Rodney Kimbangu

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• National Geographic

  This year, Rodney won two students awards at Berea College, awards that celebrate promising students in the arts.
  
  During the summer, he seized the opportunity to intern at Harper College as a CASE intern. During the internship, he worked on multiple projects ranging from headshot photography to promotional video.
  
  A little about the end of his internship, he started submitting his photos to the National Geographic. Within the first two days of submitting his first work, his photo earns the fourth place on "Playing with Light" assignment. Before getting his work on National Geographic, he submitted one of his movies on IMDb.
  
  

  July 1, 2019

• From KY to Hollywood

  Rodney participates in a program called the University Innovation Fellows and goes to learn Design Thinking for the third time. This program takes him to San Francisco where he goes to Google and Stanford University on a 5-day meeting.
  
  Upon on his return, he writes and directs his first short movie for a class project and start taking classes from ...
  
  The same summer, he receives a grant to go an adventure that takes him to LA in Hollywood, under the New York Film Academy. He sets foot to the Universal Studios backlot for the first times and shoots two movies at Universal Studios, Los Angeles.

  2018

• Year of big leaps into Filmmaking

  At the beginning of the year, Rodney finds a way to take a 300 level documentary class, as a freshman. He goes to the class with cinematography knowledge he acquired from years of online training and intends to make a trip to the Congo (DRC) to direct and film a documentary, hence his burning desire to push the envelope to learn how to direct a documentary before his trip. In a team of three students, Rodney makes his first documentary for the class and supplements his learning by taking online classes from the documentary master Andrew St. Pierre White.
  
  During the summer, he participate to another Entrepreneurship locally organized by his school. At the end of his fellowship, he flies to Kinshasa in the Congo and directs a documentary that he is currently working on editing.
  
  Upon his return, he starts working as a filmmaker for the college Marketing and Communications team, and as Teaching Assistant for the Film-Theatre department.

  2017

• Come back

  Rodney returns to America to pursue a Bachelor's double degree in Painting and Filmmaking. At this point, he now owns a camera and has more creative freedom to grow as a visual storyteller.
  By the end of the year, he discovers the website Gurushots, the world largest photography competition website. He starts a journey through Gurushots as a newbie and quickly starts climbing the ladder of status.

  2016

• Mandela Washington Fellowship

  Rodney is selected among the 1000 Young African Leaders, and among the 25 Congolese fellows to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship, a program started by President Obama in 2013. He attends Dartmouth College and learns Business and Entrepreneurship through the intensive Design Thinking process and case studies. As the fellowship intended to empower a new generation of leaders, he also learns leadership, practices public speaking and volunteers in the community with AVA Gallery & Art Center in Lebanon, NH. At the end of the fellowship, all fellows fly to Washington DC where they meet the President Barack Obama for the Presidential summit.

  June 17, 2016

• A Deep Dive

  Re-learns Php, Scss, and starts his website. After he finishes setting up his website, his clientele increases, and he attracts his first three biggest paying clients.

  2015

• School life

  a corner volunteer creates a page and humble and shy beginnings in video making and cinematography

  2013

• School life

  Starts to learn 3D * 2010 python

  2010

• School life

  Starts working as a graphic designer shadows dad for almost 4 years to use his work computer... learn grapahic design and ... collge 1 freelance html5css3

  2009

• School life

  Starts learning Photoshop First time making a ceramics piece Gets his hands on photography xhtml css forst cam, priests second cam, sis' friemds third cam, sister's

  2007

• School life

  starts painting for his class ... and sells his services to make lunch money. want to combine art and tech.

  2006

• School life

  Rodney starts elementary school and keeps drawing, doodling, tinkering and exploring. At age 6 during the Congo war, he witnesses conflict and destruction on the streets of his city. Even though it was for a few weeks only, little Rodney was intrigued by the weaponry that was used during the conflict. Without knowing why starts to create models of the weapons using cardboards and water-activated adhesive tapes. These sad war events led him later to start creating cars and airplanes models using cardboard and water-activated adhesive tapes at first and using only cardboard and glue later, when he was 8 years old being helped by his father to create a helicopter model and a periscope model when he saw that little had a lot of potential and was very industrious for a kid his age. He was fascinated by technology and engineering and his intention to become an engineer grew bigger and bigger. Rodney discovered that he was industrious.

  1997

• The curious journey begins

  Rodney, being curious about life in general, and art and engineering in particular, gets his hands on any possible props related to machinery, music, and drawing, and does not even know that he is planting the seeds of his future life path. At that time, he starts frequently drawing on sand thinking it is a cool thing to do.
  
  Being very curious and asking a lot of questions to his parents, his Dad, working at Air Zaire, gives him access to his Airplane magazines to keep his curious mind busy. This magazine, written in English, brings about more questions than anticipated when he asks his Dad to translate for him what was written in the magazine. His Dad responded to his request by telling him that he should learn French second (after Lingala, one of the languages spoken in the city), and then English because the country runs in French and national languages and English would not help him communicate with as many people as possible in the country.
  
  The same year, he sees "Black or White" by Michael Jackson, and identifies with this music, which enhances his desire to learn English.
  
  

  1996

• Humble Beginnings

  Rodney is born in Kinshasa, in the DR. Congo, at that time called Zaire. Congolese (called Zairians) speak more than two-hundred dialects grouped into four main national languages among which Kikongo, Lingala, Tshiluba, and Swahili. However, under the colonial influence, French is their official language, making it easy for everyone to speak at least two languages by the time they are six years old.
  
  
  

  1992