Meet Terry Ellison

When Terry Ellison, 25, was 5 years old, he played Super Mario Bros. for the first time. His young mind was blown, and the trajectory of his life altered.

“I became passionate about gaming,” Ellison said. “And sometime around middle school, I realized that I could actually make a career out of video gaming and create something that would bring others the same joy it brought me.”

Ellison earned his Associate in Science degree from St. Petersburg College in Computer Programming and Analysis in December 2018. He landed his dream job as a contractor on Microsoft's X-Box Game Development team.

In that job, Ellison tested new games, both by writing programs that play them, and sometimes manually playing the games himself. So, he literally got to play video games for a living. He credits not only his own hard work but also the college, his professors, and his fellow students for helping him achieve his dream.

“The faculty felt like family to me, and they really encouraged their students to work together and meet up outside of class to get to know each other,” Ellison said. “That helped us create a network in the industry.”