Mentoring future faculty members is one of the most rewarding aspects of Scott Shaw’s work as program chair of the Game Design and Development and Video and Motion Graphics degrees and the Maker certificate in WilmU’s College of Technology.
“Students have a unique perspective because they have gone through the program and know how everything fits together,” he says.
Consider, for example, Daulton Nelson. He informally helped to educate other students in his classes as an undergrad. “He’s a natural problem solver,” Shaw says. “Daulton would solve problems in class and then would make a video explaining how he found the solution to share with other students.”
When he graduated, Nelson was chosen to speak at the commencement ceremonies for the Colleges of Technology and Education in January 2019. He landed a job with a company in New Jersey and launched his career in game design.
After Nelson was laid off, Shaw suggested he return to WilmU and pursue his gift for teaching. That conversation set Nelson on a different career path. He trained to teach online, and is now an adjunct instructor for WilmU’s introductory-level classes in game engines and scripting for game engines.
“Daulton is smart, patient and has a helpful spirit, attributes that are ideal in educators,” says Shaw.