{"id":2460,"date":"2018-01-24T16:57:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T16:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=2460"},"modified":"2018-01-24T16:57:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T16:57:57","slug":"tstc-alum-receives-technician-of-the-year-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=2460","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Alum Receives Technician of the Year Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

(HARLINGEN) – Texas State Technical College alumnus Sam Garcia was recently named the first Technician of the Year for 2017 at Mercedes-Benz of San Juan.<\/p>\n

The Los Fresnos native, who now calls Harlingen home, has worked with Mercedes-Benz for 34 years. It was his first job after graduating from Texas State Technical Institute, now TSTC, in 1984 with a certificate in Automotive Technology, and he is still going strong as a team leader and master technician.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so grateful to TSTC. It is because of it that I have had a long and successful career,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cI pride myself in my work, and it\u2019s great being recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old comes from a family of six. The fact that his father was the only working parent gave Garcia pressure to find a job and make money quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to grow up fast,\u201d he said. \u201cI had to work to help my parents and help support my younger brothers.\u201d\"TSTC<\/a><\/p>\n

Garcia started his college career at Texas Southmost College, but it was not a good fit for him.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Garcia found TSTI.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was exactly what I needed,\u201d he said. \u201cI was in and out in about a year, and with the support and training I received I was ready to start working and earning an income.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia added that he will never forget the support he received from his instructors. To Garcia, the help he got in the classroom for finding a job was invaluable.<\/p>\n

Immediately after graduating, Garcia received a job offer from a Mercedes-Benz dealer in San Benito, where he started as a technician\u2019s helper. He later continued his career with Cardenas Metroplex in Harlingen.<\/p>\n

TSTC changed his life in more ways than one. It was at the college that Garcia also met his wife. They have been married for 31 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cTSTC gave me a career, a wife, three kids and a grandchild,\u201d Garcia said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Garcia hopes to return to TSTC, not as a student, but as a mentor for others. He said he is interested in giving other students the same kind of help his TSTC instructors gave him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve returned to judge a couple of automotive competitions,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I hope I can get the opportunity to become a mentor, take students under my wing and guide them in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia added that he is impressed with all of the success stories TSTC creates and hopes his mentoring can help create more.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Garcia waits for warmer weather so he can enjoy the outdoors in his Technician of the Year prize: an all-terrain vehicle.<\/p>\n

For more information on TSTC, visit tstc.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(HARLINGEN) – Texas State Technical College alumnus Sam Garcia was recently named the first Technician of the Year for 2017 at Mercedes-Benz of San Juan. The Los Fresnos native, who now calls Harlingen home, has worked with Mercedes-Benz for 34 years. It was his first job after graduating from Texas State Technical Institute, now TSTC, […]<\/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-2460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harlingen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460","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=2460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions\/2462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}