![\"Denzel](\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Denzel-Gore-01.jpg\")
<\/a>Denzel Gore is a long way from home. The 24-year-old now lives in Dallas but is originally from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, a tiny little island paradise in the Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\nIn 2010 he was one of 20 St. Croix students who got scholarships to Texas State Technical College as part of an industry partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty excited. It\u2019s not often people get full scholarships to college,\u201d explained Gore. \u201cIt was a little overwhelming coming to Waco. I came from a small island. My first impression was that everything was huge here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gore says he was also surprised at how friendly people were on the college campus and in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cComplete strangers said hi. Faculty and staff were so welcoming to us. They made us feel right at home,\u201d said Gore.<\/p>\n
Gore earned an associate degree in Instrumentation Controls and Robotics. He credits faculty for his academic success.<\/p>\n
“Instructors were always there to help. They were there if you didn\u2019t have transportation or if you were running behind in class,\u201d said Gore. \u201cTSTC faculty make sure you succeed. You get their full support, including one-on-one training and tutoring.”<\/p>\n
And Gore says it was the faculty that helped him get a job with Koch Pipeline, which operates pipelines that transport crude oil and petroleum products. He worked in Corpus Christi right after graduation and recently transferred to Dallas.<\/p>\n
In a few weeks he\u2019ll be celebrating five years with Koch Pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have connections with TSTC. Faculty will call and check up on me. They come to Dallas and call so we can do lunch. Maybe it\u2019s a Texas thing. I just love it,\u201d said Gore.<\/p>\n
Last month he traveled back to Waco to recruit TSTC students for his company. He says he was honored to represent Koch Pipeline and delighted to see so many old friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad Koch sent me back,\u201d said Gore. \u201cAll these kids would come up to me. I can\u2019t believe that just a few years ago I was in their shoes looking for my first job. Some of them were taking classes I had taken. We could really relate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gore travels back to St. Croix once a year, but he says Texas is now home. \u00a0He says he has no regrets about moving to the Lone Star State. He wishes more students knew about TSTC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would encourage students to do their research. Learn more about TSTC. You won\u2019t just get an education and a career,\u201d explained Gore. \u201cYou will get a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information on TSTC programs and locations, visit us online at tstc.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lynda Lopez Denzel Gore is a long way from home. The 24-year-old now lives in Dallas but is originally from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, a tiny little island paradise in the Caribbean Sea. In 2010 he was one of 20 St. Croix students who got scholarships to Texas State Technical College as part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1519,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions\/1519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}