This week, meet Alexander Raught, a sophomore graphic design major at Elizabethtown College.
Raught chose his major due to his love for art, though he has had some difficulty finding the free time for personal projects lately.
“I wanted to be an animator,” he said. However, he wasn’t sure whether it would work out. “[But] I really like digital art, especially texturing in games and such, so I figured graphic design would be good.”
While he’s unsure about which exact path he plans to take after he graduates, he has been considering game design as an option.
Raught initially decided to come to Etown for the campus community and the graphic design program.
“I liked being on campus when I came, and from what I read, the graphic design major seemed pretty solid,” he said.
Throughout the past year and a half, he explained that he’s had a generally great experience with Etown as a whole.
“I love most people here and have a lot of friends,” Raught said. “It’s super comfy.”
With his friends on campus, Raught enjoys playing Dungeons & Dragons. His favorite class to play is bard, especially with the College of Lore subclass, since, according to him, it has many different party functionalities and roleplay opportunities without much limitation.
Raught spends other portions of his free time playing video games. He is also a member of the Etown Gamers’ Guild club, though he’s not particularly active in it at the moment.
“I mostly play roguelikes and roguelites and a few other select games like Minecraft,” he said. “I play a lot of The Binding of Isaac. It has really good replay value and is just really fun. Also, Nintendo.”
Raught also enjoys modding his games, especially The Binding of Isaac, and he works on custom textures and sound design for Minecraft.
Another of Raught’s hobbies is writing, and recently, Raught decided to add on a minor in creative writing, which he plans to make official at the start of next semester.
Despite his general contentment with his own department, Raught expressed some struggles with the additional core classes students are required to take. According to him, he had a somewhat difficult time with his Spanish language class last semester and is having an equally rough time in a probability and statistics course this semester.
Raught also mentioned that he’s had “a few difficulties with homework management.” While he hasn’t had any issues with the assignments themselves, they can take a significant amount of time to complete, leaving little room for other things.
Additionally, Raught has become unnerved by the college’s decision to cut the fine arts department, worrying that the graphic design major may be the next to go if more programs are intended to be removed in the future.
Even so, Raught has enjoyed his time at Etown, especially connecting with his peers.
“I just like being a friendly, open person,” he said. “I’m always down to chat with basically anyone, especially if it’s [about] one of those interests I said.”
