(HUTTO, Texas) – Texas State Technical College in East Williamson County is hosting three Texas A&M University engineering students taking classes this summer.
Jacob Algaze, Preston Hackney and Grant Stinson are taking nine weeks of classes in the TSTC Welding Technology program in Hutto. The students are part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Bachelor’s+ Program.
Brandon Cernosek, an instructor in TSTC’s Welding Technology program, said the students are great at following directions and have caught on to welding easily.
“They are very driven and very keen to learn,” he said.
Algaze, a Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering major from Round Rock scheduled to graduate in 2023, said his curiosity about welding began last summer when he did an internship at San Antonio-based Chromalloy, where he worked in the engineering shop. He said he enjoyed watching workers perform tungsten inert gas welding.
Algaze said he is learning by way of the welding classes how important communication is between engineers, machinists and welders. He said this should give him an advantage in the workplace.
“I feel like there will be a second space race in our lifetime,” Algaze said about himself and his classmates. “Being a part of that will be insane.”
Hackney, a Texas A&M Materials Science and Engineering major from Austin scheduled to graduate in 2023, said taking the welding classes is a way for him to gain good technical experience. His career goal involves working with metals.
“It’s a lot better than sitting behind a desk,” he said.
Stinson, a Texas A&M Mechanical Engineering major from Dripping Springs scheduled to graduate in 2022, said taking the welding classes at TSTC enables him to see another side to engineering. He said a technical background will enable him to see better what projects are feasible to complete.
“I want to go into the auto industry and do the design aspect there,” Stinson said.
The Bachelor’s+ Program fulfills the students’ ENGR(x) zero-credit-hour requirement for graduation from Texas A&M. To meet the requirement, the engineering students must participate in an approved engineering-centric activity that meets the criteria of a high-impact learning experience, followed by meaningful self-reflection.
For more information on the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Bachelor’s+ Program, go to tees.tamu.edu.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.