(MARSHALL, Texas) – Brendan Hills was given the chance to go back to college after a workplace accident left him unable to perform his duties.
Hills researched several schools within a 200 to 300 mile radius before choosing Texas State Technical College’s Marshall campus.
“For probably the last 25 years, I’ve been a major gearhead,” he said. “For me, it was a matter of, ‘Where do I take my passion in life and how can I make it work?’”
Enrolling in TSTC’s Precision Machining Technology program made Hills feel there was always more to learn. He said he found it most rewarding to go from knowing nothing about machining to being able to make parts in just eight months.
“I don’t just want to get my feet wet because I don’t want to be pigeon-holed into just being an operator or standing at a manual lathe cutting threads all day long,” Hills said. “My point here is to become a well-rounded machinist and part of that is programming, part of that is lathe work, part of that is millwork, and part of that is assembly.”
Hills described Daniel Nixon, a Precision Machining Technology instructor, as an encyclopedia of machining. He hopes he can reach the same level of expertise in the future.
“Brendan Hills has a tremendous work ethic,” Nixon said. “He stays on task in class work as well as lab work. He has improved a lot this semester and continues to improve daily.”
Hills plans to earn his Associate of Applied Science degree this December. He said he would like to work in aerospace machining due to his and his family’s fascination with airplanes.
“If I can’t work on them, if I can’t fly them, making parts for them is just as good as it can be,” he said. “Everything that’s taught here at TSTC is something that is exceedingly important for the day-to-day operations of a lot of general usage.”
According to onetonline.org, computer numerically controlled tool programmers earn a median salary of $62,160 in Texas, and the number of these jobs was projected to grow 47% between 2020 and 2030.
Precision Machining Technology is available at TSTC’s Fort Bend County, Harlingen, Marshall, North Texas, Waco and Williamson County campuses. The program offers an Associate of Applied Science degree and two certificates of completion.
Registration for TSTC’s summer and fall semesters is underway. For more information, go to tstc.edu.
