Student Spotlight: Joe Thomas

As we enjoy the Bearcats football success this fall, it's interesting to ponder a decision Electronic Media student Joe Thomas made about the sport. It was the choice to discontinue his career as a wide receiver for the Bearcats.

Being a redshirted freshman can wear a player’s spirits down, but it wasn’t the bench that provoked his decision. It was his career. Joe wanted to focus all of his efforts on his true passion: producing and recording music.

It was an extremely difficult solution, but E-Media’s curriculum overlapped many of the football training sessions and something had to give. Joe looks at the decision with a positive attitude.

“I loved playing football. I liked having Brian Kelly as a coach, too. But I know what I want to do with my life and the classes I take are a priority to get where I want to go.”

The place he wants to go is the music industry. Now in his third year, Joe can be found making beats using programs Logic and Reason. He uses the music he makes for local rap artists to rap over.

One of his most recent projects included producing a demo for local rapper Mel. The demo was the cause of Mel’s record deal with E1 Music.

Besides his side projects, Joe is also an active E-Media student. He was able to study abroad through E-Media’s Munich Summer Curriculum in Germany. His experiences ranged from taking classes to familiarizing himself with German culture to a full-time internship at Norcom Technologies.

The company deals with media consulting and software; Joe’s work included using Adobe Photoshop to design promotional graphics and posters and making instructional videos for Norcom’s software. Norcom even used one of his samples for the music of an instructional video.

After returning from Munich, Joe is even more driven towards his desire to become a producer. And even with the Bearcats’ recent induction into the top 5 of the BCS standings, Joe has no qualms. His heart is devoted to his goals and he cheers on his football team with content attitude.

Written by Andrew Ball, October 2009

Listen to Joe's music.