Nicolas Wong is attending Illinois State to study graphic design, a skill that he already uses for his hobbies outside of the classroom. Wong is an avid League of Legends player, streaming his contests on Twitch and creating viral content about the game franchise on TikTok. He creates all of the graphics for his own streams and takes commissions from other Twitch streamers who want their streams to look top-notch.
“I like to create content for whatever is trending, throw it out there, and see what happens next,” he said.
Wong was born in Indonesia and moved with his family to the United States when he was in seventh grade. Wong attended Harper College and transferred to Illinois State University because it was affordable, close to his family in Schaumburg, and the classwork was compatible with courses he had already completed. So far, he has enjoyed the small class sizes and the opportunity to work with his instructors individually.
“I like those more than ones in bigger classrooms because they are more connected to the teacher and the other students,” Wong said. “They check up on you more often, rather than just giving a lecture and saying, ‘Ok go, that was a nice class.’”
During the past two years, Wong wasn’t able to experience much campus life, in part because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic moving much of his classwork online. Now that he is at Illinois State, he is jumping right in. He already has an internship with the Office of Admissions, helping the office create social media content that will appeal to prospective Redbirds.
“It’s a different approach, because when I post on social media for my own accounts, I don’t really have a set goal,” he said.
Wong has a heavy schedule of five classes this semester on top of his work with admissions but still wants to find time to explore some of the registered student organizations (RSOs) on campus. Wong is especially interested in joining some of the gaming clubs that live under the Redbird Esports umbrella and is excited to check out the new Redbird Esports arena in the newly renovated Bowling and Billiards Center.
“I talked to the League of Legends club during Festival ISU,” he said. “I would like to get some experience with the team.”
When he graduates, Wong hopes to pursue a career in website design or in the video game industry as a social media expert and content creator. If he could pick one place to work, it would be with League of Legends developer Riot Games.
“I’ve been dreaming about it,” he said.
With the growth of Redbird Esports and Illinois State’s Creative Technologies program in the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts, Wong picked the right college to help make that dream a reality.
Read about all of the students featured in our “Newest Redbirds” series at News.IllinoisState.edu.
