Greg Koch has been accepted to attend Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY as a graduate student in their Information Technology (IT) program and I got to talk to him about this move. If you are related to the Technical Communication (TC) field and you haven’t met Greg then you should take the time and do so before he moves on.

He is heavily involved in the TC department at New Mexico Tech especially Trinitite, the local chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). This is a valuable resource to any student in TC and with the energy and effort that Greg puts forth it is even more valuable. In fact Greg and Roger Renteria will be representing NMT at the 2009 STC Technical Communication Summit by presenting “The Benefits and Pitfalls of Social Networking Sites.”

You might wonder how Greg got started as a TC major and why he is going to study IT in grad school; he was originally an IT major. As part of his freshmen class load he took an English class and at the same time took a job with in the TC Lab since he needed the work. In the English class, he was scouted by the professor and eventually, as he put it, “I was cornered in the TC lab by three professors” and convinced of the benefits of obtaining a TC major or minor. It is a truly interesting story and if you ask he may tell it again before he leaves. He did comment, “This move was for the best.” He told me that he didn’t know what TC was and when he finally understood what it was he said, “You can get a degree in this?”

 This major seems to suit Greg, he told me “I had always put a lot of pride and effort in the way my projects looked. I’d spend a lot time working in Microsoft Word until it looked just right.” He had no idea he could study and specialize in all forms of communication and he thought of this new major as a “newfound love.” I have never seen someone get so excited about styles in Microsoft Word, but then again I wouldn’t know about them if it was not for Greg and Roger.

I asked him what he wanted to do after graduating. ”I want to be upper-middle to higher-level management of a large company’s network and website.” Apparently styles is not the only subject that gets Greg’s blood moving at high speed, just ask him about networking. This job seems to be just the right fit for; his IT background will let him understand what is going on and his TC background will help while writing documentation, internal or for the public, and managing websites.

As a final side note, Greg already feels he has a good background in websites since he was involved in the creation of the TC web site and is currently working on the NMT website redesign. Both of which are, as he calls it “real-world experiences” that he received through the NMT TC department.

I am sure I am not the only one in the TC department that wishes Greg all the best and will miss him when he has left.