Finding motivation for summer classes can be hard. The prospect of laying in the sun and relaxing is often a lot stronger than the urge to do schoolwork. This idle summer mode extends into fall semester too, and it takes time to focus on academics again. In other words, summer laziness is real and we’re here to help. Here are some characters in movies, games, and musicals that inspire us to improve our academic performance and get back into school mode.  

In order to identify what are desirable qualities for students to have, I resorted to some personality traits that highly-selective college admissions officers look for in prospective students. These traits include: curiosity, empathy, creativity, emotional intelligence, and self-efficacy.  

Curiosity: These characters are notably curious about the world around them. Their drive to seek answers propels them into their journeys and feeds them knowledge along the way. Anakin’s curiosity about Jedi Knights and angels leads him to befriend Qui-Gon Jinn and Padmé, who are both pivotal in Anakin’s life-long journey. In the case of Sillabub, there is no epic tale ahead of her, but who illustrates curiosity better than a kitten?

• Anakin Skywalker – Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
• Link – The Legend of Zelda series
• Sillabub – Cats (the Broadway Musical, NOT the movie)

Empathy: How does empathy improve academic performance? Maybe this category speaks more about a student’s ability to work in a group, as well as their ability to tolerate and help others. The characters listed below are faced with someone who comes from a drastically different background. Even though the strangers are far from what these characters are familiar with, they help each other and create inspiring bonds. Christine empathizes with the Phantom despite his deformity and villainous actions. In West Side Story, Doc does his best to guide the Jets and provide Tony with a safe haven, despite being different ages and from different circumstances. In E.T., Elliott is faced with a real alien and their friendship becomes one of the most iconic in film.

• Elliott – E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Doc – West Side Story
• Christine Daaé – The Phantom of the Opera

Creativity: The ability to come up with inventive solutions is important inside and outside the academic sphere. These two characters – one a lot more famous than the other – are brilliant problem-solvers. Mark finds a way to harvest potatoes on Mars and extract water from rocket fuel. Tulio’s quick thinking and imagination gets him and Miguel out of many problems, including how to flee from the cargo hatch on one of Hernán Cortés’s ships.

• Mark – The Martian
• Tulio – The Road to El Dorado

Emotional Intelligence: This quality is a little harder to explain. The Oxford English Dictionary defines emotional intelligence as “Perceptiveness and skill in dealing with emotions and interpersonal relationships.” In other words, it’s the ability to identify emotions and channel them in a productive, effective way. Andy demonstrates this by redirecting his contempt into motivation to create an escape plan. He remains relatively calm as he uses his strengths to earn him favors from the prison staff and develops friendships with Red and other inmates. His exceptional amount of empathy for other prisoners makes him an admirable leader and aids in his survival at Shawshank. As for Maria, she manages a coveted town with electricity in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. When Tommy, her husband, leaves to help Joel, she is wise enough to understand that she can’t stop him. She also does everything she can to make sure he returns – even though that mostly consists of threatening his brother and companion, Joel. Even in the second game, Maria is a calm, calculating character who understands the people around her and recognizes when it’s futile to argue.

• Andy – The Shawshank Redemption
• Maria – The Last of Us
• Roy – Fire Emblem series

Self-Efficacy: In other words, self-efficacy is belief in oneself. I was very tempted to list any Disney hero under this category, as well as any protagonist from a survival game, like Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. Since the point of this list is to inspire, I chose characters who were based on real people. Hidden Figures is about Katherine Jonson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three brilliant, revolutionary African-American women who worked at NASA during the Space Race. Soul Surfer follows the story of Bethany Hamilton who became a professional surfer despite losing an arm in a shark attack. As for Hamilton, both the title character and the mastermind behind the musical, Lin-Manuel Miranda, motivate audiences to fervently pursue their goals and write like they’re “running out of time”.

• Katherine, Dorothy, and Mary – Hidden Figures
• Bethany – Soul Surfer
• Alexander – Hamilton

If any of these titles catch your eye, take one more step towards entertainment and leap into your summer (or fall) responsibilities with renewed motivation. Even though this list is intended to include characters from different media, I realize there is an under-representation of characters from video games. Are there any that deserve a spot on this list? Let us know on our @aslcgaming Twitter or Instagram account.

Written by: Isabella Massardi | Instagram
Art by: Laura Pellini | Instagram