Today we’d like to introduce you to Henry Becker.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Today I’m a graphic designer and An Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Utah, but how I came to be these things was by no means a linear path. I grew up in Merrick, a town on Long Island, and in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, which sits beside the Delaware River in the Pocono Mountains. In 2006 I enlisted in the US Army and did two tours in Iraq.
It was in the Army that I discovered my love of teaching. I served under a Master Sergeant named Joshua Geery. Sergeant Geery was tough but committed to making the soldiers he oversaw grow as professionals and as people. He helped me to understand that knowledge was a gift not to be hoarded, but to be shared for the betterment of all and that we have a duty to help those in our community who might be struggling where others excel. With Geery as a mentor, my first classroom as a teacher was the sniper team that I led across my tours of duty.
In 2011, I left the service and returned to graphic design, a job I had known before enlisting but something was missing. While working with clients can be satisfying, it didn’t fulfill my passion to actually serve. While pursuing my undergraduate degree in design it began to dawn on me that teaching was my calling, an understanding that graduate school only further drove home.
Teaching affords me the opportunity to give back to the community I love and help share the knowledge I am truly passionate about. Every day I work with students is a privilege.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The challenges I faced during my childhood and high school years impacted me in ways that still shape me as a person. I come from a dysfunctional family and was estranged from my father. During my senior year of high school, my mother threw me out of our trailer and I had to finish school living in my car and showering in truck stops. From this I learned to have empathy for those around me – you never know what someone might be going through. It also instilled in me a fierce devotion to education as a way through and out of poverty.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Storytelling has been a through-line in my career, especially where I can focus awareness on political issues through design. Through my own practice, I’ve addressed PTSD, the War on Terror, and gun rights, among other themes drawn from my experience. However, my proudest moments come from being able to help tell the stories of colleagues and artists I care about, including Mina Cheon, a Korean artist whose work contends with the geopolitics and history of the Koreas, and Andrew Paul Keiper and Kei Ito, whose collaborative projects bring ask us to reckon with the dangers of nuclear weapons. Everyone’s stories are different but by sharing them we can build connection and understanding.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was quite innocent, as most kids are. In fact, so innocent that I had a habit of jumping from great heights, even off from the second story of a building, because I firmly believed that people could fly if they only tried hard enough! Sadly, that dream finally ended with a broken arm, but the aspiration to transcend my everyday world happily did not.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/henryjbecker/
Image Credits
Kevin Tomas
