Meet AIU Students and Alumni

Meet Allyn Alford
Bachelor of Information Technology

Making the Right Choices

When Allyn Alford says he definitely made the right choice in going to college and getting his degree, there’s no reason to doubt him. He’s just 22 and already landed a position as a Web Development Engineer at a huge online retailer. Not bad for a kid who dropped out of high school, right?

“High school just wasn’t doing it for me, and I had some circumstances come up that made me drop out. I got a job in shipping at this company and realized that I’d need a degree if I wanted to do anything more. The first step was to get my GED.”

AIU South Florida wasn’t the first school Allyn tried, though. He started out at a tech school but quickly realized it wasn’t the place for him. “The school wasn’t what it said it was at all. In my opinion, it wasn’t organized. It wasn’t enough hands-on, and they didn’t have the necessary equipment or the ability to motivate students to study Information Technology. It was pretty much the exact opposite of AIU.”

Allyn isn’t graduating from AIU South Florida with his Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology until September 2006, but it has already led him to an IT position. “One day I was sitting around work studying-this is when I was still in shipping-and the president of the company saw me and saw that I was studying IT. He talked to the IT manager and suggested I join the IT department. It was a huge promotion.”

Now an integral part of the IT department-he’s actually second in charge-Allyn does everything needed to keep a retail website that generates $1.5 million in sales per year and receives over 1 million hits a day up and running. “It’s a constant challenge. 'Huge’ isn’t even the word.”

“I wouldn’t have this job if I wasn’t headed toward my degree, and I wouldn’t be able to do as good of a job at it if I wasn’t learning at school.and I’m not even finished with school yet.”

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