TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND WHY YOU DECIDED TO BECOME A TAGA STUDENT AMBASSADOR.
I’m a senior graphic communications major at Clemson University. l love web development, flexography, and graphic design. I became an ambassador to increase my social media presence and show what I’ve been working on.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE PART OF YOUR ACADEMIC CAREER SO FAR?
My favorite part of my academic career so far has been working as a teaching assistant for the Intro to Web Development class. It’s satisfying helping my fellow students learn about what I love and it helps me become better at it too.
WHAT SKILLS HAVE YOU GAINED FROM BEING A TAGA STUDENT MEMBER?
I’ve gained a lot of teamwork skills. It takes a serious amount of delegation and compromise to make a journal come to life, so learning to work with others and bounce off each other’s ideas has been an important skill that I’ll be sure to use in my career down the road.
WHAT’S A TYPICAL DAY LIKE AT YOUR SCHOOL AND WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN CLASS, WHAT CAN WE FIND YOU DOING?
When I’m not in class, I’m usually at my house studying with my roommates. When I’m not studying, I’m doing freelance graphic and website design to make some extra spending money. If I can get all my work done, I love fishing and going for runs around Clemson.
HOW HAS BEING A TAGA STUDENT MEMBER SHAPED WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON?
TAGA has made me much more open to collaboration and made me realize that many heads can come together to make something great.
WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT?
I’m passionate about web design. It found me later in my academic career at Clemson, but I’ve started doing all I can with it—from classes to freelance design to development. It’s a great combination of my inner engineer and designer, because you have to design to make the site look visually appealing, but more importantly, it has to be simple and straightforward for the user.
WHAT MAKES YOUR TAGA STUDENT CHAPTER AND ITS MEMBERS UNIQUE?
Every member of the Clemson chapter has a different personality that comes together to make a fun and sometimes dysfunctional group. Our meetings can sometimes get off track, but we have fun and always come together and get our work done.
WE’RE HEADED TO OKLAHOMA CITY FOR THE 2020 TAGA ANNUAL TECHNICAL CONFERENCE! WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE BEING A STUDENT ATTENDEE IN PAST YEARS?
Last year was my first conference and it was amazing! So many incredible industry professionals are there to share their knowledge, so it’s certainly a place where you can go to get some interesting insight as to what’s going on in the industry and where it’s headed. You get to meet a ton of great people—students and professionals—and learn some invaluable information.
LASTLY, IF YOU COULD BE A SUPERHERO, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
If I could be a superhero, it would be Spider-Man. I always looked up to him growing up and was inspired that any normal kid could step up and do such great things (even though the radioactive spider bite surely helped with that). Plus, who doesn’t want to shoot webs from their wrists?