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A.S. in Computer Programming and Analysis

Terry Ellison

When Terry Ellison, 25, was five years old, he played Super Mario Brothers for the first time. His young mind was blown, and the trajectory of his life altered.

“I became passionate about gaming,” Ellison said. “And sometime around middle school, I realized that I could actually make a career out of video gaming and create something that would bring to others the same joy it brought to me.”

When he started taking classes at St. Petersburg College in 2016, it was in an introductory Python class taught by professor Adrian Tillman that Ellison realized that dream could be a reality for him.

“Playing games as a kid, it seemed like such a mystery, how to make a computer game do all those things,” he said. “Professor Tillman showed me it just wasn’t a complicated as it seems, and I found that I was just kind of a natural at programming.”

Ellison earned his Associate in Science Degree from St. Petersburg College in Computer Programming and Analysis in December of 2018. He landed his dream job as a contractor on Microsoft's X-Box Game Development team

“I had been working in the industry since I graduated, but Professor Tillman connected me with this opportunity to work for Microsoft.”

In that job, Ellison tested new games, both by writing programs that play them, and sometimes manually playing the games himself. So, he literally got to play video games for a living. He credits not only his own hard work but also the college, his professors, and his fellow students for helping him achieve his dream.

“The tutors and Learning Resource Center were always there for me whenever I had an assignment I couldn’t figure out,” he said. “The faculty felt like family to me, and they really encouraged their students to work together and meet up outside of class to get to know each other. That helped us create a network in the industry.”

Currently, Ellison works as a Tools Software Engineer for EA Sports.