Kelly graduated from college in 2012 with a degree in journalism and communications. She spent 5 months after graduation filming whales in Antarctica with Sea Shepherd. She is currently building her portfolio by shooting photos and videos for local businesses. Her goal is to create her own documentary. The empathy map reveals that Kelly realized she wanted to pursue documentary filmmaking after studying abroad senior year of college. She felt she didn't have enough time in college to explore her interests. Traveling independently helped her gain clarity on her identity and values. In the future, Kelly aims to work on documentary projects with other professionals to build her skills and network, with the ultimate goal of producing her own films.

1. Empathy Map
DESCRIPTION of Kelly, age 24
Kelly Robbins graduated in 2012 from Western Washington University with a
Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Communications. She has worked on a Sea
Shepard Campaign filming whales in Antarctica for five months after
graduation. She currently is working on her portfolio by shooting photos and
short videos for local businesses and families through her account on Zaarly.
Her goal is to create her own documentary.
Blue= observations
Red= inferences
1) “I knew what I wanted to do after I studied abroad, spring quarter of my
senior year at WWU.” She chose to study abroad late in her college
career instead of earlier when she had flexibility with course credits and
was already in her major.
2) “Nothing influenced me to want to do that, it was more like I studied
abroad and I was on my own: I came into myself on my own in the world,
I realized what I cared about doing.”
3) “Study abroad enabled me to figure out who I was.” The decision she
made to spend 5 months in Thailand was like a last attempt at making an
academic accomplishment of her college years. It could be that it was
also her age that made her feel ready for a new identity and set of
interests.
4) “I realized I didn’t have enough time in school, or as much time as I
wanted. Because once I realized [what I wanted to do] I wished I had four
more years.” The first few years at university were more like a social
experience for her than an education. She felt like the year after study
abroad was more fruitful than the first three and a half.
5) “I felt pressured to graduate in one year, and so I took summer classes
and I had a very engaged final fifth year of college.” It may have been
that something could have engaged her from the start, before the need for
distance from her sheltered upbringing?
6) “I compromised and I took the classes I wanted to take: journalism,
photojournalism, video production; and I just did what I had to do to
graduate. I had to learn everything I could in my last year.” This focused,

2. hard-working, serious final year gave her skills, resources and momentum
to start networking and organizing for her life after college.
7) “[In the next five or ten years] I want to have worked on documentary
production projects in groups of professionals and other like-minded
people.”
8) “I want to build the skills and contacts I need to either produce my own
projects or continue working on others projects.”
9) “I’ve already worked on a documentary style television show that I am
passionate about.” Combining her networking, skill advancement, passion
for travel and animals, she managed to secure a position on an activist
campaign. She may have the opportunity to do another similar campaign
in the next few months.
10)“I have to team up with other people before I can make my own film so I
have been and continue to be open to that.”
11)“In this industry you have to keep yourself open, available and flexible.” She
cannot have a part time job while she networks and builds her portfolio as it
would restrict her schedule several days a week. This seems to be one of her
favourite parts of her area of profession. The lack of structure allows her to
pursue interests such as exercise, travel, cook, rest, research.
12)“Being on my own [during my study abroad] in the world was the first time I
was able to realize anything about who I am on my own.”
13)“My social life hindered me and distracted my [academic] focus in high
school and college.” She struggled with prioritizing school over social events.
Perhaps she didn’t have good mentorship or role models in middle school or
high school. Or she felt that she needed more freedom, to do things at her own
pace and assistance when she asked for it.
14)“If I could do something differently, I would have not cared so much about
trivial things. And I would have given myself more of the time and space I
needed on my own as an individual.”
15)“Study abroad is the easiest vehicle to go be alone, I would recommend any
experience whereby you’re taken out of your element, comfort zone and
everything that you think is your reality.” Kelly felt like she needed to move
away from her family, friends, community and city to experience a new lifestyle
and develop new ideas and beliefs. The mainstream option was college, and it

3. was what her parents encouraged and expected, what her friends were all
pursuing as well. So she went for it, although unprepared to decide what kind of
career she was interested in.
16)“I lived in such a bubble my whole life—my whole childhood: Christian
bubble, sheltered bubble with friends and parents, etc. I think that’s why it was
so mind-blowing and earth shattering to have a liberal education.”
17)“I have an appreciation for education in a way some people might not,
because to me, our reality is a box that we can expand or not expand. It’s scary
to me that some people live in small boxes and other people live in massive
boxes.”
18)“Education is everything.” She felt this way for the first time in her life at
age 22, when she travelled. I do believe one could find a social pattern among
individuals in her same generation, having had similar opportunities. Traveling
either with a college faculty-led group, or an exchange program on your own,
one doesn’t quit learning the entire duration.
19)“The four years of my education shaped me and gave me this idea, or
mission to seek this reality because I had lost my whole identity and reality
before that.” Growing up with her parents she was assigned a religion, friend
group, neighbourhood, school, and it wasn’t until she left for college that she
was able to create a new identity with the help of a new city, new friends and a
diverse selection of courses.
20)“There is so much information out there and different philosophies to learn
about.” She believes that we should not limit ourselves to what we already
know, but research, learn, question and find ways to defend our beliefs and
values. Kelly is curious and eager for learning experiences. This made her
college years before Thailand disconnected but now that she has a goal, she
works as hard as she can.
21)“I needed to go have an adventure on my own.” This was her self-chosen rite
of passage to being a self-motivated, productive, creative, Everyone I know
who has gone away for travel or study abroad, who has been out of their culture
long enough to learn the basics of another has come back a more true and
honest version of themselves. When it has been in college they return home
knowing what they want to study and ideas of how to make that a career begin
to unfold.

4. Problem Statement: Is it generative?
Kelly would benefit from giving herself more breaks, space, time for travel,
inspirational experiences and even redesign her workspace at home to make it a
more creative space to work in for future success.
Insight: How does the data from the Empathy Map support the problem
statement?
From our interview, Kelly has a distinct learning and working style that
involves a lot of exposure to new ideas, people, places, foods, films and music.
The more she experiences, the more work she can do in a short amount of time
on her own; very social, but when it comes to getting work done she requires
solitude. It seems that open, flexible, creative minds can observe and take in a
lot until they have the right energy to expel it.
She would have benefitted greatly from taking a year to travel in between high
school and college. The outcome may have not been the same, but it could have
helped her avoid years of not knowing what she was doing in college. She could
have started to develop her creativity academically a few years earlier. This is a
positive message for high school students starting to feel pressure about going
to college directly after.