made better videos, but I don’t think any other video was as fun to make as this was! You can check it out here.
Can you discuss how you came to create ReVybe?
I attended a StartUp talk led by one of my friends, which discussed following your passion while remaining focused. It made me realize that a lot of students, including some of my closest friends, are probably going to wake up at the age of 40 thinking, “Damn, I really wish I chased my dream”. I began to think, if I loved music, why wouldn’t I try to disrupt the music industry? I’m an artist myself so creating a start-up revolved around making the independent artist’s life better.only made sense.
How do you balance your extra-curricular activities, academics, and social life?
After four years I’m still trying to achieve the perfect balance between these three things. I’ve been a victim of extra-curricular pursuits eating away at my academics, but I remain positive that every failure to achieve balance gets me closer to perfecting it. I’ve also learned to prioritize my efforts on one or two projects that I really want to excel at, rather than saying ‘yes’ to multiple offers. This allows me to spend more time with my family and friends, and I recognize that making time for someone is just as important as getting a paper in.
What advice would you give to a student who is attempting to build a career out of their passion?
Don’t wait, start now! The worlds most successful actors start in their early 20’s. The world’s most successful artists start in their early 20’s. The world’s most successful founders are sometimes teenagers. I don’t believe in working for ten years before pursuing your dreams. If you are passionate about something and want to make a career out of it, it’s important to double down and focus on nothing but that; anything else is a distraction and will take away from your progress. If you want to be the world’s best plumber, anything you do un-related to pipes won’t add any value to your end goal.
Why did you choose Laurier? How influential do you think the Laurier community is and has been for your future and past successes?
I chose Laurier because I fell in love with the people from the moment I set foot on campus. The Laurier community has an incredible energy, is accepting and fun! The smallness of Laurier has allowed me to get to know my professors on a first name basis, and I’m grateful for all my mentors that have helped me in my ventures. I attribute all my future successes to this school. It’s great to be a Laurier Golden Hawk!
What’s next for you after graduation?
Laurier has shown me that it’s possible to reach for the stars and I would be doing this community an injustice if I didn’t follow my dreams after graduation. I’ve seen incredible accomplishments at the school and by Laurier alumni and I hope to add to this list. I’m not sure what exactly I’ll be doing but I know what I’m not going to do. Cheers to an unpredictable future!