Shawn Taylor, '20

Shawn Taylor sits in front of the St. Ignatius statue

Sophomore Shawn Taylor first dipped his toes into information technology several years ago at various programs.

“I have been doing different programs that have to do with IT,” Taylor said.

Last summer, Taylor was involved in a summer program at Ranken Technical College, where he had the opportunity to work with computing systems and software and dive into IT networking.

He recalls being interested in IT even before this.

“I always had a passion with dealing with technology because it’s around us all the time,” Taylor said. “I like playing with technology. It just comes easy to me.”

Taylor’s love of technology led naturally to videography.

“For my classes I'm always making promo videos,” Taylor said. “I just love making videos. I just want to do it all the time.”

While he’s made some videos in his free time, he’s also reached out to some on-campus organizations as well as other students to do videography work.

“I’m in a fraternity, Alpha Delta Gamma, and I am the media chair so I'm always making the videos,” Taylor said. “I did a project with (junior) Nick Davis recently. I made a promo video for his DJing.”

In addition to making videos in his free time and for campus organizations, Taylor also has an opportunity to make videos on campus for his athletics video internship.

“As of now I'm working on the athletics video for our basketball team,” Taylor said. “I get to meet the players, talk to coaches, schedule meetings and walk in on their practices and games and record, which is pretty cool.”

Taylor said he enjoys being able to create these videos, especially because it allows his creativity to come out.

“My favorite thing about it is making stories come alive,” Taylor said. “I get to direct how the story goes. I get to show and illustrate to people how I feel and show that this is my passion.”

Following college, Taylor hopes to find a career that allows him to use his skills to follow his passion.

“Finding a way to tie those in together would be pretty cool. I’m always dealing with technology, so I hope to find something where I can use both,” Taylor said.