Will Blackmon is a junior working towards a bachelor of science while majoring in electrical engineering at West Texas A&M University. Blackmon is from Hereford and works hard to supply others with affordable and high-quality products.
Blackmon is pursuing a career to produce his own company and materials.
“I’m hoping that I can just follow the normal engineer route where it’s like you get your fundamentals of engineering license and you get a professional engineering license, which is where, you can, like, sign off on stuff and make your own designs and, like, sell that to companies,” Blackmon said. “So, I’m hoping I can make an engineering firm of some kind; I’m not too sure what route I want to go, but yeah, I need at least four years of experience to do that.”
Researching different careers drew Blackmon to engineering.
“I didn’t know what engineering was, and none of my family knew what engineering was either, so I was like in seventh grade, and I was looking up careers online, and I saw engineering,” Blackmon said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, they get paid a lot of money, and they get to do what I love doing, which is, like, working with computers,’ so I knew I wanted to do computer engineering. Throughout high school, I switched a couple of times between wanting to be a music major and being a pilot. Then I came to WT wanting to be a music major, and I realized after my NSO that I wanted to be an engineer, so then I switched and haven’t looked back.”
Blackmon knew which engineering field to pursue since he enjoyed technology and entrepreneurship.
“I chose electrical engineering because it’s the closest to computer engineering that I could find,” Blackmon said. “WT is also one of the only places that actually offers just electrical as an option. Most universities have electrical engineering combined with something else like electrical software. I believe that if I do end up making an engineering firm, which I’m hoping is in the hardware field, with computers and stuff, I’m hoping I can make affordable products that are also high quality. I’m definitely trying to make high-quality products that aren’t overpriced like most things are today.”
One of Blackmon’s favorite things about being an electrical engineering major is the labs.
“My favorite thing about my major is the stuff we get to work with,” Blackmon said. “We have a lot of theory classes, but the ones that are labs let us do stuff that is really cool.”
Blackmon was drawn to WT from coming to campus throughout his life and to the fine arts department.
“I came to WT because we have a really good music program,” Blackmon said. “I had come to WT many times because Hereford did a lot of stuff with band camp here. After I switched to engineering, I looked at transferring to a university with computer engineering, and I was going to transfer, but WT is close to home, and I was going to have to restart because none of my credits would have transferred. I’ve kind of thought about doing graduate school after I graduate from WT, but I’ve decided that I would only go to graduate school if the company that I work for, or whoever I decide to work for, will pay for me to go.”
Since coming to WT, Blackmon has been given many diverse opportunities.
“WT has actually given me a lot of opportunities, and I’m really glad that I decided to stay because I don’t think I would’ve gotten them anywhere else,” Blackmon said. “I got to study abroad for about four to five months in Ireland, where it was a great academic experience; I got to see a lot of stuff, travel every weekend, and have fun. I also just got a research job where I’ll be researching cyclic voltammetry with lithium-ion batteries.”
A couple of Blackmon’s favorite things about WT are the connections made with professors and being part of a campus organization.
“My favorite thing about WT is the fact that we can talk to our professors, staff and faculty about anything and be friends with them,” Blackmon said. “All of them know me by name, and I can walk around campus with them being like, ‘What’s up, Will,’ it’s just great that they make relationships with every student. I also like being part of F1RSTGEN because the people in it are amazing and have shown me a community where I’ve made friendships.”
Around campus, Blackmon is involved in several different organizations.
“I’m involved in a few things around campus,” Blackmon said. “Currently, I’m the community service officer for F1RSTGEN, so I get people involved in community service events. I’m also part of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, a member of the Student Judicial Board as an associate justice, a Rogers LEAD scholar, a student research assistant and a campus tour guide.”
Aside from academics, Blackmon enjoys hanging out with friends, watching films and playing jackbox.
Blackmon believes you should dive into whatever you need to complete because there are things to gain from it.
“Don’t avoid work, like, the magic is in the work you’re avoiding,” Blackmon said. “If you’re avoiding it, nothing is going to get better, so just do that work.”
