Southwestern College Office of Admissions
Tom Jacobs
Name: Hometown:
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Listen to Tom by clicking play!
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About Me: |
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I'm an artist with my core excellence in writing and the skills that contribute to it. While spending most of my life not writing nearly as much as I should, I have used writing's transferable principles to explore journalism, videography, directing, producing, design, graphics, advertising, and, in general, all things digital. I served in Viet Nam straight out of college, and near the end of my tour met a CBS film crew who were looking for some violent war footage. They were understandably hesitant to wander out where the rifle rounds were actually flying, and so had struck out all day. That night the commander of my area agreed to help them out. He radioed for a massive helicopter gun ship strike on a nearby swamp, and the CBS crew filmed it from the comfort of a balcony on one of our barracks. As they sipped martinis on the balcony and planned how to turn this assault on some frogs into a story depicting the desperate state of the war effort, I thought to myself, I can do this. Especially the martini part. That is why my career began in small market television and continued there until one fine month when I was both offered a producer/director's job in a major market, and a teaching job at a small college. I think my choice all came down to this: The major market TV station was flat-out opulent. They even had a few hundred thousand dollars worth of art hanging on their entryway walls. I could see myself there, sipping a martini after work and hob-nobbing with the upwardly bound. And when they told me they only hired the best producers and the best directors, I did some mental preening. And when they told me they also hired only the best looking secretaries, I was gone. Too bad. It would have been a lucrative and career-launching gig. But I had a small daughter. And I loved her. Still do, actually; she and her younger sister, both of whom are married now and have their own children. At the college, I morphed into a teacher of TV and all media, and from there into a professor of computer science, media ethics, desktop publishing etc. I added computer games to the list when I went to work part time for one of my former students. He had hit it big in video games and needed a writer (see what I mean about how handy core abilities can be?) and game concept contributor. Working with him I learned a great deal about the real way computer games come to life, and I use that experience as I work with our video game students. So now I am here, and how did that happen? Simple. A Japanese billionaire bought the college where I was teaching, put some money into it (all small liberal arts colleges need a billionaire or two) and strengthened it. But then when it did not become what was hoped for, he withdrew the support and no amount of mouth-to-mouth by us mere mortals could save it. I was in the job market at what I fussed might be too advanced an age (way the hell past 40) but Southwestern needed someone to design an integrated Communication/Computer Science curriculum, and I had done that successfully before, so they hired me to design it and teach part of it. The rest is taught by some excellent faculty whom I hope you have or will soon meet. And speaking of excellent, the college (read President, Dean and other administrators) has been a consistent source of both moral and financial support, without which a program such as the one here cannot exist. As for how it has turned out, so far so good. The programs have been in place for 4 years now, and from a beginning enrollment of 13, we have progressed to 70 or so. The target max enrollment is about 100. Come take a look at us. We have stepped up in every area and there is an energy here, an excitement in exploration and innovation that I think you'll want to be a part of. |
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