{"id":2789,"date":"2020-04-28T17:48:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T22:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/?p=2789"},"modified":"2020-05-05T14:58:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T19:58:14","slug":"sitc-students-receive-university-scholar-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/sitc-students-receive-university-scholar-award\/","title":{"rendered":"SITC Students Receive University Scholar Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year, a group of select students is recognized during graduation ceremonies for their academic excellence and good scholarship throughout their college career. The University Scholar Award is given to students who have maintained a GPA of 3.5 or higher, earned 90 hours towards their degree, and have pursued knowledge in their research field. All the recipients of this award are nominated as outstanding students by their department\u2019s faculty and are evaluated by a separate committee. This year, two SITC students were selected to receive this award: Matthew Middlebrook (DET) and John Marsden (CS).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Matthew Middlebrook<\/p><\/div>\n

Matthew Middlebrook is a senior Digital Entertainment Technology major from McKinney, TX. Matthew chose ACU because he wished to attend a Christ-centered university that had a game design program, and since then has pursued his passion for technology. Besides being part of the DET Club, Matthew started working at Wildcat Software last spring where he was able to discover the career path he wanted to take.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I\u2019ve had a ton of learning and personal development opportunities at ACU. I learned how to create a mobile game with a team. Dr. Ray Pettit gave me the opportunity to become a tutor for his Scripting class. I learned from my peers about 3D modeling through DET Club. I led the 3D re-creation of the Mabee Business Building as a 3D Virtualization Assistant. I was a part of and helped as a co-cinematographer for the first ever 3D animated film at Film Fest in 2019,\u201d Middlebrook said.<\/p>\n

Even though his student organization involvement and professional development was a huge part of his college experience, he was also spiritually fulfilled by the diverse array of chapels that SITC hosts and enjoyed the department game nights and building a community with his professors and peers, \u201cEven if they destroy you at Mario Kart.\u201d Matthew is very grateful for the relationships he built with his professors and says, \u201cSITC has helped me get a bunch of wonderful opportunities for learning and professional development. If it wasn\u2019t for Dr. Burton and Professor Tanner, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do as much as I have done throughout my time at ACU.\u201d After the last USAA visit on campus, Matthew applied for a job as a Software Developer at their Plano office and hopes to start working in June.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A few words about Matthew from his professors at SITC:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/em>Matthew Middlebrook exemplifies everything a DET major should hope to be. He is very detail-oriented, gives maximum effort on every task, and strives to understand the material at a deeper level than we ever have time to get to in our courses. He is highly motivated and exceptionally curious, which are attributes that are essential to the digital entertainment technology field and will help him to excel in any career path. I will truly miss Matthew when he graduates, as I have come to rely not only on his exceptional academics but also on his personality and presence in my courses. I look forward to witnessing all of his future successes!\u201d – Professor Rich Tanner<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that Matthew Middlebrook has truly exemplified the student scholar that we are seeking to develop at ACU and specifically the skills needed to succeed as a SITC graduate.\u201d – Dr. Brian Burton<\/span><\/p>\n

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John Marsden<\/p><\/div>\n

John Marsden is a senior Computer Science and Mathematics major from Abilene, TX. He chose ACU for the computer science program that would prepare him to pursue a career in software development after graduation. John is currently the Vice-Chairman for ACU\u2019s Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction (SIGCHI), whose paper was selected for the CHI International Conference in Hawaii this spring. Along with SIGCHI, John has been involved in many different student organizations and activities on campus like the NEXT Lab and Atom Smashers. During his sophomore year, John traveled to Chicago to participate in physics research at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. His junior year, he completed an internship at Faithlife as a result of SITC\u2019s connection with this software development company.<\/p>\n

One of John\u2019s favorite memories includes the monthly game nights hosted by SITC enjoying the company of his peers. But, he also remembers his programming classes and how these introduced him to the world of programming and prepared him for the real world of software development. John said, \u201cThey helped introduce me to the theoretical underpinnings of Computer Science. They taught me how to think and problem-solve in my chosen profession. This, more than anything, has helped prepare me for the world I\u2019m about to go into.\u201d He credits some of his academic success to his favorite professor, Dr. John Homer. \u201cThe way that he cares for his students is obvious in the work that he puts in for every single one. He has put in a large amount of time into making his classes understandable and if someone doesn\u2019t understand something he tries to take time out to meet with them and explain.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what his most impactful moment at ACU had been, Marsden said, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to point to a single moment. Rather, these past 4 years have taught me a lot about myself. I hadn\u2019t ever thought I wanted to be a professor but after these past 4 years, I want to pursue a career teaching students computer science and doing research. That decision took the better part of 2 years to really decide and it was many moments all combined that helped me make that decision. So, no single impactful moment but a single impactful experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Marsden is graduating in May of 2020 and will head to North Carolina State University to pursue his Ph.D. in Computer Science and continue to do research in his field.<\/p>\n

A few words about John from his professors at SITC:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Marsden, as an undergrad, has been able to achieve what most folks only start to achieve as graduate students. He’s actively engaged in research and publication.\u201d – Brent Reeves<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJohn is an amazing student, intellectually curious, and authentically real with everyone he meets. He can\u2019t help but help others and graciously shares the knowledge he has. I consider myself lucky to have been John\u2019s professor and even more so to be his friend.\u201d – James Prather<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year, a group of select students is recognized during graduation ceremonies for their academic excellence and good scholarship throughout their college career. The University Scholar Award is given to students who have maintained a GPA of 3.5 or higher, earned 90 hours towards their degree, and have pursued knowledge in their research field. All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3057,2750,74698,814,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-computer-science","category-current-students","category-digital-entertainment-technology","category-faculty","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2789"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/sitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}