Mr. Hamilton spends his workdays in the dungeon.

Okay, not the literal dungeon, but it is definitely not a part of the school either of us have ever been to before: the technology wing.

Mr. Hamilton is busy in his office working on his daily tasks. Hamilton has juggled the school’s technical difficulties since 2014 with passion. “It’s important to take your time,” says Hamilton. “The worst thing you can do is spend a bunch a time in school and not enjoy it.”

While to most students this room, hidden under the staircase like something straight out of Harry Potter, is a seemingly insignificant part of their school day, something they pass on their way to English 4th Period, what goes on behind these doors is an extremely important part of our daily learning experience.

The Bloomington native has been here helping our school since 2014, but has been interested in technology long before that.

“I started volunteering at my church on their IT team… After I built my first computer I knew this is the career I wanted to be in. You have to have a passion. It is the one thing I saw myself being able to do long term.”

Passion is not the only thing that drives Mr. Hamilton. Each day brings forth a new challenge, large or small.

“It’s not a repetitive job, which I love. It can be something new everyday. Something blows up, you have to fix it. You have users that are screaming at you, your mom doesn’t know how to send an email. I’m just a big problem solver, innately, so I guess that is what drew me here as well.”

While Mr. Hamilton loves his job here at West Lafayette Jr./Sr. High School, he also takes time to enjoy himself outside of these walls.

“I played guitar in a cover band for five years here in Lafayette. I hung it up after I got married because I was tired of being out until one in the morning. I do play guitar still at our church, volunteering on the band there. I also get to help kids. We have a youth band, I get to help the kiddos get better and develop their skills.”

Though maybe not perceived this way, the technology team are the unsung heroes, and are what drive us forward and allow us to go about our day-to-day doings at school. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to have access to all the resources we need to achieve academic success.