(WACO, Texas) – Some staff members representing nationwide insurance company GEICO presented six vehicles to The TSTC Foundation for use by Texas State Technical College’s Automotive Technology program and Auto Collision and Management Technology program on Friday, Jan. 31, at the Waco campus.
The vehicles are from GEICO’s Vehicle Donation Program. Two vehicles each will go to the Fort Bend County, Harlingen and Waco campuses for students to use for training purposes in hands-on labs.
“Support from our industry partners allows us to reach our full teaching potential,” said Sarah McDonald, a field development officer for The TSTC Foundation. “This gift, along with others like it, provides our students and programs the opportunity to hone their technical skills using real-world applications.”
Dustin Lindsey, a GEICO auto damage supervisor for the Central Texas region, said while vehicles are as safe as they have ever been, they often require full calibrations to repair.
“Y’all certainly have the knowledge base for students and can build the next generation of auto body technicians,” he said of TSTC.
The Automotive Technology and Auto Collision and Management Technology programs will debut this fall at the new Transportation Center of Excellence at the Fort Bend County campus in Rosenberg.
“We are certainly not shy to receive anything that will be useful for our students and faculty,” said John C. Kennedy, associate provost of TSTC’s Fort Bend County campus. “We are grateful to GEICO for their generosity.”
Miguel Zoleta, a program team lead for Automotive Technology at TSTC’s Harlingen campus, said it can be difficult to get vehicle donations.
“These vehicles will help in the training that the students are going through because they can take a look at different systems on an actual running vehicle and not only on trainers,” he said. “We have been able to purchase some vehicles for the students to work on, but we have to be cautious on how much we disassemble them because we also use them for recruitment purposes.”
Matthew Mills, an instructor in TSTC’s Automotive Technology program, said hands-on work is essential for students. He said it is important for students to have as much exposure as possible to the kinds of vehicles they will see in auto repair shops.
“That is the make-or-break if they will be a good technician,” Mills said.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.
