“As I finished up my high school studies, I originally came to DCCCD in 2005 for Dual Credit classes at Mountain View College. Before signing up for my first class, I never dreamed a college education could be so inexpensive. Also, because of the high GPA requirements of financial aid scholarships, Dual Credit was a great opportunity for me to establish the academic standards I live by today.

“After my high school graduation, my career goals were not clearly defined — but I knew that I was interested in art and computers. Through its rich selection of multimedia classes, Richland College proved to be an invaluable resource as I developed my interests. Of the many Richland professors I have studied under, almost all have been serious about learning and have kept my classes meaningful as well as fun. Much of what I have learned through their expert instruction I am able to use daily.

“Following my ever-growing interest in software development and programming, I made the decision to transfer to the University of Texas at Dallas in fall 2008. DCCCD’s Core Curriculum classes allowed me to cut my tuition costs at UTD considerably. Since I’m strongly interested in digital gaming, I was delighted to learn that Richland was offering the new game design associate degree. I plan to return to Richland to pursue this degree after I finish my software engineering major at UTD, and I'm excited about the opportunities that Richland College continues to offer me.”

Samuel Sawin is preparing to pursue a bachelor’s degree in software engineering at UTD. He is a student assistant in Richland’s Multimedia Learning Center Lab, assisting other students in using multimedia software, creating graphics for internal documents and creating and editing Web pages for multimedia classes. He has taken courses at DCCCD's Richland, Mountain View and Brookhaven colleges.