Robert Myers is no exception. He is currently employed as an
administrator / instructor at the NC School of Communication Arts in
Raleigh. He teaches courses in Conceptual Design for Storyboarding,
Business of Accomplishment for rising seniors, and Digital Painting and
Editing in sophisticated venues for web designers, animators, and
students using Adobe Photoshop. His other duties include student
academic advisor and curriculum development. But his career started more
than 20 years ago at Halifax Community College.
Myers traveled to Weldon and Halifax Community College in 1978 from
Raleigh, in search of a "good commercial art and advertising design
program……..People in the field recommended HCC as the best two-year
program available anywhere at the time," Myers said.
He completed the HCC associate in arts degree program and went
straight to work at W R Grace - directly across the highway from the
college campus. He worked there for four years as a pattern and model
designer, building 3-dimensional models for the plastic cases the
company produced.
He simultaneously opened his own business – Spectra Design – and
solicited design work as a freelance graphic artist in a home office.
Following the stint in Weldon, Myers successfully transferred all of his
HCC coursework and credits to East Carolina
University
and earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts (BFA) in Art Education. He
went to work teaching art (K – 12) in Edgecombe County. Through a
North Carolina Principal Fellows scholarship, the determined student
became an intern at ECU and ultimately earned the MSA degree in
administration and supervision, making him eligible to work as an
assistant principal at Southern Wayne High School in Goldsboro. He has
since relocated to Raleigh to assume his present position at the NC
School of Communication Arts.
Myers recently visited his "old stomping grounds" at
Halifax Community College and stopped by the Advertising and Graphic
Design department to visit the instructor, Gloria Tysinger, and to
exchange ideas and "trade secrets."
It is always a bonus to have former students to come back to their
Alma Mater, particularly when they can be as valuable a role model to
students as Robert Myers is. The HCC "success story" winked as
he left the classroom and the reminiscences of his life as a graphic
artist. He told the grateful audience, "It all started here."
