FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n
Tuesday, May 11, 2021<\/p>\n
STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 It was straight-up good fortune that led Lexie Miller to Tarleton State University.<\/p>\n
Googling colleges in Texas, high school-age Lexie remembered a sweatshirt she had borrowed emblazoned with Tarleton\u2019s logo. It was the only time she\u2019d even heard of the school.<\/p>\n
She clicked to learn more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very random selection,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was not really a whim, but I wanted to get away from the small town I was in. The campus looked cool so I came and took a tour. When I was on campus, I felt like this is where I needed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lexie graduates Friday with a bachelor\u2019s degree in digital media studies. She\u2019ll make the commencement address in the 4:30 p.m. exercises.<\/p>\n
She came to Tarleton\u2019s Stephenville campus after growing up among the pines in Holly Lake Ranch, near Gilmer in East Texas. It was at Tarleton she discovered her major interests \u2014 ministry to college students and digital media.<\/p>\n
When she arrived, she thought she\u2019d pursue a career in education, like several members of her family. She admits it, her plan lacked conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came in without any idea of what I wanted to study, which way I wanted to go with my life. My dad suggested I major in education because he felt like I\u2019d be a good coach. All that side of my family majored in education, so that\u2019s what I did for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she discovered education was not the right direction. \u201cI started to change to journalism and broadcasting, but within a couple of weeks I realized that wasn\u2019t where I needed to be, either.\u201d<\/p>\n
She did more digging. She always loved graphic design, photography, videography, so she selected digital media. \u201cI knew that was something I really had a passion for.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that was the answer.<\/p>\n
Her major features a range of skills taught, with a choice of emphasis \u2014 game design or media production. The latter won out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith that, I can go into anything from animation to graphic design to producing videos to directing, with some photography and videography aspects as well,\u201d she said. It must have been the proper choice. She was named her class\u2019 outstanding graduate in the Fine Arts Department.<\/p>\n
While she was discovering her educational direction, she became active with Tarleton\u2019s Baptist Student Ministry and learned that spiritual service also will be vital in her life. She\u2019s still looking for big-time employment, but she knows what she wants to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll keep my job at a Dublin coffee shop and keep praying through what is my next step. My life has been shaped and changed working with the Baptist Student Ministry. Whatever I do, I want to incorporate that into my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her commencement address will feature a theme of pressing forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very personal,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can expect to hear a few witty comments, but overall, the thought of continuing to push through. I\u2019ll talk about the things we went through as a class.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last year was extremely hard. It was such a rare year, but something we should hold onto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday closes a circle that began with a web search and finished with a degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw Tarleton as an escape route,\u201d Lexie said. \u201cGod saw it as the place where he could change my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was straight-up good fortune that led Lexie Miller to Tarleton State University.<\/p>\n
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Googling colleges in Texas, high school-age Lexie remembered a sweatshirt she had borrowed emblazoned with Tarleton’s logo. It was the only time she’d even heard of the school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-research","category-campus-community"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2021\/11\/image-136-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Academics & Research<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academics & Research<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 11, 2021","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 11, 2021 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025 4:45 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Graduate smiling in cap and gown outdoors.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53825,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25515\/revisions\/53825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}