(WACO) – State Rep. and House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Zerwas, R-Richmond, along with officials from Educate Texas and the Texas Association of Manufacturers, visited the Texas State Technical College campus Monday, November 27.

Educate Texas, a catalyst for large-scale education systems change, has partnered with public and private educational entities to improve public and higher education systems in Texas. The goal of the visit was for the groups involved to shine a light on the types of education being offered at TSTC.

“These organizations asked if they could host a tour on our campus for Rep. John Zerwas so that he could get a firsthand experience with the type of education and opportunities that TSTC produces,” said Roger Miller, TSTC vice chancellor and chief government affairs officer. “We were somewhat of a co-host, but this was actually the idea of Educate Texas, the Texas Association of Manufacturers and the Texas Business Leadership Council.”

Zerwas serves the citizens of Texas House District 28, which includes Fort Bend County, where TSTC operates its newest campus. In the 84th Legislative Session, he also served as Chairman of the House Committee on Higher Education. Zerwas said the visit to Waco helped him realize the breadth of opportunities TSTC can offer.

“This is where it all began, so this is a great opportunity to see where the program was born and to see what it’s become since then,” Zerwas said. “The Fort Bend campus, since it just started, has a limited number of programs they can offer. Here at the oldest campus, they have an enormous number of job skills training opportunities. I found each one of them interesting.”

TSTC Chancellor Mike Reeser said it’s important that people see the value of the programs offered at TSTC.

“A lot of times technical education is seen as a consolation prize,” Reeser said. “The programs we offer here are more than that. Who wouldn’t want to be an air traffic controller? Corporate America is finally beginning to talk to students about job opportunities in careers like these.”

The tour showed visitors a look at the Aerospace, Instrumentation, Electrical Power & Controls, Precision Machining and Welding programs. Several instructors pressed the significance of the skills gap, a shortage of middle-skilled workers to fill open positions.

“We’re seeing the greatest shortage of commercial pilots since the 1950s,” said TSTC Transportation Division Director Carson Pearce. “There are 617,000 jobs available, and that doesn’t include aviation maintenance technicians. We can get a student in and season them in two years, but as fast as we can do that isn’t fast enough to fill the positions.”

TSTC Precision Machining instructor George Love shared the same sentiments.

“My biggest burden right now is that I’m letting 60 to 70 jobs go unfilled every semester,” Love said. “It’s a weight on my shoulders. If I can provide an extra 60 to 70 students, I could meet the needs I know about in the state of Texas right now.”

Zerwas hopes TSTC’s high-quality graduates can help beat the stigma around technical education and lessen the skills gap.

“More of these graduates being percolated through communities will get people asking, ‘How did you get there?’ And they’ll say, ‘Well I started at TSTC,’ and it gave them a great start. There are lots of ways and efforts to communicate this down to the high schools, and it’s very important. Our future is highly vested in cranking out that highly skilled workforce.”

For more information on TSTC, visit tstc.edu.

(WACO) – Luke Mawhirter, 22, of Woodway is a Visual Communication Technology major at Texas State Technical College who is scheduled to graduate in spring 2018.

Mawhirter graduated in 2014 from Robinson High School, where he was active in theater and the National Honor Society.

Have you always been interested in the arts? “Ever since I was a kid, I have liked to draw. Art has always been part of my life. When we got Photoshop, I started playing with it in fifth grade. It’s always been pretty natural. Technology has come easy to me. I have always enjoyed working with computers. The technology helps when doing visual arts.”

How did you enjoy growing up in the Waco area? “I have always loved Waco. My mother will say it’s small but not too small and big but not too big. There is so much attention on Waco. It’s always been a friendly place. It’s been cool to see the re-emergence of Waco.”

How did you become interested in TSTC? “I had heard about TSTC in high school. It was a known thing that it was here. I had friends that were taking classes there. What drew me to it was its simplicity. It’s so straightforward.”

Do you work on campus? “I am a work-study student. Sometimes, I help with business cards and talk about designs with the Creative Services staff. I do a lot of folding and organizing. I like to see it as a study thing. I have learned how to work a lot of the machinery. I was able to use this as my internship class. It’s been incredibly valuable.”

What is your career goal after graduation? “My main goal is to be an in-house graphics director.”

What advice would you give to high school students? “Don’t limit yourself. Explore every option that is available to you. Know your value and worth and pursue those things about you.”

Graphic design jobs are expected to rise to 278,800 through 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Texas currently has more than 12,000 graphic design jobs, with more than 100 of those in the Waco area. The annual mean wage in Texas for graphic designers is $48,360, according to the federal labor statistics bureau.

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.

(WACO) – Texas State Technical College will have a Registration Rally for the spring semester from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 17, at the Student Services Center on Campus Drive.

The event is part of an effort to make the registration process as easy as possible for incoming students.

“The Registration Rally is a great opportunity for students to get all of their paperwork complete in one place before classes begin in January,” TSTC Provost Adam Hutchison said. “We’re setting aside some of the routine business of the day to concentrate our efforts on helping new students enroll more quickly and easily.”

Visitors can take campus tours and talk to faculty members about the more than 40 technical programs offered at TSTC, including Aircraft Airframe Technician, Avionics, Cloud and Data Center Management, Radiation Protection Technology and Web Design and Development.

People interested in enrolling should bring a copy of their driver’s license, high school transcript or GED, any college transcripts, proof of bacterial meningitis vaccination, housing application and TSI scores.

TSTC is having registration events at its 10 campuses throughout the state this fall. For information on the closest Registration Rally, log on to tstc.edu/rally.

(WACO) – Texas State Technical College’s Aerospace Division recently hosted America’s first female space shuttle commander for a talk to students and faculty members.

Col. Eileen Collins was commander in 1999 on the Columbia space shuttle mission that deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. She also commanded NASA’s 2005 Discovery mission.

“When NASA wanted someone who was cool under pressure, they chose her to command the return to flight mission after the Columbia space shuttle disaster (in 2003),” said Carson Pearce, TSTC’s statewide Transportation Division director. “This kind of insight and perspective gives TSTC students an anchor from which they can realize that someone has dreamed big, achieved that dream, and it motivates our students to do the same.”

Collins shared some facts with the students about space travel, including that space shuttles were about 200 miles above the Earth during missions and the International Space Station is solar powered.

Collins told attendees to focus on the missions they are doing, from completing class assignments to helping expand space travel.

“We need a revolutionary change in how we think about space travel,” she said. “You need to use your imagination, thinking of creative ways to do different things. You should be proud of your accomplishments.”

Collins grew up in New York and received degrees from Corning Community College, Syracuse University, Stanford University and Webster University. She is a U.S. Air Force veteran.

Collins also helped present student awards.

“We have never ceased to be amazed at how our students react to having a real live American hero hand them their hard-earned awards,” said Pearce.

Receiving awards were:

Air Traffic Controller Top Mic Award: Kha Pham

Avionics Technology: Thomas Fletcher

Aircraft Pilot Training Technology Top Gun Award: Stephanie Hughes

Aircraft Dispatch Technology: Eric Neuendorf

Aviation Maintenance Technology Top Wrench Award: Cole Nolin

Student of the Year for Aerospace: Shane Howard

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.

(WACO) –Tucker Neal, 18, of Jarrell is a first-semester Computer Networking and Systems Administration major at Texas State Technical College.

He is a 2017 graduate of Jarrell High School, where he played multiple sports and was vice president of the high school chapter of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.

What factored into choosing your major? “My stepdad is a computer network administrator so I learned about computers from him. When I was 8, I built my own computer. I still use it today. Growing up, I did a lot of research on computers and how they worked. I took one computer class in seventh grade, and in eighth grade I was the teacher’s assistant for that class.”

How did you learn about TSTC? “I had to do a bunch of projects in high school. The teachers asked us what we would do after high school,l and I researched colleges around here and found TSTC.”

Do you work on campus? “I work at the library. I’ll come to work at 2 p.m. and leave at 6 p.m. on my work days and make sure the computers are reset. I’ll monitor computers, making sure nobody is doing what they are not supposed to. I also help students in the lab. I started working in the library in October.”

What advice would you give to high school students? “I would say to make sure you know what to do before you go to college.”

Network and computer systems administrator jobs are expected to grow to more than 415,000 nationwide by 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There were more than 32,000 network and computer administrators in Texas in 2016, according to the federal labor statistics bureau. Of these, more than 200 were in Waco and more than 4,000 were in the Austin – Round Rock area. The annual mean wage in Texas was $87,790.

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.