Get to Know You: Carson Young

Carson Young is the manager of our Academic Technology department. You might have talked to Carson on the phone if you had a problem logging into Canvas, but did you know that he played the accordion? Well now you do! Get to know Carson and many other fun facts out him in our most recent installment of Get to Know You: Staff and Faculty!

What do you do, what are some functions of your job?

I manage the Learning Management System, otherwise known as Canvas. Anywhere from adding content to customer service, and helping the learners access their courses or orientation. Troubleshooting, tech support, More IT-ish, for the software.

How does your position relate to the learners?

Well as far as IT is concerned, we’re kindof the first line of defense, so if they have issues logging in to Canvas, or maybe they can log into Canvas but are having issues logging into their course. We also help them with their Outlook accounts, so they come to us for that. We also help them a lot with testing and proctor testing.

What is your favorite part of your job?

(Sitting at his rolling desk) Sitting at this extremely mobile desk. You know, constant entertainment here. You don’t believe me? It’s true.

Share one piece of advice for the learners

It’s a quote from Gladiator, “What we do in life echoes in eternity.”

Which of the seven values is your favorite?

They’re obviously all good. I like integrity. I think it’s the one that I most need to work on, that’s why. Because you can never have too much integrity. If you say something, you’ve got to do it.

If you could have any animal for a pet, what would it be?

What would be a cool animal to have? I think a cool animal would be a Chupacabra? A Chupacabra, haha. In my last neighborhood I was a scout master, so we sit all the boys down and we’re like “Okay, we need to make a troop flag, throw out some ideas, what do you want it to be?” They came up with a Chupacabra. We made the coolest flag. We went to scout camp and everyone was jealous. (A chupacabra is a mythical creature that resembles a dog with spines).

When you’re not at work, what do you like to do for fun?

Oooooh, movies! I love movies and reading. My favorite movie is Gladiator, the Russell Crowe Gladiator, that’s my favorite movie, followed by Braveheart. My favorite book, you know what book I have read tons of times that I really really like is The Gates of Fire by Stephen Presfield. It’s like gladiator-ish. Few against many, defying odds, I guess.

Tell us one life goal.

To be able to play the piano. I played the accordion. That was back in the day, I could never play it now, but I loved it. And you know my friends would always say “Ugh, we have to go to piano lessons,” right? And I was like “What?” And now I’m like “Dang it, I wish I would have done something like that.”

It’s obvious Carson is a load of fun. We love having him in Software Management!