Among the big crowd of BUas walks one individual that does not quite fit the picture. This individual is Akira. Now, I can imagine that one might think: that is a dog. Yes. That is indeed a dog, and today we put her in the spotlight.

This is Akira, the (un)official mascot of Creative Business. All the students instantly fell in love with her whenever she came by. She is a Japanese breed, Shiba Inu, and is named after a Japanese director. Although Akira is from Japanese descent and named after a Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, she is a true Dutch person (or dog? A derson?), as she is obsessed with cheese. Like obsessed, obsessed. She will do anything for a bit of cheese. A true icon.

On top of being great at being Dutch, she is also great at cheering people up. When we asked her manager, Arleen Cuevas, a lecturer at Creative Business, where she thought Akira’s talents lie, she stated: “Making people happy!”. When she comes to school, she puts a smile on the faces of all the students and helps them relax. In America and in England, schools sometimes bring in therapy dogs, because this relaxes the students and takes away some of the constant stress of school (this has been scientifically proven (Coughlan, 2019)). Arleen read articles on this subject and wanted to make Akira our own BUas version of that despite it dogs not being officially allowed on the premises. She noticed it made the students happy whenever she brought Akira along with her and continued to bring her along more often.

Arleen was hesitant to get a dog at first, afraid it might be too much work, and she and her husband could not decide on a breed. Once they took one glance at a Shiba Inu and instantly knew that was the one.

Although Akira is a dog, she’s more famous than some of you will ever be. A lot of media students probably dream of becoming an influencer. You should just give up now since Akira is already winning this with a whopping 620 followers on her Instagram page @akira_shibainu, where she inspires many with her modeling career. She is a beauty, who manages to always make her poses look effortless and natural. She is professional, well behaved, and a true charm. Even cats like her.

Akira is an inspiration to many, and hopefully, this article has spread her influence in even the furthest corners of this institution. May the spotlight shine on her for eternity.

Truly the goodest girl.

Coughlan, S. (2 July, 2019) Dogs 'prevent stressed students dropping out'. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-48806935