TSTC’s Discovery Day highlights technical career pathways for high school students

(HARLINGEN, Texas) – More than 900 high school students and visitors, including some from as far away as San Antonio, toured Texas State Technical College’s Harlingen campus during Discovery Day on Thursday, Nov. 30, to learn more about the career pathways and state-of-the-art technologies that are available at the college.

Stephanie Garcia, TSTC’s student recruitment lead in Harlingen, said Discovery Day gave students an open door to discover how valuable TSTC can be.

“Our support services teams did a fantastic job with all of their program tours,” she said. “Students and parents who had questions met with representatives from student recruitment and enrollment. It was fantastic to see how the students enjoyed our college atmosphere.”

Samuel Pizano, a TSTC Drafting and Design instructor, said the open house was a great icebreaker for the high school students.

“When I spoke about performance-based education (https://www.tstc.edu/you), many of the students had a positive reaction,” he said. “They also seemed to have an interest in our Architectural Design and Engineering Graphics Technology degree plan when I talked about how we do 3D modeling.”

Danny Garcia, a Zapata High School welding teacher, said the Auto Collision and Management Technology program sparked some of his students’ interest.

“Many of my students love repairing their own vehicles,” he said. “They asked questions such as what kind of paint is used on the automobiles and how students put items on a project together.”

Cynthia Ramirez, a college and success advisor for the Region One Education Service Center, was among the visitors.

“We heard that TSTC works with students and helps them gain the knowledge so that they’re successful in life,” she said. “We can hear about what TSTC offers, but seeing the resources firsthand makes a positive impression.”

Registration for TSTC’s spring semester is underway. For more information, visit tstc.edu.