(WACO) – Shawnthena Burks can literally use the farm-to-table concept made popular these days in the culinary world.

Burks, 32, can slaughter cows and hogs, shell purple hull peas straight from the garden and use fresh peaches to top a tasty dessert.

Burks, who will graduate in August with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Culinary Arts at Texas State Technical College in Waco, credits her upbringing for making her the cook she is today.

She grew up on family land in Sandy in Limestone County as a self-described country girl. She had always been good with her hands, whether it was braiding hair or creating crafts.

“You saw cows, donkeys and grasshoppers,” she said. “I didn’t have cable.”

She spent a lot of time with her grandfather, Taylor Reed, who taught her how to make fresh pork sausage, butter and pork cracklings.

Her mother, Margaret Burks, taught her a lot about cooking while working two jobs. Burks and her mother would often pick and prepare vegetables from their garden.

“We would have a full family meal – a protein, three fresh vegetables, bread and tea each day,” Burks said. “My mother was always in the kitchen.”

She graduated in 2002 from Mexia High School and was active in the DECA club.

And the older she got, the more she developed a talent for baking cakes.

“When she did let me in the kitchen, my mother was impressed,” Burks said. “Food and family is everything.”

After high school, Burks had an automobile accident and said she did not know what to do with her life. But in 2012, she realized the profession she needed to pursue after making two wedding cakes.

“I think I reached a plateau of what I wanted to do in my life,” she said. “I was 27.”

She researched TSTC and learned about its Culinary Arts program. She visited the campus and talked to staff members who helped ease her way into technical college life.

“My faith is what put me here,” she said. “I asked God what I could do that I was overlooking and something my family could benefit from.”

Burks cited TSTC’s Chef Martin Ellenberger and Chef Len Pawelek as having pushed her hard in the Culinary Arts program.

Pawelek said Burks was ahead of her time in using vegetables and meat as fresh as possible in her dishes.

“She is way ahead of the curve in what the industry is coming back to,” he said. “I think she’s very respectful and passionate about what she does. She shows up and has a great attitude.”

Burks already has a job working at Rio Brazos Fine Custom Cuisine in Waco where she will be working with catering, a food truck and food preparation.

In the fall, Burks will begin work on an Associate of Applied Science degree in Web Design and Development Technology at TSTC in Waco. Her goal is to maintain her own web site for the catering business she wants to open one day.

“If I can keep following the path where every door has been open for me and build something big, I want to give back,” she said. “I want to have jobs open for good people.”

Summer commencement for TSTC campuses in Waco, North Texas, Williamson County and Fort Bend County is at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 19, at the Waco Convention Center on Washington Avenue.

(WACO) – Christopher Blair was never a stay-indoors-and-watch-television-kind of child.

He was, and still is today, more at home among trees and rolling hills.

“I like to be up and outside before the sun rises,” said Blair, 24, of Mansfield, Texas, and a Turfgrass and Landscape Management major at Texas State Technical College in Waco. “I don’t mind getting dirty.”

And now, he has a financial gift to show for his appreciation of the outdoors.

Blair on Thursday received the $1,000 Kevin L. Dilliard Scholarship from the Texas Branch of the Professional Grounds Management Society. Dilliard was a longtime grounds director at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

“It will be super helpful,” Blair said. “I am paying for school myself. It will make a big impact on me for sure in the next semester.”

He is the only student in Texas that will receive the award this year, said Barbara E. Hatchel, a certified grounds manager and PGMS member in Amarillo.

“He is gearing himself to pursue this profession for life,” Hatchel said. “He works at a golf course now and keeps his grades up.”

Blair, like other Turfgrass and Landscape Management students, gets experience maintaining TSTC’s four-hole golf course on Airline Drive. He is fascinated by irrigation systems and grass for golf courses.

“I just love that you are growing grass at 1/8th of an inch and still expect it to be healthy so people can walk on it,” he said.

Ron Gwyn, chair of the Turfgrass and Landscape Management program, said Blair was enthusiastic about his work and learning.

“He will be a valuable asset to a golf course,” Gwyn said. “He wants everything taken care of and done to the best of his ability. He grasps a lot of the technical aspects pretty quick.”

Blair said there is much more to grass than just cutting it. He said people who maintain golf courses, yards and formal lawns must also consider the science behind the amount of water and fertilizer needed.

He said some of his favorite golf courses were Augusta National Golf Club – home of the Masters – in Georgia, Whistling Straits Golf Course in Kohler, Wisconsin, and Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

Blair began working at 16 at Shady Valley Country Club in Arlington, Texas, helping maintain golf carts and eventually the grounds.

He played golf for two years while at Mansfield Legacy High School, where he graduated in 2010. Working at Shady Valley while in high school enabled him to play free golf to practice his skills.

“One day it clicked that I wanted to take care of a golf course,” he said.

Blair said Turfgrass and Landscape Management is a good career to consider for students to consider who enjoy the outdoors and hard work.

“Students need to try to think a few years ahead and where you see yourself being at in life,” Blair said. “You need to see how you want to work.”

Blair now works at least 30 hours a week at Walnut Creek Country Club in Mansfield and attends classes full time at TSTC.

“Since I work in grounds maintenance and then come to school, that makes a difference,” Blair said. “What I learn I can then talk to my boss about and it is easier to grasp the concept.”

After his expected graduation from TSTC in August 2017, Blair said he wants to move up the ranks of golf course maintenance at private clubs.

TSTC in Waco will have a Registration Rally from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 9, at the Student Services Center. For more registration information, log on to tstc.edu.

(WACO) – Texas State Technical College in Waco student Willie Hutchinson has taken the discipline he learned in the military and applied it to the precision of bringing vehicles back to life.

“I have a passion for cars and wanted to learn collision repair and how to fix them structural-wise,” he said about his career choice.

Hutchinson, 44, of Waco was among 58 recipients nationwide to receive the 3M Hire Our Heroes award sponsored by the 3M Automotive Aftermarket Division and the Collision Repair Education Foundation. The award’s goal is to raise awareness of the work that military veterans can do in the auto collision industry, according to 3M.

Hutchinson will receive up to $1,500 in work tools.

“The tool grant is something I cherish,” Hutchinson said. “I never won too much of anything.”

Hutchinson applied for the award after being encouraged by Clint Campbell, chair of TSTC’s Auto Collision Technology program.

“Going out and working in the profession, Willie is going to make somebody a good technician,” Campbell said.

Campbell said student veterans, like Hutchinson, exhibit maturity and a good sense of organization.

“The military members are trained to be early,” Campbell said. “They look out for other students. It is more of a teamwork effort.”

Hutchinson is scheduled to graduate in August with a certificate in Auto Collision Repair. Some of the topics he has learned include structural analysis, repair estimating and alignment.

“It’s been what I expected and more, learning about the collision industry and care and how to protect vehicles from erosion,” he said.

After graduation, Hutchinson wants to work in a body shop and return to TSTC to study auto body refinishing.

Hutchinson grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi, among three siblings and other relatives.

“Kosciusko is a small town, probably not different than any other small country towns,” he said. “There was not much to get into.”

He graduated in 1990 from McAdams High School in nearby Sallis, Mississippi and quickly joined the military because of his friends and the ability to get money for college.

“It turned out to be one of the best things I have done in my life,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson retired in May 2015 from the U.S. Army after 24 years and 11 months, earning the rank of major. His last post was at Fort Hood and he has also been stationed in Georgia and Kentucky. He worked the last decade of his military career in computer communication. During his military time, he served four tours of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I liked training the young soldiers and seeing the American flag lowered and raised,” Hutchinson said.

Summer Commencement for TSTC campuses in Waco, North Texas, Williamson County and Fort Bend County is at 6:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 19, at the Waco Convention Center on Washington Avenue.