(MARSHALL, Texas) – The website militaryfriendly.com ranks Texas State Technical College as a Top 10 school for military veterans in its 2023-24 Large Community College category. Many members of the college’s staff are United States military veterans themselves, and helping other veterans transfer into the workforce is especially important to them.
TSTC’s Marshall campus provost Barton Day retired as a chief master sergeant and aircraft avionics technician after serving in the Air Force for 30 years. He worked briefly as a defense contractor for Barksdale Air Force Base before coming to TSTC, where he has worked for 12 years.
“I came to TSTC because I fell in love with the mission and core values,” Day said. “Both aligned themselves well with my military service, and it seemed like a natural fit.”
The Marshall campus’s newest enrollment coach, Robert Thomas, served in the Army for 21 years. He was a career counselor for nine of those years, which fits well with his current position.
“Here at TSTC, we can show (military veterans) jobs that they qualify for to learn the skills they didn’t learn in the Army,” Thomas said.
At TSTC’s Marshall campus, over 50 students are military veterans or receive veteran benefits.
After graduating from high school, Welding Technology student Matt Fain immediately transitioned to the Navy, where he served for 27 years. He plans to graduate with his certificate of completion in August 2024, and he recommends a TSTC education to military veterans like himself.
“(TSTC) knows what they’re doing, and they make it a really easy transition to go from the military and back into school again,” Fain said.
Process Operations student Landon Dixon served in the Army for three years before following in the footsteps of several family members to attend TSTC at the Marshall campus. He is working toward his Associate of Applied Science degree and plans to graduate in December 2024.
“In a way, (TSTC) is kind of like being in the military because you’ve always got somebody to go to if you have a problem and can’t figure it out,” Dixon said. “They had everything I really needed.”
For more information on TSTC’s veteran services, go to tstc.edu/admissions/veterans.
Registration for the spring semester is underway. For more information, visit tstc.edu.
