Bethany class of 2011 graduate Dom Han was born in South Korea and lived in Violett House from 2006-2011, starting at Bethany in 8th grade. He was part of a cohort of international students who stayed in Violett House when it served as a mini dormitory for students, along with a Korean pastor and his family.
Now Dom works for Instagram outside LA. He is a digital artist who most recently was part of the core group that created all the graphic design for Instagram’s new app Threads. Dom spoke with former Advancement Director Sarah Kraybill Lind a few months ago over Zoom.
Dom said that Bethany changed his life. Dom arrived as a stranger, not very fluent in English. “Everyone was so welcoming, friendly, and nice to me,” he said, “I was able to pick up English skills so quickly because everyone was willing to help and invite me to their family events and their things with their friends.” The Bethany community opened up a life of conversation and friendships for him.
He didn’t lean strongly towards academics; he was an artist. But at Bethany, he was invited to try new things and not made to feel inadequate for his academic or linguistic shortcomings. In class, he was introduced to Photoshop for the first time and loved it. Right away, he knew that he wanted to study digital design for his career. The Bethany community opened up a life of innovation and a career path for him.
He adapted from a big city to the small town of Goshen, to a new culture where people couldn’t really say his name. His Korean name is Sang Hyun Han. He decided he wanted a new name, so he asked his friends, “What name do you think is right for me?” They named him Dominic. At Bethany, he found a new name that has lasted throughout his life.
Since leaving Bethany, Dom continued on his chosen career path, moving to New York City and attending the School of Visual Arts. He spent about a decade in NYC doing commercial graphic design, primarily working with The Mill, one of the largest global advertising agencies in the world. The research and development department at The Mill was developing augmented and virtual reality effects, and Dom was motivated to learn a lot about these through self-study and tutorials. During COVID, Dom unexpectedly got an email from a hiring manager at Instagram. He thought it was spam at first, but then he agreed to talk with them. Over three months, they gave him example challenges, and he had to solve the problems and take tests. He was able to use everything at his disposal, so he reached out to friends, did research, and successfully completed their challenges. He got the job.
At Instagram, Dom is designing the tools that Instagram users work with to create their own content. He has mainly created “functions”–the fonts and images you can put over your posts on Instagram Stories. Currently, his team is creatively solving how to make Instagram more fun and easy to use.
“It feels a bit like freelancing within a big corporation of more than 30,000 people,” he said.
Some months ago, one of the partners he worked with told him she was working on a new highly confidential project and invited him to join. He thought it would be interesting and agreed. That project turned out to be Threads.
Dom reflected, “It was stressful but very thrilling at the same time. We knew that a lot of users were going to be using it, and that whatever we designed would be out there.”
In fact, his designs are now seen all over the world by billions of people.
Even though he lives in California now, Dom’s personal development could never be separated from his connection with Bethany. For Dom, this is the place where he found a community that opened up his life in America, leading him towards a personal passion that became an incredible career.