(MARSHALL, Texas) – Andrea Gladden never would have guessed that enrolling at Texas State Technical College would pave the way to owning a business along with her husband.
“I achieved my goal and it led to this,” Gladden said about graduating from TSTC with a degree in Computer-Aided Drafting, which is now the college’s Drafting and Design program.
Gladden, a Louisiana native, originally enrolled to boost her career as a drafter for a local surveying company. The Marshall campus had repeatedly caught her eye. Gladden said attending college as a nontraditional student felt strange, but she developed a good rapport with her instructors.
“TSTC means an opportunity for all ages to be able to go to school,” she said.
The knowledge Gladden gained from her work as a draftsman helped her graduate at the top of her class.
“I understood the real-world events and I knew the importance of what I was doing,” she said.
After Gladden received her associate degree from TSTC in 2015, her husband expressed his desire to open a business with her.
“He decided that we needed a future and it was something we could do to earn extra money,” she said. “He had years and years of experience in the door business. I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”
Gladden and her husband combined his knowledge of doors with her TSTC degree to create B&A Doors — a company that installs and maintains residential, industrial and commercial garage doors. Their dedication to customer satisfaction has earned them patronage from residents to Love’s Travel Stops.
“Our motto when we first began was ‘We’re country folks, community minded, here to help,’” Gladden said. “We fulfill that every day.”
Lawanda Duke, Gladden’s assistant, has worked for B&A Doors for three years.
“She’s extremely compassionate, very helpful, loves all of her employees, and tries to help everybody all the way around the board,” she said about Gladden. “She knows just about everything when it comes to these doors, and if she doesn’t know, she gets the answer pretty quick.”
Drafting and Design is available in a hybrid format at TSTC’s Harlingen, Marshall, North Texas and Waco campuses, as well as online. Several associate degrees and certificates of completion are offered.
Registration for the summer and fall semesters at TSTC starts Monday, March 30. For more information about TSTC, visit tstc.edu.