(RED OAK) – Texas State Technical College in North Texas held its annual open house Friday, opening its campus for tours and to meet with faculty. The event, designed for prospective students who want to learn more about the college, hosted more than 300 visitors.

Shannon Gaspard, TSTC director of Student Recruitment, said the event was successful.

“We’ve doubled our attendance from last year, which is great,” Gaspard said. “This year, we also partnered with Region 10 and Region 11 and we worked with them to get the word out about our event to students. It worked out a lot, and we now have recognition in a lot of those different counties with the schools.”

Gaspard said it’s also a win for the instructors.

“Now you have students who are learning about different programs,” she said. “We have a group who’d never heard of welding and had never been in a welding lab, but they’re racing to welding now because they’re interested in learning more about it, taking a look at the equipment and just seeing the different cool things that are made from like a simple cutting machine.”

Renvy Smith, a teacher from LEAP Academy in Midlothian, said the school only brought a small group, but they had a good time.

“They had an idea of what areas they were interested in, so we visited those,” Smith said. “The students did enjoy those areas.”

John Tanner, CTE teacher at Cleburne’s Team School, brought about 20 students to the event. He said they also enjoyed it.

“The students had a good time,” he said. “I think they learned a lot.”

All of TSTC’s programs participated in the event.

“The programs were doing a sort of show-and-tell,” Gaspard said. “So they’re showing the equipment and tools, but they’re also doing different types of competitions in their labs. Industrial Maintenance had cranes and were showing the students how the hydraulics and all these different parts equal out to what you do in the field. They’re doing that while moving building blocks, and whoever stacks them the tallest wins.”

Gaspard said one of the most popular sessions of the day was the “TSTC Experience.”

“That was the session where students could learn more about what we offer, the programs and how to apply,” she said. “We were at capacity every session.”

Another aspect the students loved was the game room.

“We had some fun games, like one where you have to move a cookie from your forehead into your mouth without using your hands,” Gaspard said. “Students loved it!”

TSTC will begin registering students for the summer and fall semesters on Monday, April 2. For more information on the college, visit tstc.edu.