(MARSHALL, Texas) – Jhailin Gomez, of Hallsville, is a Process Operations student at Texas State Technical College, but her journey into the field began in the eighth grade.
“I was always familiar with process operations because I have multiple relatives that are in the field,” she said. “It wasn’t until I was about 12 or 13 years old that I made that decision (to continue the family tradition).”
In high school, Gomez prepared herself for college by earning an Occupational Safety and Health Administration certification, taking related classes and promoting process technology to other high schools as a student representative. This presented her with scholarship opportunities, and gave her an advantage in TSTC’s Process Operations program.
Gomez admitted there are times where she worries about going into a male dominated field.
“Whenever I do feel like that, I put in double the work, I put in double the time, I put in double the effort to prove to everybody else that I am a girl, but I can still do this. I am physically challenged, but I can still do this,” she said.
Brandon Hearnsberger, a Process Operations instructor at TSTC’s Marshall campus, said Gomez regularly comes to the lab outside of class, even during holiday breaks.
“She’s a good student,” he said. “She goes above and beyond.”
Gomez said her instructors are determined to see her and her classmates succeed. They even helped her find alternative study methods when she was suffering from health issues earlier this year.
In turn, Gomez does her part to help her classmates succeed, which she finds rewarding.
“Most of my favorite memories here (at TSTC) are just me helping everybody else because we’re all in this program together,” she said. “We all just want to get a good paying job, we all want to succeed in our lives,” she said.
Gomez is studying for an Associate of Applied Science degree. She said, in five years, she wants to be a plant operator in a metropolitan city like Dallas or Houston.
Registration for the fall semester at TSTC is underway. For more information about TSTC, go to tstc.edu.