Community has the power to guide, inspire, and transform lives. It provides a sense of belonging, a network of support, and the encouragement to pursue passions and dreams.
For Jon Buckingham (’14), the support and encouragement he found at Calgary Academy and later within the online gaming community became the foundation for discovering his purpose and building a fulfilling career.
CA Days
Jon attended Calgary Academy from Grades 4–12, graduating in 2014. He has many memories of his time at the school, particularly travelling through Vietnam, Laos, and Morrocco with the International Travel Studies (ITS) club. However, trips, classes, and clubs weren’t the biggest impacts on Jon’s time at CA—the community was.
In Jon’s words, his life wouldn’t look like it does now if he never attended Calgary Academy. He appreciates his time at the school, where he learned more about the world and had the chance to explore the potential careers he was interested in.
Jon remembers sitting in the guidance counsellor’s office to discuss his future. They had done career tests, but some of the recommendations didn’t match what he was interested in until he spoke with his teachers, who encouraged him to pursue engineering.
After two years of engineering at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, Jon realized that while he enjoyed aspects of the program, it ultimately wasn’t for him. However, he was able to use this knowledge in his current career path: virtual reality (VR) production.
“I took the best parts of what I learned in engineering and applied them to the things that I love, which are video games and community.” – Jon
The Power of Community
After leaving university, Jon began working odd jobs, eventually getting into VR as a hobby. He met people with similar interests on VRChat (his eventual employer), a social platform where people can interact with others in 3D virtual spaces, like a chat room. The VRChat community gave Jon advice and resources on pursuing his passion, and he began working with 3D modelling and animation.
Jon credits this online community as a major stepping stone in his career, stating he was “in the right room with the right people.” As he worked hard to build his skills, Jon saw an advertisement for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Design and Development at Vancouver Film School, a pilot program that was perfect for his interests.
He decided to take a step forward and apply, creating a portfolio that made him stand out among the hundreds of applicants.
“I said, ‘I’m just going to follow my gut. I’m going to put everything that I’ve worked on and built on my own into this program.’ And out of around 400 international applicants, they picked 14 students. I was one of the first cohorts there, and it got me industry placement, networking, and everything that I needed to get from school into a career.” – Jon
After graduating from Vancouver Film School, Jon found his current job at VRChat, where he works behind the scenes in the virtual world where his developer journey first started.
His love for the platform has only grown as he’s worked with the dedicated team, eventually moving from development and coding to production, which focuses on high-level planning for VRChat’s future.
He has seen the impact of his work in the company’s community—the platform has a deeply engaged audience of approximately 2 million users. Since he was young, Jon has wanted to change the world, and while he’s not affecting everyone, he is happy to have “started with this small portion.”
Community has always been a foundation of Jon’s life. He experienced the benefits of a supportive community at Calgary Academy and online with VRChat. He credits it for helping him get to where he is now.
As Jon looks to the future, he’s excited to continue his work and encourages everyone to find their community, wherever it may be. He sees community as one of the pillars of life.
“I think the entire human experience boils down to comfort, community and communication… Community has been the thing that launched me from being uncertain about what my future looks like to knowing that I have people to fall back on and rely on.”