(MARSHALL, Texas) – Orlando Cerda was raised by his single mother who did her best to provide a good life for him. Now, as a single father, he is determined to do the same for his son.
“They’re always my biggest inspiration and I thank them for all they do,” Cerda said of his mother and son.
Cerda, of Longview, enrolled in the Building Construction program at Texas State Technical College’s Marshall campus, making him part of the program’s first cohort.
He tried attending a different college in the past, but found the experience less than satisfactory. That was not the case with TSTC.
“I’m treated like an actual person, as I should be,” Cerda said. “Everyone (at TSTC) is treated like family.”
Even though balancing school and raising a toddler is not easy, Cerda is determined to overcome any challenges just as his mother did.
“My grandparents take care of (my son) while I go here and as soon as I get off, I go pick him up and take care of him,” he said. “It gets hard sometimes, but I’ve found a decent school life and parent life balance.”
Todd Holloway, a Building Construction instructor at TSTC’s Marshall campus, called Cerda a model student.
“He works really well with all of the other students, does good work and tutors when it’s needed,” Holloway said. “He shows up early and sometimes leaves late.”
Cerda, as well as Marshall’s first Building Construction cohort, will receive certificates of completion from TSTC in summer 2026.
According to onetonline.org, first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers earn a median annual salary of $73,420 in Texas, with 9,190 job openings projected in the state each year between 2022 and 2032.
Building Construction is available at TSTC’s Fort Bend County, Harlingen, Marshall, New Braunfels, Sweetwater and Waco campuses. The program offers two Associate of Applied Science degrees and a certificate of completion.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.