(RED OAK, Texas) – Several Electrical Power and Controls students at Texas State Technical College’s North Texas campus have paid internships with Texas Instruments (TI), a major semiconductor design and manufacturing company.
“Texas Instruments internships are especially important to TSTC students because they provide direct, hands-on experience in the high-demand semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industries, which aligns perfectly with TSTC’s mission to prepare students for immediate employment,” said Lee Cockrell, an Electrical Power and Controls instructor.
Among these students are Rodolfo Palacios, Jonathan Rodriguez and Eric Sy.
Palacios, of Corsicana, has been interning as an equipment technician for TI’s Richardson location since June 2025.
“I wanted to get some experience in the technician field, add it to my resume, and try out something new that I hadn’t before to see how my perspective on it could change,” he said.
Palacios said both TSTC and TI have taught him a lot about tools, and he has been told that if he keeps working hard, the company will offer him a full-time job when he graduates.
Rodriguez, also of Corsicana, worked in fast food before a friend told him about TSTC’s Electrical Power and Controls program and the possibilities that it offered. He is an engineering technician intern for TI’s Dallas location. He said the skills he has gained at the company and all that his experienced coworkers have taught him have been rewarding.
“I didn’t see myself going back to school after high school, and now I’ve done all this,” Rodriguez said. “I’m one step closer to getting my degree and I actually have a job right now that’s along the lines of my degree. That’s what I’m proud of, to be able to say that.”
Rodriguez said he hopes to extend his internship with TI and eventually receive a full-time job.
Sy, of Carrolton, said working in fields like control engineering runs in his family, with his father having worked for TI before he retired. He said he gained a further understanding of his father’s previous job after TI held an employer spotlight at TSTC which led him to apply for an internship with the company. He is interning as a failure analysis technician at TI’s Dallas location.
“For a long time, I didn’t have anything to look forward to, but when I heard I got the internship, it gave me more motivation to start my career and figure out my purpose,” Sy said. “The longer I’m there, the better I’m getting.”
Palacios, Rodriguez and Sy plan to receive their associate degrees in Electrical Power and Controls from TSTC in May 2026.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.
