By Aidan McNeely
“Curious, ambitious, and compassionate,” are the three words Jackson Bostian, a 26-year-old assistant professor of interactive design at William Peace University (WPU), used to describe his personality.
Bostian’s journey from a rural upbringing to the academic world reflects a commitment to design and student support. He grew up in a small, extremely rural area outside of Hickory, North Carolina. He lived in the back of his mother’s small art gallery with his brother, with very little money.
“That was a big part of my growing up…it instilled in me a real sense that making the most of something is a really valuable skill to have,” said Bostian.
Diagnosed at a young age with ADHD, Bostian’s performance in elementary school began to decline. “I want to pay attention, but I can’t,” is how he described it to his mom, who expressed deep concern rather than frustration. With her support, he received the help he needed, which put him “back on track.” This experience with his mom formed his empathy and support system in the way he teaches today.
“That kind of experience has really shaped my ethos about how I want to work with other people, support students, and stuff like that,” said Bostian.
Bostian attended an arts school in Charlotte, NC, where he sang, played the piano, and learned to play the saxophone. For his junior and senior years of high school, he attended the North Carolina School of Science and Math, which he described as “a hard, hard school, but it was really, really awesome.”
During his undergraduate studies at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Bostian was encouraged to pursue teaching by his mentor, Justin Johnson. At that time, Justin was an assistant professor at NCSU and the chair of the graduate committee.
Bostian worked under Justin as a teaching assistant in his studio course where he became fueled by his desire to teach. “He did a lot to treat me as a partner in working in that space and supporting students,” said Bostian. “And it was by far the most gratifying part of my graduate experience.”
Currently in his second year at WPU, Bostian is working on growing the interactive design program and considering changing the major title to user experience design, as it covers a wider range of disciplines.
“UX is a creative science, the process itself is a process but it’s there to facilitate creative problem solving,” said Bostian. “The discipline itself is about critical thinking.”
He wants to grow the program so that students can utilize their design skills to solve other people’s problems, which is what made him fall in love with design.
“Fail quickly. Fail cheaply. It’s part of the design process,” said Bostian. “The more quickly you can try something and get feedback and iterate on it, the better.”
One heavy inspiration for Bostian’s love for user experience design was the video game Inside by studio Playdead.
“I love that one because it makes me think about things in a way that’s how can we go deeper to make something better, instead of adding more onto it to make it better,” said Bostian. “I like uncomfortable things and figuring out why something’s uncomfortable instead of just bad.”
He also expressed his interest in phenomenology, a discipline of philosophy.
“It’s the philosophy of experience,” said Bostian. “The objectivity of the world kind of doesn’t matter on an individual basis, because every person experiences what they experience as truly and as completely as anyone else experiences theirs, regardless of what they’re experiencing, whether it’s actually objectively true or not.”
Bostian in addition cares deeply about his students and the lessons he teaches them.
“I don’t like thinking of students as students,” he said. “If you think of every student as being their own person who has their own stuff going on, their own priorities, their own ability to actually act on their own priorities, living in circumstances that you know nothing about or very little about, how would I want to be treated?”
Through the challenges of building a new program with no other faculty teaching and designing its courses, Bostian believes that meaningful relationships make it possible to endure much more.
Jake Valentine, a 21 year old WPU student and major in interactive design, has taken many classes with Bostian as his professor.
“He doesn’t treat us like we’re under him..he very much gets on our level,” said Valentine. “He’s very open minded, empathetic, and can definitely, like, understand and relate to any situations you might have going on in your life, like if you’re late, or anything like, he’s very understanding.”
Valentine emphasized the importance of his education while pursuing a major in interactive design and the tuition where his money is going.
“I would say that the amount of effort that he puts into making sure we’re learning relative skills and spending our time doing things that are important and not just doing busy work, is really awesome, and definitely shows that he cares about us and cares about our time,” said Valentine.
He values his flexibility as a professor and the relationship with students.
“He teaches us very relevant information, and it’s not necessarily just stuff that came out of an old textbook or anything like that,” said Valentine. “He’s attentive in the way that he will individually answer questions and work with you, on problems, on your project, individually, and try to work with what you have, even if you did it a different way than the way that he taught.”
Bostian has created an environment for students to not just learn, but one where students can feel comfortable and increase their skills by getting to know everyone on a personal level.
“I’m proud of the work that I’ve been doing, also really proud of the students I’ve seen actually really growing in courses,” said Bostian. “It’s why I’m why I do this job, and I get to see it every semester.”
Photo by Aidan McNeely