Why I am at MATC

Hi all, my name is Datavion McDowell. Long before I enrolled to be a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), pursing my degree in IT Networking, I knew a career in technology was the best fit for me. As a child I was fascinated by all things technology, from a simple SD card to complex computer systems. When I was about 12 years old my mother bought a PC for the house, I was ecstatic! Once I came home from school and finished my homework, that PC became mine. I would go through all the settings in the operating systems trying to configure things and to see how things worked. My mother eventually told me that I could no longer stay inside all day fiddling with the computer because I needed to let others use it more often. Then one day when I was playing board games in the basement with my brothers, I stumbled upon a large and heavy cardboard box. I opened it to see what was inside and to my utter surprise, it was a PC with all the necessary components! I immediately began to jump frantically of excitement, I picked up the box and headed to my room. As I was taking the PC out of the box my mother approached me and told me that I couldn't have it in my room, my excitement was instantly diminished. I had to keep it in the basement, where I spent countless amounts of hours playing with my new toy.

About the time I became a freshman in high school I was essentially the "tech guru" of my family. Everyone came to me about their tech related problems, I found myself troubleshooting all kinds of electronic devices including smart phones, computers, TV's, digital cameras and so on. I absolutely loved helping being the go to guy. In March of 2015, I decided to go to Ottumwa Job Corps Center (an education and vocational training program) in Iowa. They offered training in material handling, medical office support, certified nursing assistant, and network cable installation. Being the tech enthused individual I am, I decided to go for network cable installation. I was trained to have the ability and knowledge to put together a fully working twisted par cable as well as a fiber optic cable, I also learned about other things related to network cabling. I was extremely passionate about my training, thus I took it very seriously. Just about everything in my training came natural to me, no concept or task was difficult for me to understand or do. The training was split into two different sections, copper and fiber optics. It took me approximately 1 month to finish copper, as I was also doing high school, but it took me only 6 days to finish the entire fiber optics section. I became the fastest completer of the trade, and was held at a higher standard than others in the class. I also helped other students in the class that were having a hard time with the content.

Since then I've gone to another Job Corps Center located in Milwaukee, WI. There I took there manufacturing trade and I did not like it at all. I completed that program at the end of June of 2017. It was then that I decided that I wanted to go to Milwaukee Area Technical College, pursing my degree and IT networking. I whole hardheartedly feel like I'm meant to be in the IT field, it's something that I love and am completely passionate about. I expect to graduate from MATC within a few years or less and I'm planning to transfer to a university get my bachelors in IT.