Six years ago, in 2015, when I walked into the Ed Tech offices on my first day, there was a young man sitting at the first desk. He looked barely over 15-years-old, with a faint stubble shadow on his chin and a broad smile. In the initial team meeting that morning, I was introduced to Justin Guillard, a supplemental who had started at NMC just two weeks before I arrived.  He came to NMC from Interlochen where he was a support desk technician and at the time, he was commuting from Manistee. In his supplemental role, Justin answered help desk tickets, answered support phone calls, and did general tasks in the office.

Fast forward to 2017 and an opportunity presented itself to hire Justin as a full-time employee. It was a no-brainer decision and one that, to this day, I’ve celebrated. Justin has grown to be an invaluable member of our team, not only as frontline support for faculty needs with Moodle, Ensemble, video conversions, captioning, and all things instructional technology but as a team member who was willing to grow through self-directed training, new technology explorations (virtual reality), and new college programs (Esports!). When the rest of us were stumped about a Moodle issue, Justin would figure it out. That is one of the many reasons why we nicknamed him “Boy Wonder.” 

Beginning on September 27th, Systems and LAN Management has the privilege of having Boy Wonder as part of their team. So the good news is that Justin is not leaving NMC, he’s just moving to the Tanis Building. And he’ll keep his Esports role (lab manager and Rocket League coach). But we will miss his love of old cheese-ball movies by Brian Bosworth, his random phrases in Russian on his whiteboard, perfectly timed catchphrases and overall willingness to step up to a challenge when asked.

If you ask me today how old he looks, I can’t say he still looks like a 15-year-old. Maybe 19. Or 20. A youthful appearance is on his side. 🙂 Congrats on the new role with SLM, Justin. 

via GIPHY