
Samuel Williams began exploring his career options in high school. The 2020 Center Line High School graduate took graphic design and art classes, was a member of the Robotics Club and attended a Summer Career Academy in Information Technology (IT) at Macomb. Winning the design contest for his high school’s 2020 yearbook, however, made his pathway clear.
“Making ideas into reality out of nothing is what excites me,” says Williams.
A student in Macomb’s Media and Communication Arts 3D Animation program, Williams is looking forward to giving depth to his two-dimensional drawings and watching them come alive in a digital environment. He had hoped for on-campus instruction but says he is adapting well to online classes.
“I never thought I would be attending college on Zoom,” he admits. “However, I really like it. My professors and classmates make it more enjoyable.”
Williams is all too familiar with how the pandemic has disrupted education, but his family has consistently been there with moral support, and then some. When his high school commencement was cancelled because of COVID, his parents and brothers went all out to gift him with a ceremony to remember. They built a stage on their front lawn, which their youngest son helped construct unaware that he would soon walk across it. Rising above the stage was the traditional proscenium arch painted in his high school’s colors of orange and black. Pomp and Circumstance played in the background as Williams accepted his diploma from his father.
“I really appreciated what they did,” Williams told the Macomb Daily, which covered the ceremony in June. “I am very grateful.”
By the time of that DIY-commencement, Williams had decided to enroll in Macomb’s MACA program since South Campus was close to home and he had already visited it on “multiple field trips.” One of those field trips was to attend a Discover Macomb event (which will be held virtually over six sessions this year: March 16 – April 1) with his brother when Williams was junior.
“That really did it for me,” he says.
Similarly, his MACA classes are affirming his career choice.
“I believe media and communication arts is the wave of the future, and it can help in other industries – music production, sound engineering, TV, film, and editing and design,” relates Williams. “Once I graduate with my degree, I plan on pursuing a position producing animated shorts or in game design.”