Keeping The Future in Focus: Higgins Builds His Business During Shutdown
Wilkes Early College senior juggled work and class as he prepared for college.
WILKESBORO-As long as he can remember, Mason Higgins has enjoyed taking pictures. Growing up, the Wilkes Early College student took his camera everywhere. He remembers one specific photo that shows him as a small child at Great Wolf Lodge, holding a blue Kodak camera in his hand. That love of photography soon turned into a profession for Higgins, who started his own business.
The idea isn’t just to document what’s happening. Higgins says he enjoys being able to show people how beautiful they are, inside and out. While some of his classmates struggled to occupy their free time over the last four months, the opposite was true for Mason. In a truly unique senior year, he juggled his own business, a second job at CVS and classes to help secure both his high school diploma and an associate degree.
Higgins, who has taken a few online classes in the past, says that having a full-time online class schedule was the most difficult part of the Covid-related school closures.
“I’m not going to lie, I slacked off at first,” Higgins said. “[I] had to work extra hard to get back to where I was.”
He said it was tough balancing his work obligations while navigating the obstacles of being thrust suddenly into a full-time online learning environment. Also, suddenly not being able to see his friends at school every day was difficult. But he learned lessons from that situation, the chief one being to never give up.
“Persevere,” he said. “Do not let it get to you and stay on top of your work. Do not slack off.”
Inspired by The Early College Staff
During his time at WECHS, Higgins says he was inspired by his instructor, Olivia Van Buskirk. She pushed him, he says, helping Mason realize he was capable of making an impact on the world.
He says that during the first semester of his senior year, Van Buskirk, his Current Events instructor, guided and inspired him to help organize an anti-vaping fair with other Wilkes County students, Project Lazarus and local community leaders. The event was a huge success and something Mason is still very proud of.
For his senior project, Higgins worked with a local photographer as a mentor to take class photos for the 180 students at Traphill Elementary School. He then provided each student with their prints free of charge. Mason also worked with the mentor on wedding, prom and birthday shoots to get more experience. After this, he partnered with Haskel Faw, a senior at West Wilkes High School, and the two of them formed Through the Lens Photography.
Using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, Higgins and Faw continued to shoot birthdays, proms, graduations, engagements and more. Looking ahead, Higgins says they want to own their own studio within five years. But first, he wants to learn how to handle the administrative side. That’s why he’s heading to UNC Pembroke.
Mason plans to get a degree in business administration at the university, in order to help turn his photography operation into a full-time career. Originally, he planned to seek a graphic design degree, but realized his heart was not in it.
For those who want to see Higgins’ photography, you can find it here on Instagram or on Facebook here.
Want to read more of Mason’s story or others like his? NWNC’s 2020 Wilkes County Graduation Yearbook is out now. It’s 72 pages of full color material, all dedicated to the Class of 2020. You can order a copy by emailing martha@nwncmagazine.com.
