WEST LIBERTY, W. Va. – On January 29th, 2025, we sat down with Jared Thompson, Assistant Professor for Digital Media Design, to talk to him about being a professor, owning a small business, and the favorite thing he’s baked.
Q: What is your position and job at West Liberty?
A: My current position or title is Assistant Professor for Digital Media Design.
Q: What did you do before West Liberty? Did you always want to be a professor? If not, what else were you thinking of doing?
A: When I started college at Ohio University Eastern as a freshman, I was an Education major, and I quickly realized that little kids frightened me. The year prior I had just started working with media, and found I really liked it, so I decided to go that route. Then I transferred to West Liberty University my sophomore year, and that was one of the best decisions I’ve made. After I graduated, I started working at West Liberty for their TV station, where I started at a couple of capacities like producing and engineering. Then, an opportunity opened for me to move into the marketing side on campus, where I did that for about 5 and a half years. Whenever a position opened for teaching, I knew that was what I wanted to do. I was adjunct teaching for like ten years or better prior. So, I started teaching college students as a staff member here and absolutely loved the aspect of that from the first class, and now here I am.
Q: And with you being an alum, how has the transition from student to faculty felt?
A: I got to learn a lot of the administrative staff very well from working at the TV station. So, I thought I fit in well just with the university at that point. But, once I graduated and became a staff member, it took about 8 years before people realized that I graduated. I think having that experience with the university’s policies and culture made moving into this role a lot easier, and I didn’t have to have that much of a learning curve as a faculty member who was from a completely different institution. But, I love the culture and the students, and I always say that West Liberty University has the students that I want to work with.
Q: Since you were one of the first students to graduate from the Digital Media Design program, how has it felt to see the program grow and what do you want to see from it for the future?
A: It is definitely humbling being one of the first students to graduate Digital Media Design. There’s been some evolution to the program since that point, and my goal is just to continue to see it grow, to see it get better, and to help meet the needs of the workforce in our area. I’m always trying to review the curriculum we have and talk to the alums that are working right now to ask what they wish they knew when they were in the program. I want to take that, apply it, and try to come up with better options for our students. And so, several of the classes we have now are all based on suggestions from previous students.
Q: How did you start doing the promotions for WLU? And with some of the promotions like ‘What’s Up, West Lib?’ or ‘Nothing but the FACs,’ where did you come up with those ideas?
A: A lot of the creative campaigns that we produced when I was working in the Marketing Department either came from the depths of my brain or my bosses at the time. My boss, Tammi, and I would work together coming up with stuff, or she would be like “I have this random idea for a show that is like a man on the street type of thing, and I think we should call it like ‘What’s Up, Hilltoppers?,’ which we then blended into “What’s Up, West Lib?” Almost every single campaign that we did all happened organically, and it turned out to be great. And I think a lot of the great stuff that gets produced in the creative world is very organic.
Q: And how do you feel now that “What’s Up West Lib?” produced by a student?
A: I am absolutely thrilled that “What’s Up, West Lib?” is student-produced now. When I was in that role, I always wanted students to work under me, and seeing that there’s a student producing it now and keeping it alive really warms my heart.
Q: You also operate a small business called Thompson Video. How did that start, and how do you juggle a small business and teaching?
A: I started in college. I had a mentor that I worked with on several things, and he had me help him shoot pictures at weddings. And it doesn’t sound like it would be much fun, but I enjoyed it. It was a creative avenue for me, and I realized that I could actually make a little bit of money from it. I did that kind of lowkey for a couple years, and as I started making a nice amount of money from it, I knew it was time to go ahead and become a business and do it legally. So, I created my small business, called Thompson Video. I still have it today, but it’s kind of changed a little bit as I now merged photography and video. I don’t do as much with it as I used to, but at one point, it was lucrative enough that it was funding a lot of my life. Now, I’ve kind of decided I want to focus more of my efforts and energy on my teaching. I try to do some creative projects every now and then outside of West Liberty, but my goal and energy right is really focused on being here. And some advice that I always try to give to my students: you want to find that balance of your time and where you focus all your energy. So, while you’re young, do a lot when you have the energy for it, because that will change.
Q: You are also involved in the campus’ Photography Club. How has working with other students that are interested in photography been?
A: We used to have a Photography Club, and it kind of dissolved prior to me stepping into a full-time faculty position. I talked to some students, and they thought it would be great to have, so we worked to get it started. It was one of those things where I want to offer as many things to students as I can, and that would be a straightforward way to do that. Several students were interested, and we had our initial kick off at the Organization Fair last fall. Around seventy people signed up. The need was there, and people were excited and kept the momentum going. I’m excited to see people excited about something I’m passionate about. And even if it’s not to the same degree, people are still learning and have this as an opportunity instead of a lecture class. I think the value of a college education is what you learn outside of the classroom and that can’t be replaced with anything else.
Q: You are also known to be a great baker. What is your favorite baked good you’ve made?
A: My absolute favorite thing that I’ve made would probably be the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.
