JT Hood has had an interest in photography ever since he received a camera from his mom in seventh grade. His passion grew with every photograph he took, each trial and error attempt and every minute spent understanding the camera’s settings. He says he has a love for shooting nature and plants, and when he was young he tried to replicate other styles–messing with the camera until he understood how to get the shot he wanted.

Before joining Education At Work (EAW) as a freshman JT enrolled at Northern Kentucky University and worked in the restaurant industry to help pay his way through college. He wanted something more out of a job, something that would further his career and look better on his resume.

His roommate mentioned he had been working at Education At Work and introduced him to what EAW could provide. He met Elizabeth Woosley, EAW Program Manager and soon after he began working with a leading financial service company on behalf of EAW. JT worked at EAW for two and a half years compiling data reports, KPIs, scorecards and other metrics when he received an opportunity to build his resume further as a digital reporter and he transferred into the EAW marketing department.

He’s been a digital reporter since October 2018 generating content for our social media platforms.  He says he loves working with other students and hearing their stories, “I like to tell their experiences at EAW and represent those experiences in a good light.”

He’s interviewed students for short, 30-second videos. Something that, compared to his photography experience, is relatively new for him. He became interested in video in college and says he’s become better through experience. He’s taken videography classes at Northern Kentucky University (his minor is electronic media broadcasting). JT explains his newfound love for videography, “It‘s fun and [I] can do a lot more with it–you can tell more of a story than you can with photos.”

JT is a hard worker and takes pride in his projects, in fact, he recently completed a video project and after editing the video he decided to re-shoot because he wanted to make it better with a bigger focus on the EAW mission.

He says he’s learned how to meet deadlines and how to deal with things coming up at the last second, a skill he picked up during his first two years at EAW and something he still uses today.

JT’s dreams are to be a nature photographer, working on films or working in a video department.

JT is on track to graduate in December 2019. Until then, we are thrilled to have him on the marketing team. Everyone at Education At Work wishes him the best in his further endeavors.