2023SummerWarriorWEB

T rampas Amedee was a senior at St. Amant High School in Ascension Parish, La., when a chance meeting with the late Jamie Clark who was then head coach of the East Central Com munity College Diamond Warriors, would not only provide an opportunity to continue playing baseball at the collegiate level but would set him on a path towards a rewarding career designing homes. Amedee who completed an associate degree in Drafting and Design Technology at East Central and a bachelor’s degree from the University of West Alabama, is the owner of Amedee Home Designs, Inc. in Gonzales, La. He designs custom homes and home additions. He said his uncles, Chris and Butch Ingram, who are both builders got him started working on job sites when he was young and that got him interested in the building industry. When he started his own business, he says they gave him more business than he could handle, and that really motivated him to want to do better. He said, “When I was a kid, I would go to job sites with my uncle. As a teenager, I started working for him doing trim work and framing homes. He had always told me that this area needs someone to design houses. That stuck with me. When I came to visit ECCC, I found out about the Drafting and Design depart ment and decided that’s the route I wanted to take.” After completing his education, Amedee worked for his uncle as a site superintendent. He later had the op portunity to work for a local home designer using his degree received at ECCC. He said, “Without having the Drafting and Design program at ECCC, I doubt I would have chosen the profession I did. That program was a big, big part of me owning my own business today.” He began his career with G.E.R. Home Designs and started his own business designing houses in 2004. He’s designed over 1700 new homes and additions, in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Ten nessee and the Bahamas. He says all homes he’s designed are different which makes each one special, but the most rewarding thing for him is when an old client sells their home and comes back for him to design another one or when clients refer him to their family and friends. Amedee said he enjoyed the small college environment East Central offers which made it easier to get to know people not only on the baseball team but throughout campus. And he said the career-technology division at ECCC was second to none. “Anyone looking to have a career in anything they offer will really benefit from completing their education at East Central,” he said. Amedee credits his program instructors, Ricky Harrison and Polly Mayes, and the family atmosphere they created for mak ing a huge difference in his college life. He said, “Those two really took me under their wing for two years and made sure I felt comfortable. When I came to ECCC, I was 17 years old and 3.5 hours away from home. It wasn’t easy to leave my mom and sister, but Mr. Harrison and Mrs. Mayes made it easy for me to adapt to a new environment. A couple days before graduation, they gave me a scrap book

–AMEDEE continued on page 6

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