{"id":2309,"date":"2017-12-01T16:45:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T16:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=2309"},"modified":"2017-12-01T22:27:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T22:27:29","slug":"tstc-student-plants-career-with-family-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=2309","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Student Plants Career with Family Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 The first steps on the mountain that Talgat Pate continues to climb started in Almaty, Kazakhstan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pate, 23, of Brenham and a student at Texas State Technical College in Waco, spent the first 10 years of life at an orphanage in the former Soviet republic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom had me at maybe 13 or 14,” he said. “I have biological siblings in Kazakhstan I have never met. I was schooled at the orphanage, where they would throw algebra problems at us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pate will finish classes for his Associate of Applied Science in Biomedical Equipment Technology in December and quickly begin work at his family\u2019s company, CardioQuip, in Bryan. His job as a biomedical field services technician will count toward the degree\u2019s required internship, which means he will receive his degree in the spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be traveling many places across the United States and other countries troubleshooting and calibrating cardiovascular medical equipment,\u201d Pate said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Overcash, lead instructor in TSTC\u2019s Biomedical Equipment Technology program, said he was impressed with Pate\u2019s positive attitude. Pate took three classes with Overcash.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is very teachable,\u201d Overcash said. \u201cTo me, it is amazing to see what he has come from and what he has done and how his future is very bright.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pate met the couple that would eventually adopt him when he was 8 while on a two-week visit to Texas as part of the Here I Am Orphan Ministries nonprofit Christian ministry. The adoption took two years and included securing a birth certificate, Social Security number, a passport and other legal paperwork.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI never received love from anyone,\u201d Pate said. \u201cI lived an orphan life by following the rules and working a lot as a kid. When I was adopted, my parents showed me the compassion and love that I never had. That was when I turned my life around.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He grew up with three siblings that were born to his parents and five adopted sisters from Colombia, along with an adopted brother from Kazakhstan. The family is in the process of adopting an American foster child. Their ages range from 14 to 36.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly it is a lot of fun seeing the variety of cultures and to understand each other,\u201d Pate said. \u201cWe have problems and fight over things, but we care for each other and help each other out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pate grew up speaking Russian and Kazakh. When he came to Brenham to live permanently, he was home-schooled for the first year so he could grasp the basics of English.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother would help me read baby books and help me pronounce words,\u201d Pate said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pate was enrolled at Grace Lutheran School in Brenham for third grade and later jumped to fifth grade because of his age. He eventually moved on to Brenham Christian Academy, where he graduated in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

He attended Blinn College for two years to improve his reading skills and take academic courses. Pate researched online and found TSTC after relatives encouraged him to pursue biomedical equipment technology as a career.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have enjoyed the hands-on work and not just sitting at my desk,\u201d Pate said. \u201cThe technical college has taught me discipline and how to work with people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

TSTC offers the Biomedical Equipment Technology program at the Harlingen and Waco campuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

(WACO) \u2013 The first steps on the mountain that Talgat Pate continues to climb started in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Pate, 23, of Brenham and a student at Texas State Technical College in Waco, spent the first 10 years of life at an orphanage in the former Soviet republic. \u201cMy mom had me at maybe 13 or […]<\/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-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309","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=2309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2311,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions\/2311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}