(WACO) – A Texas State Technical College instructor in the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Technology program recently received a nationwide scholarship to attend a professional development conference later this spring.

David Brannen, lead instructor of the Waco campus program, was one of two recipients of the D. Brian Baker Memorial Scholarship, which covers travel, lodging and registration for the 2018 National HVACR Educators and Trainers Conference on March 26-28 at the South Point Hotel Casino and Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada. The scholarship is sponsored by the Council for Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Educators and HVAC Excellence.

This will be the first time Brannen has attended the conference, the largest gathering of HVAC instructors in the nation.

“I want to talk to educators and see what we are doing well and what we need to do better on,” he said.

Brannen said he would use the trip to tell as many conference attendees as possible about TSTC’s mission of strengthening the Texas workforce. The HVAC program on TSTC’s Waco campus has more than 100 students, with 25 of them starting their first semester in the program this spring.

“We always have more jobs than students,” Brannen said. “We have to figure out how to get them in here.”

The scholarship also covers a one-year membership in the Council for Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Educators.

The other recipient of the scholarship was a Delaware high school teacher.

Lance Lucas, TSTC’s statewide HVAC program chair, said he was proud of Brannen’s selection.

“We want to learn from David how HVAC teachers are teaching throughout the nation,” Lucas said.

Brannen, 39, grew up on farm in Axtell and is a graduate of Axtell High School. During his junior and senior years of high school, he took automotive technology classes at Connally High School. He worked for several years and graduated in 2010 from TSTC with an associate degree in refrigeration technology, which is now part of the HVAC program.

Brannen has taught at TSTC for four years and is also a licensed HVAC contractor and certified master electrician.

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