Mark Hall	On April 18, 2001 Mark Hall graduated from the Electronics Engineering Technology program at the ITT Technical Institute in St. Rose, LA. Before he even completed his final classes, he interviewed with the company of his choice and was hired. His mother couldn’t be happier.
	“Mark went to college right out of high school. He ended up attending a total of four universities in the state. He wasn’t a bad student he just wasn’t interested. His roommate would have to wake him for class. He was bored. That’s when I saw an ITT Tech commercial. Basically, I didn’t believe it, but I wanted to find out more for Mark. I called my nephew in Dallas and asked him to do some research on ITT Tech. He called me back and told me nothing but good stuff. Mark and I went to tour the campus,” Mrs. Effie Hall, Mark’s mother, explains. “We toured the campus and fell in love. Mark was looking at the computers and was actually rubbing the walls. It was so different from everywhere we had toured before. They let him sit down and they told him a little bit about what the classes were going to be like. They had other people going through the school, but they still took the time to answer our questions. To me that’s very important,” tells Mrs. Hall. “I guess it was important to Mark, too, because on the way home he said, ‘that’s it…I’m going to give it a try.’ He registered for classes and in the first two weeks we saw a 360-degree turn around in Mark. We didn’t have to wake him for class anymore, “Mrs. Hall beams. “It was like that for the whole two years. Thanks to ITT Tech, he goes to work the same way that he went to school, with gusto,” says Mrs. Hall.
	Mark’s brother, Corey, tells us a little more about the graduate. “I don’t know if he really noticed it, but he always seemed to be into electronics. We were all very optimistic about how ITT Tech was going to be, and it turned out to be really good. I like the hands on approach. He seemed to excel with the smaller classroom sizes. I pretty much like the way they helped him find a job. You don’t find that too often. I graduated from here in the city and I feel like I got a good education, but once I graduated I was out there on my own. I really had to find something for myself.”
	Mark’s fiancée, Lyzonda, tells us about Mark. “For him, going to ITT Tech was never to please me, his parents or anyone else. It was his sole decision and he followed through with it. That makes me feel good to know that this is something that with no doubt I know he wanted. It makes me feel good and proud to know that he accomplished it and he finished.”
	Let’s hear from Mark! “Well, to me at the four year universities I felt like I was just a number. At ITT Tech there was more pushing you. If a teacher saw where your grades were slipping, then she would come and talk to you. You knew somebody was watching you, not in an uncomfortable way, but somebody supportive and wanting to take care of you,” Mark explains. “From the start, you know your hours, you know your teachers, you know what subject you are going to take. You know from the start that you’re not taking classes that you will not necessarily use in your field.” “I think it was instilled early on from my family to have a good education. Through a good education come a lot of things that you would want. It makes it easier to have more. Bestow that foundation of getting a good education. It comes with a good job, a well paying career, and so from those steps you can fulfill your goals, whatever they may be,” advises Mark. For more information about the Computer and Electronics Engineering Technology program, click here. For more information about the St. Rose, LA campus, click here.