{"id":1420,"date":"2017-04-03T18:15:44","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T18:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=1420"},"modified":"2017-04-03T22:51:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T22:51:52","slug":"waco-autism-center-receives-sign-made-by-tstc-welding-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=1420","title":{"rendered":"Waco Autism Center Receives Sign Made by TSTC Welding Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 People driving on Morrow Avenue in Waco can see a new \u201csign\u201d of progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Opportunity Center, a day center for adults with autism, has a new steel and solar-powered sign made by three Texas State Technical College students. Welding Technology majors Andrew Hatton, 20, of Round Rock, Joshua Beck, 38, of Lewisville and Nick Kanak, 22, of McDade recently installed the sign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the sign means we are here and are in the community,\u201d said Brandy Abel-Clark, the center\u2019s director. \u201cThe standard of the sign will hopefully show the standard of our service.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hatton, 20, has done volunteer work at the center and is popular with its students.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are so nice and fun to be around,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hatton wanted to put his hands-on skills to good use and thought of creating the sign as a TSTC American Welding Society student chapter project. Hatton got support for the project last summer from the chapter\u2019s members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beck and Kanak worked on specific parts of the sign, and TSTC instructors from the Welding Technology, Auto Collision Technology and Solar Energy Technology programs provided technical expertise during its production.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it turned out great,\u201d said Beck, a 1997 graduate of Lewisville High School and a U.S. Navy veteran. \u201cIt\u2019s a little more real-world than being in the classroom. This is the first time I have ordered metal from the yard and gotten materials from a steel mill. Andrew was the one pushing everything. I was doing the logistics and motivating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The more than six-foot-long sign\u2019s final design is a depiction of the cover of The Opportunity Center\u2019s pamphlet. The puzzle pieces attached to the sign are lit by solar power.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt ended up being cool,\u201d said Hatton, who attended the University of Texas \u2013 University Charter School on the campus of Methodist Children\u2019s Home in Waco. \u201cI\u2019m pretty happy with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Opportunity Center hosts people ages 18 and up who can have their senses invigorated with regimented sessions of exercise, outdoor lessons about the environment, pottery, sewing, arts and technology. The center has a calming sensory room and a work space for one of the students to create beadwork to build entrepreneurial skills. The center is open three days a week but will expand to five days a week in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVisiting the center was an experience for me seeing the different options for people and their reactions to Andrew,\u201d Beck said. \u201cIn talking to Brandy, I could see she is enthusiastic and she cares.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Center staff have future goals of increasing their web and social media presence, developing a community herb garden and improving visibility in McLennan County.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Opportunity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 People driving on Morrow Avenue in Waco can see a new \u201csign\u201d of progress. The Opportunity Center, a day center for adults with autism, has a new steel and solar-powered sign made by three Texas State Technical College students. Welding Technology majors Andrew Hatton, 20, of Round Rock, Joshua Beck, 38, of Lewisville […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1422,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420\/revisions\/1422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}