TSTC Welding Students Create Sign for Former High School Teacher

(WACO, Texas) – Daniel Gormley and Travis Kight have known each other since they were in middle school in Boerne. Now they are in their fourth semester as Texas State Technical College students studying Welding Technology.

The students are completing a special project that is sure to make Dorman Vick, their former welding instructor at Samuel V. Champion  High School in Boerne, happy.

“He (Vick) texted me and asked for the (TSTC Welding Technology) instructor’s phone number,” Gormley said. “He wanted a sign to hang in the shop.”

Vick, who came from the welding industry to pursue teaching, said several of his students in the last 16 years have studied at TSTC’s Waco campus. He said he is impressed with TSTC’s advanced pipe welding class and the instructors.

“I rank you all (TSTC) the best after-high school welding program in the state,” Vick said. “I rank you all high in the nation.”

Gormley and Kight designed, produced, polished and painted a special rectangle-shaped sign bearing the TSTC logo and an image of a welder. The students created the sign as a project in the Welding Automation class taught by Richard Vargas. The students used Lincoln Electric’s Torchmate software to create the design.

“The students are excited to learn on the computer numerical controlled plasma table,” said Vargas, a TSTC Welding Technology instructor. “They like to get really creative on their projects.”

The students said they have enjoyed expanding their knowledge beyond the metal inert gas welding and shielded metal arc welding they learned in high school. The students said they have learned about tungsten inert gas welding and robotics at TSTC.

Gormley said TSTC’s Waco campus was the only college he visited before enrolling, but Kight initially planned to pursue firefighting.

“I came to look at TSTC with Daniel,” Kight said. “I did welding in high school, and I grew to really like it.”

After graduating in December, the students said they are interested in pursuing pipeline work.

“Find out what you are good at,” Gormley said. “Don’t get stuck with something you will hate.”

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.