Ali is an eighteen-year-old from Toronto who loves Anime and aspires to create video games in the future. He is so passionate about the video gaming industry that he wants to work for Bandai-Namco, a Japanese video game publisher known for Pac-Man and Dragon Ball.
Ali also lives with cerebral palsy, a condition that affects his movement and muscle tone, making it challenging to participate in some activities – but indulging in video games (especially fighting games) is one of his favourite pastimes. He asked the Shine Foundation to help support his passion and thanks to donors like you, we were able to grant Ali a new Play Station 5 gaming console and connect him to the Human Resources team at Bandai-Namco USA to help him discover what it takes to get into the career of his dreams.
There was an air of excitement at Ali’s home while his siblings, parents and cousin all gathered to watch him receive his Shine Dream. Ali received two games for his new PS5 console: Spiderman and Dragon Ball-Z, customized button replacements, an Anime themed skin for his console, gift cards to the PlayStation store, Best Buy, and McDonald’s, and t-shirts with Naruto and Dragon Ball Z designs.
A few days later, Tom, the HR Manager and Business Partner from Bandai-Namco, joined Ali for a personalized zoom call one afternoon. Tom was able to give Ali a better idea of which jobs are available at the company and what he would need to learn to qualify for those career paths. He was very encouraging of Ali’s goal of working in game development and testing. Ali also shared his desire to improve the quality of existing games and details of the new gaming concepts he came up with. The two of them were enjoying their chat so much, that Tom cancelled his next meeting to continue talking with Ali.
In a follow up with Ali about his Shine Dream, he shares that when he’s not in school or hanging out with friends and family, he’s at home having fun on his PS5. He was motivated by his talk with Tom and hopes to get a temporary job in the field so that he can work his way up in the industry. He can’t thank Shine enough for making his Dream so inspiring and life changing.
