{"id":3313,"date":"2018-08-17T22:35:43","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T22:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3313"},"modified":"2018-08-18T03:15:07","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T03:15:07","slug":"tstc-holds-summer-2018-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3313","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Holds Summer 2018 Commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(ABILENE) \u2013 More than 130 graduates received certificates and associate degrees at Texas State Technical College\u2019s Summer 2018 Commencement held Friday, Aug. 17, at the Abilene Convention Center.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rick Denbow, provost of TSTC in Abilene, Breckenridge, Brownwood and Sweetwater, said the night was a time to celebrate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFor the graduates, tonight is an achievement,\u201d Denbow said. \u201cThe sacrifices you made to get homework and tests done and being experts at time management was all worth it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guest speaker <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Samuel Garcia, owner and operator of Samuel Garcia State Farm Insurance and a board member at Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas, said he was a fan of TSTC\u2019s mission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Garcia told graduates to think about others who have not experienced higher education. He told them to value the certificates and associate degrees they were receiving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTonight is about you,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cTomorrow is about you talking about what education can do for a person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some graduates will continue on with their education.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Devan Moore, 30, of Abilene is a U.S. Army veteran who received a certificate in Wind Energy Technology from TSTC in Sweetwater.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI want to say that it is a sense of accomplishment,\u201d he said. \u201cThe best times were when I was up-tower in a wind turbine and applying what I learned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moore will be one of the first students in the new Industrial Maintenance Technology program starting this fall at TSTC in Abilene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some graduates already have jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pamela Hermosillo, 21, of Breckenridge earned an Associate of Applied Science degree in Chemical Dependency Counseling from TSTC in Breckenridge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She has been hired to work at the Walker Sayle Unit, part of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Hermosillo also did her practicum at the prison.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou learn a lot from the inmates,\u201d she said. \u201cYou understand what they are doing in their addictions to drugs and alcohol.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some graduates are continuing their job hunt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Robert Wiley, 24, of Abilene received an Associate of Applied Science degree in Computer Networking and Systems Administration from TSTC in Abilene. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI enjoyed being around other students pursuing their career goals,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wiley had several people in attendance at the graduation ceremony, including his parents and members of his church congregation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Luis Rueda, 20, of Colorado City received a certificate in Welding Technology from TSTC in Sweetwater. He earned dual credit through TSTC when he was a student at Colorado High School in Colorado City.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy brother started welding a lot,\u201d Rueda said. \u201cWhen he talked to me about it and said it was cool, that caught my attention and I just got into it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rueda said he wants to get a welding job in the Midland-Odessa area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Caydon Vara, 19, of Brownwood received an Associate of Applied Science degree in Emergency Medical Technology from TSTC in Brownwood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI want to go to the fire side of it,\u201d Vara said. \u201cIt runs in the family. It\u2019s a calling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier in the day, the Associate Degree in Nursing Pinning Ceremony for TSTC in Sweetwater nursing graduates took place at an Abilene church.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more information, log on to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3495-WT-Summer-2018-Commencement.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3314\" src=\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3495-WT-Summer-2018-Commencement-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3495-WT-Summer-2018-Commencement-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3495-WT-Summer-2018-Commencement-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3495-WT-Summer-2018-Commencement-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3495-WT-Summer-2018-Commencement-624x416.jpg 624w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3495-WT-Summer-2018-Commencement.jpg 1427w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(ABILENE) \u2013 More than 130 graduates received certificates and associate degrees at Texas State Technical College\u2019s Summer 2018 Commencement held Friday, Aug. 17, at the Abilene Convention Center. Rick Denbow, provost of TSTC in Abilene, Breckenridge, Brownwood and Sweetwater, said the night was a time to celebrate. \u201cFor the graduates, tonight is an achievement,\u201d Denbow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abilene","category-breckenridge","category-brownwood","category-sweetwater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313","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=3313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3315,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions\/3315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}