In addition to being an educator, Media Design course director Dr. Adam Baldowski is also an avid fan of pop culture. After receiving their Ph.D. in media psychology, 他们决定结合自己的兴趣，冒险进入极客治疗领域, 一种实现客户的激情或爱好的咨询, whether it be knitting or Dungeons & Dragons or vintage, sci-fi movies.

“极客疗法在治疗界起到了巨大的帮助，因为客户感觉更舒服了,” they say. “And some of my belief, and I think this is true for students too, is we often say, ‘meet the client where they're at.还有什么比用他们感兴趣的东西更好的方法呢?因为他们更容易记住.”

亚当的许多客户都是年轻学生或LGBTQ社区的成员, 所以亚当渴望找到一种新的og体育，让客户通过自己兴趣的独特视角来探索自己的心理健康. 亚当甚至开始以自由撰稿的形式写他们的研究, focusing on metaphors for mental health in media, such as the post-traumatic growth found in HBO’s The Last of Us.

Prior to counseling and education, Adam’s initial dream was to be a filmmaker, 他们在萨凡纳艺术与设计学院获得了电影制作学士和硕士学位. After graduation, Adam left the east coast to work in Los Angeles, 他们还参与了几部电视剧的制作，比如 Glee, NCIS LA, and Hollis & Rae. While in LA, a long-time friend told Adam about an open faculty position at Full Sail University teaching the ethics of design; both the work and the school appealed to Adam, and a decade later, they’re now a course director for the Media Design MFA program.

“在我在这里的10、11年里，这是一次很棒的经历，”他们说. “我想我可以代表我自己说，我爱我们的部门. It's like a family, and I'm very happy to be here.”

In the classroom, 亚当实现了他们以前作为学生参加过的课程的元素, 比如翻转教室，让讨论更像对话而不是讲课，让学生回答彼此的问题, 这是亚当最喜欢的教授在学生时代实施的策略. 这些方法不仅可以帮助学生建立自信，因为他们承担了讲师的角色, 但它也可以帮助学生更全面地掌握设计的整体概念. 亚当也承认，在媒体设计等创意领域工作所面临的独特挑战.

“我喜欢鼓励我的学生，尤其是设计专业的学生, 因为他们喜欢把自己和别人比较，所以(他们当中)有很多骗子综合症——你们来到这里都是有原因的，你们每个人都有自己独特的声音. 因为有些人可能已经在这个行业工作了20年，而你可能是新人, 这并不意味着你不能提供一些东西来帮助那些在这个领域工作了一段时间的人. Everybody starts somewhere.”

“As a media design instructor,” they say, “我经常谈论我们的学生如何以一种好的方式施加影响, 我鼓励他们利用自己的权力去影响观众和顾客, through design, to deliver a message.”

亚当也试着把这种良好影响的教训运用到自己的生活中. After joining Full Sail, Adam went on to receive their Ph.D. 来了解媒体的影响. However, following the tragic Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, 他们意识到，他们想把自己的影响力扩大到研究之外, so they began their journey into mental health counseling. Prior to finding Geek Therapy, 亚当努力与各种各样的咨询联系起来, but, with such a strong interest in fandom and fan theory, 极客疗法让亚当把他们的兴趣磨练成一条更相关的道路.

亚当在Full Sail工作了十年，之后也经历了几次自我发现, they feel fulfilled at their home of Full Sail University.

“Full Sail, to me, always seemed like the place for maybe the people [for whom] college didn't feel like it was in the cards; maybe they were the outcasts in school, the artists, the creatives, the island of misfit toys type, 《OG官网》给了他们一个家和一个空间，让他们创造性地做自己,” says Adam. “我看到很多学生在寻找自己的创造性声音时茁壮成长, and I think Full Sail is really good at fostering that.”