What I've Learned: Travis Schneider

Schneider chose to attend ACC because his grandfather, a business man, inspired him to get a degree in business administration. "I thought it was something I would be good at," said Schneider.

In 1992, Schneider began working for Motorola in Oak Hill while still attending ACC classes. During his time at Motorola, Schneider worked in various positions, moving up in the company from a starting semi-conductor position, to a more prestigious position in document control.

Eventually, he was able to save up enough money to buy a house in Cedar Park. This allowed him the freedom of broadening his horizons to start taking classes at the Cypress Creek Campus as well as Northridge Campus.

After obtaining an associate degree in business administration, Schneider continued to work for Motorola until tragedy struck his family in 1998 when his grandfather, James Willis Hodson, became ill and bedridden.

Once he learned the sobering news about his family, Schneider thought the best thing to do was move to Houston in order to take care of his grandfather in a time of need.

Schneider cared for his grandfather until he passed away on June 10, 2009.  Shortly after, his grandmother, Betty Ruth Hodson, was diagnosed with pancreatic caner when physicians found a tumor on her bile duct.

"It was really hard when my grandmother got sick because she kept trying to convince herself that it wasn't cancer, but I think my relatives and I knew what it was. It took her along time to die. Watching her get sicker and sicker, slowly deteriorating, was really horrible. After everything that happened with my grandmother and what I watched her go through, Ive come to hate cancer. I watched it kill my family," said Schneider.

In order to raise money for her cancer treatment, Schneider made the decision to try to publish a children's book that he had been working on, prior to his grandfather's death. He submitted the book, titled "The Adventures of Stewy the Seagull," to a publishing agency for review in January 2010.

Unfortunately, by the time the book was finally released in stores, it was too late. Schneider's grandmother passed away in October 2010. "The Adventures of Stewy the Seagull" didn't have enough time to receive the proper circulation.

"I just wanted to write a story about a happy seagull. It was released in August 2010 and the amount of time it takes a book to mature and grow is sort of like planting a seed. If it's going to do well, you'll know from the publisher in about six months or so which just wasn't enough time," said Schneider. "Once you get cancer it grows very quickly."

Even through the hard times, Schneider has found beacons of hope. Not only did he find a passion in writing, he also found an outlet for fighting the one thing he truly hates, cancer.

Currently, he is in the process of restoring antique automobiles that he plans to auction off and donate those proceeds to the American Cancer Society.

"Right now I'm working on restoring my father's 1990 Dodge Daytona that I plan on selling once its ready," said Schneider.

In addition to raising money to fight cancer, Schneider has decided to continue his writing and work on harnessing those skills,

"I've decided that I really like writing. I enjoy it. If somebody enjoys the book that's great, but if it doesn't do so well, that's fine too." Schneider said.

With the obligation of helping  his grandparents gone, Schneider is working on getting his life on track and hopes to go back to school and attend a four-year university.

"Getting a business degree actually helped me and taught me how to write. They have a very good structural set up of English and literature classes through the business administration program at ACC," said Schneider.