Future Programmer Takes His ‘Game’ From BVU to Utah
As esports gains traction at BVU, 2020 graduate Nate Strohmyer seeks his place in the growing field as a programmer.
A position in the field of video game programming represents Nate Strohmyer’s dream job.
The Buena Vista University senior is a step closer to achieving that goal by virtue of his acceptance in the graduate school program at the University of Utah, where Strohmyer plans to earn a master’s degree in entertainment arts engineering.
“It’s a two-year program where I’ll get a lot added to my portfolio in order to get into the gaming industry,” he says.
The 2016 graduate of Sioux Central High School in Sioux Rapids took advantage of BVU’s Stine Endowment funding, which allowed him to be introduced to this rapidly expanding career field through a national conference for game developers in San Francisco he attended.
“The computer science profs care about what happens to every student who comes through their program.”
Nate Strohmyer
“I learned quite a bit about the gaming industry at the conference and how the culture seems to focus on iteration,” Strohmyer says. “It solidified my thought about this being what I wanted to do.”
The computer science major says his BVU professors encouraged him to go the route of graduate school as it heightens his chance of success within the industry. Strohmyer notes he’s following the path of a BVU computer science alum who made his way from BVU to Utah and, ultimately, into the career field as a programmer.
“The computer science profs care about what happens to every student who comes through their program,” says Strohmyer, who participated in BVU’s Association for Computer Machinery organization during his time on campus.
“I’ll miss our professors, and I’ll miss the area in general,” say Strohmyer, who adds that he enjoyed living in the suites at BVU. Simple things like going to dinner with friends and visiting a professor’s office are memories he’ll cherish most from his BVU experience.
“BVU was a good choice for me, definitely,” he says.