{"id":3358,"date":"2018-08-27T15:05:12","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3358"},"modified":"2018-08-27T19:49:07","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T19:49:07","slug":"tstc-opens-industrial-technology-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3358","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Opens Industrial Technology Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(ABILENE) \u2013 The first day of classes had that shiny new feeling Monday at Texas State Technical College.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TSTC opened the Industrial Technology Center on Quantum Loop next to Abilene Regional Airport just in time for fall classes. The building is home to the new Electrical Power and Controls, Industrial Maintenance and Welding Technology programs and is the new location for the Emergency Medical Services program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cStarting today there will be more learning happening out in the labs,\u201d said Rick Denbow, TSTC provost. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a conventional lecture in the class and then go to the lab.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The morning\u2019s first group of Welding Technology students toured the automated and metallurgy labs. This semester the program will have morning, afternoon and evening sessions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greg Nicholas, lead Welding Technology instructor for TSTC\u2019s West Texas campuses, spent time this summer organizing the welding labs. He said he did not sleep much Sunday night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI was thinking on how I would get the information to students,\u201d Nicholas said. \u201cThese are things that go through instructors\u2019 heads.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McKenzie Smallwood, 18, of Odessa heard about TSTC on Pandora and later saw a billboard she considered a \u201csign\u201d to enroll.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smallwood was exposed to welding through her father. She is pursuing the Associate of Applied Science degree in Welding Technology. She said she cannot wait to start welding later this week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to go to a technical college and learn how you do things,\u201d Smallwood said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jacob Rose, 17, of Mertzon was encouraged to attend TSTC by a family friend. He comes to TSTC with welding experience from Irion County High School, where he graduated earlier this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rose was in a whirlwind of excitement as he moved to Abilene the weekend before classes began on Monday. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to meet new people,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelsie Terry, an Emergency Medical Services instructor, was excited about being in the program\u2019s new location. She said faculty members can now lead students in a mock emergency room and use video for student scenarios. The program was previously housed at TSTC\u2019s East Highway 80 location in Abilene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere\u2019s more tools and resources to make it as lifelike as you can in a setting,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jonathan Brooks, 19, of Avoca said he was inspired to study Emergency Medical Services because of watching people care for his relatives in hospitals. One of the first lessons he learned Monday was how to render a blood pressure reading.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He saw the new building for the first time Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey put a lot of work into this,\u201d Brooks said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Construction on the 56,000-square-foot Industrial Technology Center began in June 2017. The building is the first on what is planned to be a 51-acre campus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TSTC\u2019s newest building among its 10 campuses was designed by Parkhill, Smith &amp; Cooper, which has offices in Abilene and throughout Texas. Imperial Construction Inc. of Weatherford used local subcontractors where possible to construct the building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3611-resized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3359\" src=\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3611-resized-300x185.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3611-resized-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3611-resized-768x473.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3611-resized-1024x631.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3611-resized-624x384.jpg 624w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3611-resized.jpg 1289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(ABILENE) \u2013 The first day of classes had that shiny new feeling Monday at Texas State Technical College. TSTC opened the Industrial Technology Center on Quantum Loop next to Abilene Regional Airport just in time for fall classes. The building is home to the new Electrical Power and Controls, Industrial Maintenance and Welding Technology programs [&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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abilene"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3358","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=3358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3360,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3358\/revisions\/3360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}