Student Experience: Shannan Hauser

“I began taking Web classes while on break from law school in the hopes of creating websites for family members and as a hobby. Immediately, I knew I had a passion for Web design and could envision not only doing this happily for the rest of my life, but also making a living in the process. 

“The classes offered at Richland were full of technical information, creative inspiration and ideas. The program really got my entrepreneurial wheels turning, as I could easily see a need in the marketplace for the skills I was learning. Despite an excellent standing in law school, I decided not to go back and instead dove head-first into as many Web design classes as I could take. My very first website was a tribute to my granddad’s professional rodeo career, which I worked on as one of my class assignments. As part of another class assignment, I created an online Web portfolio to showcase assignments and sites I had done while in school. 

“After a year and a half of classes, I started a business as a freelance Web designer. I landed my first substantial website job two weeks later for a southern California casino that required a database-driven online sign-up process for their customers. Because I had learned the programming language Cold Fusion, I was able to accommodate everything the casino required. Had I not known Cold Fusion, or at least some other programming language that could link information to and from a database, I would not have landed that high-profile site. I consider Cold Fusion, which was taught to me by Jim Link at Richland, to be my best Web design asset. 

“Since starting my business in 2001, I have continued to take classes, both in-person and online, to keep up with this ever-changing field. With each additional class, even those that I have repeated multiple times, I learn more skills that I am able to use immediately in my business. I feel extremely blessed to have discovered Web design and am privileged to do something I love doing every day.

  “I highly recommend the Multimedia program at Richland. The teachers and courses offered are top-notch and provide students with real-world skills they can be proud of — and even better, skills they can make a living with while allowing for unlimited creativity and intellectual and technical growth.” 

Shannan Hauser took courses in Multimedia Design at Richland for about a year and a half before starting her own website design business. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas and went to law school for a year at Texas Wesleyan University’s School of Law.

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