(RED OAK, Texas) – Former stay-at-home mom Alexia Baca set her sights on building a career after her kids graduated from high school. So she enrolled in Texas State Technical College’s Electrical Power and Controls program at the North Texas campus and graduated with her Associate of Applied Science degree last May.
During her fourth semester, Baca was hired by Electrical Reliability Services (ERS), an Ohio-based electrical engineering and testing company where now she is a field technician B at its location in Lewisville, Texas.
“I was pretty proud of myself for not getting into that line of thinking, ‘It’s too late for me,’” she said.
Baca said because several people in her family work in the electrical field, she wanted to follow in their footsteps.
“My husband told me that a lot of the guys that came into this field came from TSTC, so it’s a very popular name — everybody knows it,” Baca said.
Baca described the Electrical Power and Controls program as a comfortable, fun and occasionally competitive environment.
“My school was such a big help,” Baca said of the difference that her education at TSTC made for her at ERS.
Adam Hayes, a class B technician for ERS and an Electrical Power and Controls graduate from TSTC’s Waco campus, has worked with Baca since May 2024.
“She’s proactive about making sure things are held to a high standard,” Hayes said of Baca. “She’s continually striving to understand. If she doesn’t understand, she takes notes and then continues forward with whatever is going on.”
Baca said she would be interested in teaching Electrical Power and Controls at TSTC after she gains several years of experience in the field.
“TSTC equals opportunity to me,” she said.
According to onetonline.org, electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians earn a median salary of $69,720 in Texas, where the number of these jobs was projected to grow 11% between 2022 and 2032.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.