Shannen Serrano

I am a highly self-motivated individual, driven by my curiosity to learn as much as I can about anything and everything. My main interests are innovation, gamification, psychology, philosophy, music, art, and literature. Altogether, my knowledge in these subjects are an advantage for me as a creative thinker because I can holistically combine ideas from each field into one innovative idea.

I am a fourth-year student in the Creative Industries program at Ryerson University. My education has nurtured my skills in business management, entrepreneurship, marketing, communications, music business, and media production. Overall, my education has equipped me with an in-depth comprehension of many subjects that enhance my versatility as an employee. In addition, Creative Industries has fostered my creative and critical thinking to challenge the norms and push boundaries of traditional business strategies.

Throughout my undergraduate education, I have gained interest in creative collaboration and design thinking that have inspired my graduate thesis. I am currently developing my thesis regarding human motivation and gamification and how gamifying environments can help increase motivation. Gamers are the most highly self-motivated individuals and I want to develop a way to expand a gamer’s motivation outside of just games and into the rest of our activities - specifically as employees.

However, before I take my Master’s, I will be spending the next 1-2 years refining my thesis and teaching English abroad. Throughout these next few years of teaching, I will gamify my curriculum to observe how game modifications can affect the motivation of my students. This way, I will be able to conduct research for my thesis and develop my teaching skills.

After teaching aboard, I will return to take my Master’s degree and continue to work towards becoming a professor.