(WACO) – Texas State Technical College’s Culinary Arts program opens its student-run restaurant Wednesday, Feb. 6, for the spring semester.
The restaurant is located in the Greta W. Watson Culinary Arts Center on Campus Drive and is open to the public. Student-prepared meals with themes such as Hawaii, Ireland and Native American will be featured.
Food will be served from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays from Feb. 6 to April 19 except for March 13 and March 15 due to Spring Break. Each menu includes up to three courses.
The serving days and themes are:
Feb. 6 and Feb. 8: Texas
Feb. 13 and Feb. 15: Native American
Feb. 20 and Feb. 22: Hawaii
Feb. 27 and March 1: Romania
March 6 and March 8: Ireland
March 20 and March 22: Native American
March 27 and March 29: Hawaii
April 3 and April 5: Romania
April 10 and April 12: Ireland
April 17 and April 19: Live-Action Buffet
Menus and dates are subject to change without notice.
Call 254-867-4868 to make reservations. Reservations are not accepted on serving days. Customers should arrive 15 minutes before their seating time.
The restaurant is not providing to-go orders this semester.
For menus and other information, visit tstc.edu/about/culinarydiningwaco or the Greta W. Watson Culinary Arts Center at TSTC in Waco Facebook page.
(HUTTO) – About 70 area educators learned Tuesday how Texas State Technical College’s technical programs can support the state’s economy.
The TSTC Spring Counselors Update held at the East Williamson County Higher Education Center in Hutto featured talks from TSTC staff about the registration process, dual enrollment and certificate and associate degree options.
Josh Schier, chair of the Cyber Security program at TSTC, said the field needs problem solvers. He said there are about 10,000 jobs open now in cyber security in the state, with the Austin area being one of the places with opportunities for graduates.
“We teach a mindset to be successful,” Schier said. “The challenge is filling the jobs. Students need to learn networking to begin with.”
Darren Block, statewide chair of the Precision Machining Technology department at TSTC, said students who graduate with a certificate in the field typically make at least $18 an hour,while those with an associate degree can make at least $22 an hour.
“The job market is great right now, and our economy is great, with low unemployment rates,” Block said. “All of my students have jobs lined up in their third semester, and some companies are offering to pay for student loans as sign-on bonuses.”
Ed Latson, executive director of the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association, told attendees that manufacturing is the top contributor to the area’s gross domestic product. He said there are about 1,500 manufacturing companies with about 57,000 jobs in the area. Many of those jobs are technology-based.
Some of the skills companies are looking for in potential employees include the ability to read drawings, take measurements, do mathematics, drive forklifts and complete shop paperwork, Latson said. But, companies also need people with good communication skills.
Liane Kerkman, a teacher at Wayside: Sci Tech Middle and High School in Austin, visited TSTC for the first time on Tuesday. She said out of this year’s 34-member senior class, about half are considering two-year secondary education options.
Kerkman said TSTC’s Cyber Security program could spark her students’ interest.
“TSTC is a good resource to bring back to them,” she said. “A lot of them are hesitant about a four-year university.”
Shirley Reich, a college and career coordinator at the Hutto Independent School District, said she was surprised at the number of jobs available in technical fields. She said the labor market will give staff more information to guide students on their post-high school paths.
“This (TSTC) is in their backyard,” Reich said. “It’s getting them in the door and excited.”
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
(WACO) – Texas State Technical College’s Diesel Equipment Technology program hosted on Thursday the Texas FFA Association Tractor Technician Career Development Event featuring 10 high schools from North and Central Texas.
In the Texas FFA Association’s Area 5 consisting of North Texas schools, Wolfe City High School placed first while Denton High School finished second and Rayburn High School in Ivanhoe finished third.
“This was really the first time we have ever come to a tractor technician competition and our coach told us what to do in precheck,” said Austin Ferguson, 17, a junior at Wolfe City High School. “We checked the oil, checked the fluids and tire pressure and started looking for bugs.”
In the Texas FFA Association’s Area 8 consisting of Central Texas high schools, , Elkhart High School finished first while Teague High School placed second and Midway High School finished third.
“We did not want to get too cocky,” said Jacob Mims, a junior at Elkhart High School. “It was a learning experience. This is what we want to do the rest of our lives.”
Mims said the team was going to celebrate with Mexican food, and later on, a steak dinner.
The top team from each area will compete in a state FFA tractor technician competition to be held in March at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
In addition, Elkhart High School’s team along with the contest’s three individual overall high scorers all received TSTC scholarships.
Teams of three students took a written test and did a parts identification test. The students performed a troubleshooting exercise on John Deere and Kubota tractors donated for the competition by United Ag & Turf and Tipton International, both in Waco. Students drove the tractors once the teams found and repaired the problems.
TSTC’s Diesel Equipment Technology program instructors and students created the problems the high school students found in the tractors and served as contest judges.
Will Allison, 19, of Teague is a Diesel Equipment Technology major at TSTC. He competed in the tractor competition as a student at Teague High School and served Thursday as a judge.
“It feels kind of cool because I know all the bugs,” Allison said. “It’s fun to watch the students find them.”
Allison said he wanted the high school students to leave with a better understanding of how to use heavy equipment manuals.
For more on the Texas FFA Association, go to texasffa.org.
(WACO) – Students at Dillard McCollum High School in San Antonio are starting the year learning in new dual enrollment classes through Texas State Technical College in Waco – a first for TSTC and the Alamo City.
Eight juniors and seniors are taking Introduction to Automotive Technology and Automotive Suspension and Steering Systems in the Automotive Technology program enabling them to receive high school credit and technical college hours. TSTC credentialed the high school’s automotive technology teachers, Mark Emmons and Michael Martinez, to teach the dual enrollment classes.
“McCollum High School is our first dual enrollment partner in San Antonio,” said Megan Redmond, a dual enrollment advisor at Texas State Technical College in Williamson County who has worked with the students to get them registered. “Their automotive program is incredible. It is a great area to break into and I am really excited where it could take us.”
Rudy Cervantez, TSTC’s statewide Automotive Technology Department chair, said approving the teachers and high school after a site visit was easy because they already had certification from the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation.
“They have a nice shop and I was impressed,” Cervantez said.
Talks between the Harlandale Independent School District and TSTC began in fall 2017, said Tracy Anderson, the school district’s career and technical education coordinator.
TSTC has supported the school district’s college-going culture in other ways.
“During the fall, TSTC attended the Auto Tech Industry Advisory Committee meeting at McCollum High School, participated with a table at both of the district’s college and career fairs as well as District Family Night to provide information and answer questions,” Anderson said. “We look forward to having our dual credit students and both automotive instructors visit TSTC in Waco soon.”
San Antonio is home to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas Inc. which employs 2,900 employees including TSTC graduates, according to the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. Toyota’s presence helps make Texas in the top 10 among states for automotive manufacturing employment, according to the Texas Economic Development Division’s “The Texas Automotive Manufacturing Industry” report.
“There is a lot of potential for jobs for the students,” Cervantez said.
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
(WACO) – Whit Palmer’s motivation comes from a giving source.
“I’d say it is the love of God in my own life and all of the blessings I’ve had,” the Temple resident said. “I want to share that blessing with others.”
Palmer, 19, is an Aircraft Airframe Technology and Aircraft Powerplant Technology major at Texas State Technical College. He recently received the Keith Hull Memorial Scholarship for $5,000 from Wings for Christ International in Waco. Hull was a member of the U.S. Air Force and founded the organization in 1961 in Arizona. Hull moved the organization in 1970 to Waco.
This is the first scholarship the organization has awarded. The organization’s mission is to spiritually and professionally develop aviators to gain pilot hours and fly for mission work to remote areas.
Palmer said the scholarship will help him because a lot of mission organizations discourage workers from having debt.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I’ve always liked working with my hands and potentially spreading the good news of the gospel is eye opening for me.”
Darin Pound, senior pastor at Temple First Church of the Nazarene where Palmer and his family are lifelong members, exposed him to aviation while in high school by taking him flying.
“He is well deserving of the award,” Pound said. “He will use it to further his education but also fulfill the calling he senses in his life to use his love for aviation as a tool to minister to people and help people wherever God leads.”
Palmer’s church membership helped him learn about aviation’s role in mission work. He traveled to Belize twice while in high school on missions to help build a church and work with children.
Palmer graduated in 2018 from Providence Preparatory School in Belton.
Cheryl Hull, Wings for Christ International’s secretary and treasurer on the Board of Directors, said the organization’s goal is to award a yearly aviation scholarship built on the generosity of the business community.
Applications for Wings for Christ International’s next Keith Hull Memorial Scholarship are due May 31. For more information, go to wingsforchrist.org.
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
(RED OAK) – More than 40 educators on Friday learned about Texas State Technical College’s mission to help students earn certificates and associate degrees that could lead to great-paying jobs.
The Spring Counselors Update focused on dual enrollment, in-demand jobs and other components of TSTC. The gathering’s goal was to arm educators with new information to help them be advocates for technical education in their schools.
“We show them the best that TSTC has,” said Trey Pearson, coordinator of student recruitment for TSTC’s North Texas and Waco campuses.
TSTC currently has dual enrollment partnerships with 108 Texas high schools. Some of the programs that high school students can take courses in include Automotive Technology, Electrical Power and Controls, and Welding Technology. The goal of dual enrollment is to save students money and time when they get to college.
“From us, you will get 12 to 14 hours in a one-year period in technical education,” said Rene Ralston, TSTC’s director of dual enrollment.
Some of the top occupations projected to grow through 2026 in Texas with salaries above the Texas median wage of $36,168 tie into some of the technical programs TSTC teaches. They include software developing, construction and extraction work supervising, licensed vocational nursing and agricultural management, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Scipio Igbeare, a counselor at Advantage Academy Grand Prairie East, visited TSTC for the first time. She was intrigued by the Computer Aided Drafting and Design, Cyber Security and Welding Technology programs.
“This has been really good information to better guide the students,” she said. “We have been pushing the four-year college for so many years. Not all of the students are ready for four years.”
Lisa Menton, career and technical education director for the Red Oak Independent School District, said she looks forward to sharing what she learned with her staff to better help students meet their potential.
“The challenge is to make the connection with what they can do at the high school level and at college and in high-demand occupations so they can have a good life,” Menton said.
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
(WACO) – Before Courtney Balzadua, 27, of Waco became a pharmacy technician at the Family Health Center, she balanced working as a waitress and being the mother of a small child.
She knew she needed to make a career change.
“I wanted to be in the medical field in some way,” said Balzadua, a 2015 graduate of Texas State Technical College’s Pharmacy Technician program.
The need for pharmacy technicians is projected to grow nationally to more than 450,000 jobs by 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency credits the job increase to a rising need for prescription medicines. Pharmacy technicians must learn the general uses of medical drugs but cannot legally counsel patients.
TSTC’s three-semester program includes classes in Drug Classification and Pharmaceutical Mathematics and an on-site clinical at a hospital, pharmacy or other medical facility like the Family Health Center.
TSTC caps each semester’s Pharmacy Technician cohort at 25 students, said Colby Walters, a program instructor. She said students who enter the program need strong mathematics and memorization skills.
Program graduates can work under pharmacy training licenses for two years, Walters said. During this time, the graduates get three chances to take the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board’s licensing test to continue working in the field. The graduates also undergo a background check by the Texas State Board of Pharmacy.
A public perception survey conducted by the PTCB in 2016 indicated that 85 percent of people said it was very important for people preparing prescriptions to be certified, and 74 percent of people believed pharmacies should only hire certified pharmacy technicians.
Traci Crain is a staff pharmacist at the Family Health Center’s pharmacy on Providence Drive in Waco. She said she can tell within a month which pharmacy interns can adapt to the job. Some of the qualities she looks for include being able to work with others, handle criticism from customers and exhibit a solid work ethic.
The Family Health Center typically hires two interns each semester. Crain said interns start out sacking prescriptions for customers. She said interacting with the staff enables the students to understand the pharmacy language. Eventually interns can advance to working on registers and helping customers.
“It’s not uncommon to get hired before they graduate,” Walters said.
Jennifer Herrera, 34, of Waco graduated in 2005 from TSTC’s Pharmacy Technician program and has been working at the Family Health Center since she was an intern.
“This is in a low-income area,” she said. “I don’t see myself as different from any of our patients. I fell in love with the environment.”
Herrera often works with clients in both Spanish and English.
“You do have to be careful because certain words can mean different things,” she said.
The Family Health Center has 16 locations in Bell and McLennan counties. There are about 20 employees who work at the pharmacy from Monday to Friday. Overall, the Waco location fills an average of 700 prescriptions per day.
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
(WACO) – Christina Pace is elevating her creativity through digital art.
Pace, 23, of McGregor designs fliers for Texas State Technical College in Waco’s Visual Art Society, which includes other TSTC Visual Communication Technology majors. It is practice for her future career in graphic design.
As she pursues her endeavors and studies, Pace finds motivation from others.
“It’s being able to be creative and work on my assignments and be surrounded by those who do the same,” she said.
Pace graduated in 2014 from McGregor High School and went on to earn an associate degree in art in 2016 from Temple College. At the time, she said she knew she needed to earn another degree.
Pace began classes in fall 2017 at TSTC. She said her art classes have helped her be a better artist as she uses concepts for space and composition and learns about Adobe’s creative platforms.
Pace is among more than 25 students from McGregor currently taking classes at TSTC in Waco.
Meanwhile, many students attending McGregor High School are partaking in career and technical education offerings that can lead to fruitful careers. The Texas Education Agency’s Texas Academic Performance Report for 2017-18 indicated that the McGregor Independent School District had more than 370 students in the program.
“We have made a big push in the last few years to expand our career and technical education programs,” said Seth Fortenberry, principal of McGregor High School. “We have a very strong construction and welding program at the high school where students have the opportunity to earn certifications prior to graduation.”
Fortenberry said the robotics program combines design, electronics and engineering for students to ultimately launch their own two rockets at the end of the school year.
“One rocket is built to carry a 1-pound payload one mile high, and the other is built to break the sound barrier,” he said.
Fortenberry said more courses could be added in the future for students to study drones and automotives.
“Two-year colleges are definitely an option for students,” he said. “We push them very hard to continue on into postsecondary education no matter the length, and many do end up choosing TSTC.”
Adrian Siller, 28, of Waco did not attend high school in McGregor but calls it home. He has traded in the study of sciences for suspensions.
Siller is working toward an Automotive Technology – Toyota Technician Training and Education Network, or T-TEN, specialization certificate at TSTC and is scheduled to graduate in summer 2020.
“I have always liked automobiles,” he said. “I did research on manufacturers and learned about Toyota.”
Siller shifted into studying the automotive field after earning a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 2014 from Texas A&M University. He said understanding the lectures and research processes during his first time in college has helped him at TSTC.
Siller has enjoyed the hands-on work on vehicles in the Transportation Technology Center’s T-TEN lab. His favorite lessons so far have dealt with testing and diagnosing electrical system problems.
Siller said his goal is to graduate from TSTC and then pursue a physics or mathematics degree. He wants to apply the technical and academic combination either to work in the automotive industry or to teach.
“This career will definitely take me to opportunities in a big city,” Siller said. “Right now I am eyeballing Austin.”
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
(HUTTO) – Students at C.H. Yoe High School in Cameron recently ended their first semester taking dual enrollment classes through Texas State Technical College.
Twelve students completed the Principles of Accounting I class as part of the Business Management Technology certificate. And, more than 30 students took the online Medical Terminology class under the Medical Office Specialist certificate. This is the first year that technical dual enrollment classes have been offered at the high school.
“We had always offered dual credit, but it was academic and not career and technical education dual credit,” said Kenneth Driska Jr., Cameron Independent School District’s career and technical education director.
Driska said a high school teacher was credentialed by TSTC in West Texas to teach the accounting classes.
The school district built on its existing medical career tracks to branch into offering medical office specialist classes.
“Health science has been something that kids in our district seem to show a lot of interest in,” Driska said. “Part of it is our proximity to Scott & White in Temple. It’s about a 30-minute drive. There is an opportunity there for jobs.”
Megan Redmond, a dual enrollment advisor at TSTC in Williamson County, worked with Cameron ISD to make the classes available.
“The counselors I work with are incredible,” Redmond said. “They are super responsive, and they get everything to me on time. Their students are very receptive. They get their forms turned in on time, and a lot of them are making A’s and B’s this semester.”
Students passing the courses are able to earn college credit hours and meet Texas high school diploma requirements. High school students taking certificate courses have the opportunity to earn up to 12 credit hours.
Driska said some of the school district’s college-going culture is driven by local scholarship opportunities from the Callaway Foundation and the Cameron ISD Foundation.
“We have high expectations for our kids in Cameron,” Driska said.
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
(BROWNWOOD) — The need for skilled welders is growing, and local businesses hope to remind welders of job opportunities close to home.
The Texas State Technical College welding program in Brownwood produces qualified welders ready for industry, and local companies hope to attract those interested in staying in the area.
“I worked in the oil field, and it’s good work, but it can be hard on families,” said Stephen Hope, a TSTC in Brownwood welding instructor. “So these local fabrication shops are great for those who want stability, and there’s a chance to make a career and move up.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for welders, cutters, solderers and brazers nationwide are expected to grow to more than 427,000 through 2026. A majority of those jobs are expected to be in manufacturing.
One local business, Barr Fabrication, says it is interested in hiring area workers and supporting local businesses.
“It benefits the Brownwood community as a whole when we hire locally, and we’re very proud to be part of this community,” said Francie Clark, the public and employee relations representative for Barr Fabrication.
For another company, Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure, creating a positive work-life balance for its employees is something it takes pride in.
“If we can hire welders of Brown County, it means they can make competitive pay without sacrificing time away from family,” said Amber Ray, a human resources representative with the company.
TSTC partners with industry leaders to ensure that graduates find the right company to match their professional and personal goals.
“We’ve got a great program here that lets us work with students one-on-one and provide specific instruction,” Hope said. “That, and our conversations with people in the industry locally and elsewhere, really helps us to make sure these students get where they want to be.”
TSTC in Brownwood offers a three-semester structural welding certificate that includes classes in blueprint reading, fabrication, layout and technical calculations.
