{"id":1897,"date":"2017-07-28T16:55:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T16:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=1897"},"modified":"2017-07-28T22:08:04","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T22:08:04","slug":"tstc-alumnus-designing-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=1897","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Alumnus Designing His Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(WACO) \u2013 Nathanael Hamilton of Longview works daily with visual appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hamilton, 28, is a customer service representative working with vending machine inventory at the Airgas Store in Longview. He sets up hardware and software for 11 vending machines filled with protective equipment and welding supplies. Hamilton also does technical support on the machines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCustomer service skills help me to network with people while the hands-on experiences help me enjoy my work,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Hamilton studied a different side of design \u2013 Digital Media Design \u2013 when he was a student at Texas State Technical College in Waco. He graduated in 2012 with the program\u2019s associate degree. Digital Media Design graduates use customer service skills to work alongside clients and companies to analyze and research targeted audiences for graphics, logos, fonts and other aspects of design.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hamilton said his workdays start at his desk, where he checks emails and gathers items for vending machines. Most of his work is done at businesses that have accounts with Airgas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHe\u2019s a critical part of the team,\u201d said Jeffrey White, an Airgas account manager. \u201cRight now he\u2019s our only vending solutions guy in Longview. He fills the machines, troubleshoots them, and if there\u2019s anything wrong, he helps us with those. Our service area goes from Longview to Tyler to the Louisiana border.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hamilton grew up in DeKalb in Bowie County and had what became a lifelong interest in creative mediums, like animation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI have always been fascinated with the idea of creating something that people enjoy, such as video games and films,\u201d he said. \u201cSome people read books for stories, but I watch films and play video games that are story-driven because I am a visual person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hamilton graduated in 2007 from DeKalb High School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen I was in high school, I was in charge of a novel video yearbook that encompassed elementary, middle and high school images set to music,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing able to be responsible for different stages of media translates into my current job by allowing me to multitask.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said in the future he wants to take the skills he has learned at Airgas and design video games and films.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to learn things that are outside your degree plan because you never know when it may come in handy,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cI have also learned basic welding skills, computer science basics and some painting skills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though the associate degree program in Digital Media Design is no longer offered at the Waco campus, it is offered at the Abilene and Harlingen campuses. For more information on the program, go to tstc.edu\/programs\/DigitalMediaDesign.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0064-waco-alumnus-nathanael-hamilton-resized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1898\" src=\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0064-waco-alumnus-nathanael-hamilton-resized-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0064-waco-alumnus-nathanael-hamilton-resized-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0064-waco-alumnus-nathanael-hamilton-resized.jpg 612w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(WACO) \u2013 Nathanael Hamilton of Longview works daily with visual appeal. Hamilton, 28, is a customer service representative working with vending machine inventory at the Airgas Store in Longview. He sets up hardware and software for 11 vending machines filled with protective equipment and welding supplies. Hamilton also does technical support on the machines. \u201cCustomer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1897"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1901,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1897\/revisions\/1901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}