TSTC’s Career Services department hosts two companies for student visits

(WACO, Texas) – Texas State Technical College’s Career Service department hosted two industry spotlights for students on Wednesday, May 29, at the Waco campus.

Trisha Cantu, a recruiter at ST Engineering – San Antonio Aerospace, talked to students in the Aircraft Airframe Technology, Aircraft Powerplant Technology and Avionics Technology programs.

Cantu said the company has about 1,100 employees in San Antonio, with 25,000 workers globally. People who start working at the company participate in a six-month hands-on apprenticeship. When completed, employees earn a Level 1 aviation mechanic certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Some of the positions the company needs to fill include avionics mechanics, composite mechanics, and quality control inspectors.

Cantu said the coronavirus pandemic changed how the company finds qualified workers.

“We had to change our viewpoint to find experience and leadership skills,” she said. “Promoting from within is huge. We want people to progress.”

Ryan Kizer, of Allen, is an Aircraft Airframe Technology and Aircraft Powerplant Technology student scheduled to graduate this summer from TSTC. While he has a job offer at an aviation company in Grand Prairie, Kizer said he wanted to learn about ST Engineering because he had not heard of them.

“You never know what benefits others have so you can compare,” he said.

Greg Godsey, an architect at Heritage Restorations in Waco, spoke to students in the Drafting and Design program. The architecture, construction and restoration firm is located at Homestead Heritage, an agrarian- and craft-based intentional Christian community.

Godsey told students about the firm’s work providing services for timber-framed buildings. He said the firm seeks out timber from Dutch- and English-style barns built as early as the mid-1750s in New York state.

“The client wants to see all the timber they can get,” Godsey said.

The firm has eight employees.

“We are a unique bird,” Godsey said. “You have to find someone with the demeanor that wants to be there.”

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.