{"id":1577,"date":"2017-05-15T20:12:15","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T20:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=1577"},"modified":"2017-05-15T20:12:15","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T20:12:15","slug":"tstc-dual-credit-student-found-career-in-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=1577","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Dual Credit Student Found Career in High School"},"content":{"rendered":"

(HARLINGEN) – Back in 2002, Daniel Cortez was a senior at Rio Hondo High School with a spark of interest in automobiles and mechanics.<\/p>\n

The Los Fresnos native knew a four-year university was not in his future, in fact he was not even sure if college was for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no plans to go to college,\u201d said Cortez. \u201cI planned on working in the automotive industry, I didn\u2019t think I needed college for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Cortez was already working on hot rods and engine swaps.<\/p>\n

It was not until Cortez\u2019s high school counselor told him about TSTC that he began thinking about taking classes and enrolling as a dual enrollment student in Automotive Technology.<\/p>\n

As a dual enrollment student like Cortez, the serving school district invests in a student\u2019s future by paying for the college courses, saving a student a year\u2019s tuition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI figured it doesn\u2019t hurt to learn more about my field while saving money,\u201d he said. \u201c\"Daniel<\/a>Dual enrollment allowed me to explore my career options before having to pay for college myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from high school Cortez continued with the program, working his way through college and completing every automotive course offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program was great,\u201d said Cortez. \u201cI got to work with my hands and get exposed to new areas in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the training he received made all of the difference in his career and he credits the instructors.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery instructor has real-world experience,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything we cover they have done it themselves and they are able to share with us their experiences and know-how.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez now works as the General Manager at Bayside Marine Inc. in Port Isabel, a boat manufacturer, dealership and maintenance shop. He started there 12 years ago in the service department and has worked his way up to his current position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the opportunity presented itself I knew nothing about boats,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I figured mechanics is mechanics and TSTC prepared me enough to go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez said there was still a lot to learn in marine mechanics and specialized trainings he needed to complete, but the lessons in critical thinking he learned at TSTC helped him along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cTSTC enabled me to follow a path,\u201d he said. \u201cIt opened doors of opportunity. For me, a technical college was definitely the way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on Automotive Technology call 956-364-4576.<\/p>\n

Registration for Summer and Fall 2017 is underway. Apply or register anytime at tstc.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(HARLINGEN) – Back in 2002, Daniel Cortez was a senior at Rio Hondo High School with a spark of interest in automobiles and mechanics. The Los Fresnos native knew a four-year university was not in his future, in fact he was not even sure if college was for him. \u201cI had no plans to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harlingen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577","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=1577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1579,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions\/1579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}