Student Stories: Ina Bassa

Interviewer: 
Rouxbin Smit 
Editorial & Community Manager, BE

Interviewee: 
Ina Bassa
Youth Board & Ambassador, BE

Fun Fact: Both the people in our interview today are virgos!

BE Student Story Features Ina Bassa sharing with us her dreams and aspirations as well as behind the scenes of her experience at BE with Community Manager Rouxbin Smit

Hey Ina, so let’s begin this highlight with you sharing where you are from?

Hey Rouxbin! I live in the French Alps, in a small town next to Briançon- the Ski Station. My parents are from France and Togo so I’m part French and part Togolese 🙂

Super interesting!

So onto the next part, Ina you might’ve read Rimas’ Highlight but this time around we have added some extra questions so let me just quickly brief you about it, alright?

Cool!

Okay so what we’re going to do is split the questions into three segments, some quicker questions, some more about your experiences and hopes, and then we’ll wrap up.

So Ina, what’s one word you would use to describe yourself?

Ambitious

I think I would describe myself as ambitious mostly because, more recently I find myself wanting to do everything I’ve ever wanted to do, no matter what other people might think of me or the fact that I might not succeed. I just want to try it so that I have no regrets in the end. Well at least I’m trying to be like that haha ! 

Amazing!

So next one, what is one word you think your friends might use to describe you?

Safe and Happy

I think they would probably use these words because I’m like the chill one from my friend group, like the mom one and plus I’m always happy, so happy is one word. And for safe, I think it’s because my friends feel safe with me like they know we’re not going to take risks and do dangerous things when they’re with me. Pretty cliche answer, but that’s literally all I could think of!

No no, you’re doing great!

Next one, what is one word about how you would like to be remembered?

Living 

It’s a very weird one, I know, but I guess I would use Living because I try to live, to live life at its fullest and to experience everything I can and I’m trying to make an impact rather than having things impacting me. I don’t know if I’m making a lot of sense right now but all I’m saying is that I think life is really precious and I’m really happy to have a life so I just want to be remembered like someone who lived, lived their life to the most, I guess.

That’s a super Interesting way to put things!

So when you mentioned making an impact but not exactly letting things impact you, what did you mean by that?

Okay, so I’m not exactly sure how to explain that so please bear with me! 

So what I mean is that I don’t want to get touched by the small things in my day-to-day life, like something that may have happened. I want to be able to compartmentalize and still do what I want to do and what I feel is best for me, even when things may not be going well. I want to continue moving forward and to always see the positive in things and keep going.

Great!

So the next part will also be similar except you might find them to be quirkier, so be warned! 🙂

Right, so Ina, what is your favorite food, like your guilty pleasure food? Something you’d get if I told you to go to the Supermarket right now.

That’s a difficult question because I love food, but I think I’d probably get Vanilla Ice Cream, specifically from ALTIFLORE – a local brand – which is like the only brand whose ice cream tastes so good to me, especially nowadays. I’ve been in love with it since I was a kid and nowadays I’ve been having it so much that we have empty boxes piling up in the garage! 

Cool!

Next, if you could have the voice of any three people in your head who would they be?

I’d say Emma Watson for sure because I love her voice, but other than her I’d like to have Harry Styles’ and Victoria De Angelis’ voices in my head too, because they’re 3 amazing people whom I admire and look up to about a lot of aspects in my life. I would take their voices in my head for now, but I’d really like to meet them someday as well!

And, what is your favorite Book/ Movie/ TV Series or even Social Media Account?

I don’t have any current favorite book because I haven’t really had the time to read anything other than school textbooks these past few years, and they’re not really interesting most of the time. But I have had the opportunity to pick up reading books after high school and right now I’m reading, ‘The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo’, and I’m loving it! Other than that I do have a favorite movie – Little Women, the one made by Greta Gerwig.

I loved the movie, the cast was really interesting and I feel like every actor perfectly fit the roles assigned to them. It was so nicely directed and filmed and even the fact that they even added a modern twist to it, making it slightly different to the book, it all came together amazingly.

And finally, what is one thing you want to see less of in this world?

Close minded people.

For example, whenever anything about Global Warming is said, there would always be this one person that would say that it’s a lie and I feel like if only they would open their eyes and see that it indeed is a very real thing. The same goes for politics and just life in general. There are so many people out there who keep making decisions and opinions about other people and their personal lives and it’s not like I’m tired of it but I definitely feel like we should be allowed to live the way we want to and do things that we want to do as long as we’re not harming anyone. You don’t really need to make a decision for me, you know? Like close minded people are really not the vibe!

I think it really shouldn’t be okay to put people in boxes and to say that there is only one type of love, only one type of family and only one type of a job, etc. We should just be who we want to be and yeah it might be scary for the older generations(in terms of openness to diversity and unconventionality), to you know, change the model that they have been seeing up until now but the world is evolving so I think they should understand that people are evolving as well!

Perfect! That was so well put, I definitely agree with you over there!

So, the first part is done and dusted now. 

Ready to jump into the next one?

Definitely, yeah!

Right, so here we’ll be going over something that you’re doing right now, something you’re working on, a project or anything even day to day that you wish to highlight, so let’s begin!

Okay, so like I described, what is something you wish to highlight through this interview and the entire process going through with it? 

I think, my desire to start a content creation career or even build it up as a passion because that’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and now I’m finally able to do it.

I’ve always had the idea to do it since I was 13 I think, but my parents thought I was still too young to put my face on the internet, which I now totally understand because it is a WILD place, the internet, so now I’m like THANK YOU for stopping me 🙂 

And I don’t really know why this has always interested me but I enjoyed consuming content, sometimes specific content, so I think once I discovered what was going on backstage, I was hooked. It fascinated me to see how you can use certain angles or certain words or certain lighting to show a number of different things, especially nowadays, when social media platforms have become a really big part of all our lives. The fact that I can create content that can spread positivity and good vibes and try to open people’s minds really appeals to me.

So now, after 5 years, I feel like I’ve had the time to let my ideas mature and know exactly what kind of content I wish to post, and I feel like I’m ready to get into this.  

As of now I just want to make videos (and podcasts maybe)  because even if I don’t post it and make them for myself as memories, I think it’s a great way to remember things and get the motivation to experience new things but I do want to eventually share what I make you know. I think it can be super entertaining and interesting to share, especially if I learn something new, I wouldn’t want to keep it to myself, but instead share it with the world as well, and then maybe I can move on to something more once I get my architecture diploma.

Something like talks or conferences or something to start creating content once again or even online classes you know, to help people learn what I learned throughout my journey. 

Wow Ina! I must say you’ve certainly got a lot of it planned while you were waiting! 🙂

So, I recall you saying you enjoyed watching a specific kind of content, so what kind of content is that and who or what motivated or inspired you to get into this field?

So there’s a bunch of people from both YouTube and Instagram, that made me feel like I want to do something similar to what they were doing, namely – Nayna Florence, Moya Mawhinney, Sadie Aldis, Cualdera, Hannah Elise, Alia Zaita, Lucie Rhéaume, Léna Situations – and then there is this one TikToker that I discovered just yesterday, her name is Amber Kereta and she makes all these workout and lifestyle videos that just feel so inspiring. 

As to what kind of content I like, I really like people who show themselves like studying or working. I think it’s really motivating, the fact that people show their day to day lives that are not really scripted and didn’t take like a hundred hours to make. It’s nice to see people just being spontaneous and showing what life really is with all its ups and downs instead of just the positive side. 

I also really like watching travel content, it’s really amazing and can make you travel without you physically traveling so yeah. 

In short I love every type of content that can make me want to do more things and continue to do what I love.

Awesome!

So now that you’ve got the planning down, what are your next steps? And what kind of vision do you see yourself having for this project?

So the one main thing I want to do is create something that I’m proud of,  you know, something that shows all different sides of me and my personality, trying everything and seeing what works best because honestly, I don’t know what type of content I would make if I personally didn’t enjoy it. But instead if I do do something that I like I will keep making it because then I won’t be doing it for people. Yeah, I mean I would definitely have to eventually share it with other people but first it’s for me, to do things I enjoy, because going along with trends might work for the time being but in the long run it won’t really work and so doing things that interest me and surrounding myself with people who share similar interests would be helpful over there. 

As to the next steps, I just want to begin filming, start with random moments in my day I think, because sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh! This is nice, this can make you cool videos!’, and so, instead of just saying this to myself, I could actually take my phone out and film things. I feel like this could be a quick piece of content and similarly I think I can start creating the things I’ve always wanted to create, because I have a lot of ideas in notebooks and well, my head. So I feel if I at least begin like this, spontaneously, I will start making them and editing them further instead of not doing it because I feel scared, like I do sometimes. I’m scared of how it could turn out and if it maybe turns out bad and so I wouldn’t start at all and I think unless you actually try it you don’t know how its gonna go so yeah, start posting and see how it goes, is kinda my next step I guess.

One step at a time, yeah that’s, that’s a good strategy I think!

So Ina, how has the way you view the world changed, through what you’re doing right now? 

I think at first I kept seeing (like a lot of young people might do) people on social media doing things like this and I thought, ‘Oh! Everyone has a better life than me!’, and you know, kinda became jealous of people and what I saw. But now, I’m discovering that people choose what and when they put things up online, and so I did realize that everyone has a life with ups and downs. And you know, on the Internet, you’ll find a lot of ambitious people as well as, excuse the word, stupid people, and so being a content creator really shows you the diversity of the world, shows you just how wild the society and world is.. As such, finding people online, reaching out to them and learning from them has taught me that, yeah, I still have a lot to learn and as a whole I just get this unique sense of community. So somehow, I think that mindset has in a way helped me be motivated to reach my goals. It helped me see different sides of the world and not just what’s around me and that everyone is different, have different lives, different opinions and essentially the richness of the world I guess.

Very true! The Internet is a wild place for sure!

Okay, so bringing the focus back to BE, now that we’re nearing the end, which one of the 12 Competencies [21st Century Skills] that BE focuses on do you think you’ve improved upon, through BE and content creation, and which one would you wish to improve upon?

Okay, so I’m just gonna go ahead and list some of them down because I don’t think one word for each is enough 🙂

For improved upon I’d say – Curiosity, Creativity, Communication and even Courage

For wish to improve upon I’d say – Collaboration, Critical Thinking and even some more on Communication, I think. 

I think it’s very important for me to learn these skills, especially in regards to what I want to do, mostly because I think when we are creating things, we have to be able to question it and make it evolve so that we can grow our engagement as well as grow as people. For collaboration, it’s because I prefer doing things on my own most of the time and don’t tend to work with other people or give them tasks, because it kinda stresses me out, like really stresses me out, not being in control of everything, and you know, content creation does occasionally also involve collaborating with other people and brands, so yeah, it’s definitely something I want to work on. 

Additionally I think I also want to learn leadership and resilience and that is because maybe, if in the future, I do end up making money off this career plan, as an entrepreneur, I would need these skills. Being on the Internet, there are always things that might happen, that you don’t have control over and so learning how to be able to step back and not let the negativity take over is also important.

And you know Rouxbin I’d just like to add, BE has helped me so much, like it gave me the last push I needed to get started. I took the BE Entrepreneur program and it taught me so many things that I know will definitely help me in the future and all in all just give me all the tools to just make that leap of faith and start! So, thank you for that!

Thank you so much Ina, glad we could be of help to you!

Right so, next one, what is one moment in your life that you’re really proud of? 

It could be something about content creation as well.

My growth as a person, I would say.

There’s no specific memory but just that I’ve been able to discover who I am and grow and just be myself, especially in these past two years, it feels good.

If there’s one specific thing though I’d say – getting into my dream architecture school, because I’ve been wanting to do that since I was 14 and so I’ve been working towards this goal and now, I’ve gotten in. Just the other day, I was thinking that this year, I went from – I want to apply to this school, to, I applied, to, I’m waiting to know, to, I’m gonna be a student there in September and this is just, mind blowing! I don’t think I’ve still realized and processed the fact that I’m gonna be there in September and do the things I’ve always wanted to do. It feels weird, because all throughout high school, I always kept motivating myself to study, just on the basis of the fact that this is my dream school, and I will have to work to get in there, and now I’m there. So I’m just really proud of the things I achieved academically I think.

Congratulations! This is major news!

So now that you’ve achieved this milestone, what is your next goal?

For now I think, being the best I can be in this school.

It is going to be very challenging and so I want to do the best I can, without damaging my mental health, mostly because I have this habit I think, I just can’t pick up anything new until I’m finished with all the work I have been given, especially when it comes to school and study, and end up putting a lot of pressure on myself, and I want to change that now.

As to a long term goal, I’d go with getting into internships that I wish to get into, because our curriculum requires us to take at least three or four internships, for practical learning. So maybe that I think, getting my internships with companies I would love to work with and to study abroad as well. Studying abroad has always been a goal of mine since I learned that it was possible, as it can really expand my knowledge and curiosity. So that’s that 🙂

Okay, last one now, 

Who were your childhood heroes?

I would say my parents because they really motivate me every day and also the fact that I don’t really remember having any of those typical heroes because I didn’t really watch a lot of tv or anything so they were the only people in my life.

And if I want to add to that I’d say, maybe some skiers that I really looked up to and maybe even just random people I saw in the streets, who I found motivating and hoped to be like them when I grew up.

Yeah, I think that’s all 🙂

Amazing! It was so much fun to talk to you today Ina! I know it’s summer time for you right now, so thank you so much for being able to do this highlight!

It was amazing doing this too Rouxbin! Thank you!

For all our readers, Ina will start uploading more content on her YouTube after September this year, but feel free to visit her Tik Tok and Instagram to know more about her. 

The links are mentioned below!

Have a fun day folks! 🙂 

Thank you so much to Ina for talking to us and sharing with us who you are!

Keep an eye out for an Ambassador highlight every month! 

Want a podcast version of these interviews? 

Let us know!

Ina’s TikTok: @inabassa

Ina’s Instagram: @inabassa