(BRECKENRIDGE) – Texas State Technical College has announced the recipients of this year’s Chancellor’s Excellence Award, and seven West Texas employees were honored. Of the seven, two employees from Breckenridge received the award.

This year’s Breckenridge award winners are Vernon Akins, maintenance supervisor, and Cassie Love, enrollment specialist.

Akins, who has been at TSTC for nearly four years, said he was excited to receive the award.

“It was an honor to be nominated and be able to receive it,” he said. “I try to treat everyone nice and get to the work orders as fast as I can get to them. I’m polite to everyone and do my best at what I can.”

He said his co-workers are what drive him.

“I enjoy working with these people,” Akins said. “I feel that everything I do helps them accomplish their jobs in the classroom or going to meetings. I just try to keep everything up and going.”

Love, a 10-year TSTC employee, said she was honored and humbled that her co-workers nominated her for the award.

“They said that I was a very valued employee and an asset to TSTC,” she said. “I’m willing to always help our students and fellow employees.”

Her favorite part of her job is helping students.

“I love my job,” Love said. “I like to help students and see them succeed. When they come in and they say, ‘I don’t think I can do this,’ I like to tell them, ‘Yes, you can!’ I didn’t start college until I was 42, so if I can do it, I know you can do it.”

The Chancellor’s Excellence Award began in 2001, and over the past 15 years more than 280 TSTC employees have received the honor. Recipients are chosen based on outstanding contributions and achievements, commitment to excellence and character. Honorees serve as agents of change in the advancement of TSTC initiatives.

TSTC touts itself as being “a great place to work” and is currently hiring for positions at its 10 campuses statewide. For information on open positions at TSTC, visit tstc.edu/about/employment.

(BRECKENRIDGE) – More than 100 employees at Jonell Filtration Products Inc. will receive valuable job training from instructors at Texas State Technical College, thanks to a $210,320 Skills Development Fund grant from the Texas Workforce Commission.

TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Julian Alvarez presented the check to representatives from Jonell and TSTC in a ceremony held Friday afternoon at the company’s Breckenridge facility.

Jonell specializes in the development and manufacturing of filtration and separation products for the oil and gas industry, including offshore exploration and production, gas production and transmission, refinery and petrochemical applications and power generation.

The grant will provide customized training for 106 new and incumbent workers in the West Central Texas area during a period of 12 months.

“The workers will receive training in classes aimed at improving the skills of maintenance technicians and operators,” said John Dosher, executive director of Workforce Training and Continuing Education at TSTC.

Dosher explained that classes will focus on general plant safety along with mechanical and electrical safety. Other classes will be taught to improve the skills of front office and sales staff and leadership classes will teach employees about conflict resolution and active listening skills.

Virgil Moore III, executive director of the Breckenridge Economic Development Corp., commented on the importance of the grant’s impact on the community.

“Jonell is Breckenridge and Stephens County’s largest private employer and has been a vital part of the local economy for many years,” he noted. “This training will improve the quality of Jonell’s employees, resulting in higher quality products and service and a stronger local company that successfully competes in an international market.”

Steve Bell, Jonell’s production manager, said his company strives to be the preferred employer in Breckenridge and the grant will help it achieve that goal. He added that TSTC has offered to be flexible around the company’s plant schedules and has been supportive throughout the entire process, resulting in positive feedback from employees.

Robert Puls, business development consultant at Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas, said that Jonell offers quality employment opportunities in the area.

“The hands-on technical training will enhance the skills of current workers in performing maintenance and supporting changing industry and customer requirements,” he said.

Trainees at Jonell will include application engineers, assemblers, machine operators, material handlers, mechanical designers, packaging clerks, production control engineers and shipping clerks.

For more information on Jonell, visit jonellinc.com

Registration Rally events for TSTC’s fall semester will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 20, July 20 and Aug. 3 at the TSTC Welcome Center on the Breckenridge campus at 307 N. Breckenridge.

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

(BRECKENRIDGE) – Mercedes Burkhart, 23, of Stamford is studying Vocational Nursing at Texas State Technical College in Breckenridge and is scheduled to graduate with a certificate in December. She is a 2012 graduate of Stamford High School in Jones County.

Is helping people in their times of need instilled in your family? “I’ve always been in health care. I watched my mother, who was a social worker, work with her cases. Nobody in my family is a nurse, but I knew I wanted to help people.”

How did you learn about TSTC in Breckenridge? “I’m already a certified nursing assistant and I work at Hendrick Health System in Abilene. After years of schooling, I decided to complete something. I wanted to get some type of certificate. My fiance’s stepmother works at the campus in recruiting. She talked to me about TSTC and the Vocational Nursing program in general. I heard more by word of mouth and applied. When I turned my packet in, that’s when I saw the campus for the first time.”

What is a typical week like for you? “We wear scrubs to clinicals. I work Sunday nights and have class at 1 p.m. on Mondays. Tuesdays are all-day classes until 4 p.m. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, I do clinicals at Cisco Nursing and Rehabilitation (in Eastland County), so I have to wake up at 4 a.m. and drive from Abilene to Cisco. On Fridays we do not have classes, so I catch up on homework and then go back to work on the weekends.I also do a lot of volunteer work.”

Did you participate in SkillsUSA Texas’ state contests held in late March at TSTC in Waco? “I gave a prepared speech in which I picked three topics and combined them into a five- to seven-minute speech. I did Family, Career and Community Leaders of America in high school, which was a lot like this. I was the first person from Stamford to go to FCCLA’s national competition twice.”

What advice would you give to high school students thinking about college and careers? “I wish someone had told me about technical schools instead of four-year universities. Coming from a smaller town to a large university was a culture shock. You should actually look into your options and don’t let someone push you where they need you to go. Go where you feel comfortable.”

Texas had more than 78,000 licensed practical and vocational nurses in spring 2016, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Woodlands-Houston-Sugar Land area had the largest concentration of vocational and practical nurses in the state, with more than 12,800 employed.

There were more than 70 full-time licensed vocational nurses in Stephens County as of September 2016, according to the most recent information from the Texas Board of Nursing. Most of the county’s licensed vocational nurses worked in general practices, geriatrics, surgical areas and home health. Jones County had more than 130 full-time licensed vocational nurses as of September 2016, according to the state board of nursing.

For more information on TSTC’s Vocational Nursing or other technical programs, go to tstc.edu.

(BRECKENRIDGE) – Texas State Technical College is helping to keep quality medical care available in Stephens County.

“The local Vocational Nursing program has been a tremendous asset to our field physicians in our hospitals, nursing homes and clinics,” said Virgil Moore, executive director of the Breckenridge Economic Development Corporation and a member of The TSTC Foundation Board of Directors. “It definitely helps fill a gap, and we are fortunate in Breckenridge that we have something like that available. Most rural communities do not.”

TSTC’s Breckenridge campus offers a certificate in Vocational Nursing and currently has 12 students in the program. Students take classes in basic nursing, pharmacology, medical terminology, medication administration and applied nursing skills. Some of the training is done on medical simulation dummies that can be programmed to mimic a range of health situations.

“The program covers a wide variety of skills,” said Trisha Otts, interim director of the Vocational Nursing program in West Texas, but who will become permanent director at the end of February. “We get a lot of the students straight out of high school. The main hurdle is getting clear background checks from the Texas Board of Nursing.”

There were more than 70 full-time licensed vocational nurses in Stephens County as of September 2016, according to the most recent information from the Texas Board of Nursing. Most of the county’s licensed vocational nurses worked in general practices, geriatrics, surgical areas and home health.

Chris Curtis, practice administrator at Breckenridge Medical Center, which is owned by Stephens Memorial Hospital, said a majority of the nurses are TSTC graduates.

“Without the nursing program, we would really struggle to find nurses,” Curtis said. “TSTC is where they all come from. They do their clinical sessions at the clinic and the hospital, and this gives them an idea of what they want to do in their careers.”

The technical college is a tool Moore uses to attract new companies to the county.

“Finding skilled labor is a big challenge,” Moore said. “The smaller the area you are talking about, the more of a challenge it is. A lot of times we rely on basically a promise that we are going to supply you with a skilled workforce, and you tell us the skills you need and we can train the people locally to fill those jobs. It’s worked out really well for us.”

Otts, a graduate of TSTC, said she envisions working with area school districts in the future to try to provide dual enrollment opportunities for high school students interested in nursing.

Open House will be held at TSTC in Breckenridge from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24. For more information, go to tstc.edu/openhouse.

BRECKENRIDGE – Teresa Purcell was a pioneer, studying as part of the first cohort in the Environmental Technology program at Texas State Technical College in Breckenridge. Now, Purcell has come full circle to teach that same program.

The Albany, Texas resident began teaching in the Environmental Technology program at the start of the fall 2016 semester, and she said the program has grown quite a bit since its inception.

“When we started, we had one classroom and all of our equipment was in a closet,” Purcell said. “To come here now to this lab they’ve built for the students and all of the different types of equipment, the opportunities are incredible. They train at every level possible so they can be able to go out there and say, ‘hey, I’ve trained on that. I’ve learned that. I want to be part of that.’”

Purcell broke into the environmental field while working at a law office in Shreveport, La. A friend of hers joined the Environmental Technology program at TSTC and persuaded her to come along.

“I thought I would like to work toward environmental law, because I wanted to stay with the law aspect,” Purcell said. “So we joined the program together. Once I graduated and got to experience a different field, I decided I was going to stay away from the law aspect of it because I enjoyed being outside and doing things for the community.”

Purcell wanted to join the TSTC team for the camaraderie and to help guide students.

“When I went through the program, the staff and my classmates were like a second family,” she said. “They were caring, always there for you no matter what. I wanted to become part of the team because I know they help the students succeed. We guide them in the direction they need to go. I just felt like TSTC was an opportunity to be able to give back to students and share my knowledge and experience with them.”

Before working at TSTC, Purcell worked as a field chemist in Dallas, an environmental tech in Abilene, a senior environmental tech in Iraq and, most recently, a project manager in Port Arthur.

Purcell’s favorite part of teaching at TSTC is doing hands-on work with the students.

“We’ve started quite a few projects here in the classroom, and being able to show them how to do this is great,” Purcell said. “What I’ve heard is that we’re the talk of the campus because of the things we’re doing here. They’re excited about the things we’re doing. It makes me feel good. Twenty years ago I never thought I’d be here doing this.”

For more information on TSTC’s Environmental Technology program, visit tstc.edu.

Texas State Technical College’s Real Education on Addiction Can Help (REACH) Club will hold a BINGO fundraiser from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, July 29, at TSTC’s Breckenridge Technology Building in Breckenridge.

The REACH Club was started in 2004 by two TSTC Chemical Dependency Counseling students to raise funds for scholarships and educate the community about addiction.

This fundraiser, which will be held for the second time since its debut in 2005, will not only raise awareness about addiction, but will also raise funds for student scholarships.

“We will have informational brochures set have out and, of course, take the opportunity to talk to people about addiction,” said Patricia Bundick, a Chemical Dependency Counseling instructor at TSTC and the faculty adviser for the club.

Bundick hopes the community will come out to enjoy the activity with the club.

“We want the community to be aware of what’s available here,” she said. “We also want the community to be able to participate in helping students.”

BINGO prizes so far include candles, gasoline gift cards, yard art and restaurant meals.

The Breckenridge Technology Building is located at 415 N. Breckenridge Ave. For more information on the fundraiser, call Bundick at 254-559-7721.