After leaving a bookkeeping job when the COVID-19 pandemic ended, Robert Uhren, 33, was at a crossroads. He’d been working as a financial manager for Tiltworks, Inc., an Arden-based firm that provided costumes and apparel to companies like Disney and Warner Brothers. But his remote job had become predictable, and he was tired of working alone at home.
Uhren previously graduated from A-B Tech in 2018 with degrees in Electrical Engineering Technology, Computer Engineering Technology, and Electrical Systems Technology, and he decided to return to his alma mater in 2024 for a degree in Software and Web Development.
Thinking back on his time at Tiltworks, Uhren realized his favorite moment had been collaborating on an IT project where he streamlined a tedious item cataloguing process, created a “shortcut on steroids”, and turned 21 tedious keystrokes into just two.
“I realized I’m most passionate about improving processes,” he said. “I’d be happy to do that for my whole life.”
Uhren also has loved video games since he was a child and spends a lot of his free time modifying his favorites, old school games like StarCraft, creating new maps and challenges to keep it fresh. His long-term dream is to be a game developer and work for an indie studio or for himself.
These days, Uhren, who is in his second year of the Software and Web Development program, has stepped into a new role as Student Government President. The leadership role seems a natural fit for the Asheville native, who also spent seven years managing a restaurant in his late twenties. Having started as a cashier at the late Neo Burrito in Biltmore Park while he was a student, Uhren was promoted to a general management position the day he tried to give notice “to go use his degrees and make more money.”
Rather than lose him, his boss offered him a new management role with a higher salary. It was too good to resist, and Uhren looks back on those seven years as an education in human relations.
“I learned how to make a human connection with employees,” he said. “Not to come in with superiority. That a lighthearted attitude works better.”
Uhren’s playful manner and easy laugh will no doubt serve him well in his new position, where he’ll do everything from assisting with student club bookkeeping to helping to set up and staff events.
In his new role, one of Uhren’s goals is to bring students together more. One way to do that, he believes, is to introduce a new online chat app, which would allow students to chat with each other or to contact an SGA representative directly with questions or ideas. This idea is still in the planning stages, but Uhren hopes to try the app soon internally, just among SGA members.
Though his program is made up of mostly online classes, Uhren said he is a big proponent of face-to-face connection on campus.
Putting on his best “dad” voice, he says jokingly, “Back in my day, we went to class. I grew up with in-person classes. You can’t talk about ideas and learn about each other online. When you have in-class conversations, you can build potential references or meet people you could collaborate with.”
Indeed, becoming SGA president was a way that Uhren could expand his world after a period of working at home remotely. He said he’s looking forward to upcoming events like the Fall Festival. And he was excited to go to the first SGA meeting of the fall semester, which was attended by nearly 30 students from various clubs and societies. Though initially nervous about addressing them from behind a podium, he said he quickly realized he was among kindred spirits.
“The students there were looking for the same thing I am looking for,” he said. “Community and building relationships. To be more involved in school.”
Learn more about the Student Government Association at Student Government Association.