Area high school students learning about diesel equipment at TSTC

(RED OAK, Texas) - Robert Medina Jr., a senior at Waxahachie High School, has grown up around diesel equipment. His father is a truck driver, and Medina has often helped to fix his trucks.

Medina is able to learn more about diesel-powered engines by taking dual credit classes at Texas State Technical College's North Texas campus. He is in his second year in the college's Diesel Equipment Technology program.

"I like putting my hands on things to learn better," he said.

Medina said he wants to continue studying Diesel Equipment Technology after graduating from high school.

"I actually want this to be a career," he said. "I want to get my associate degree here (at TSTC). I enjoy getting my hands dirty on the trucks."

Medina has advice for high school students considering dual credit classes.

"It's a great opportunity to take and learn," he said. "You can give it a try."

More than 40 high school students from Dallas, Duncanville, Maypearl, Midlothian, Red Oak and Waxahachie are taking dual credit classes this year in TSTC's Diesel Equipment Technology program.

Johnny Peace, an instructor in TSTC's Diesel Equipment Technology program at the North Texas campus, is in his second year of teaching dual credit students. He said that while some of the high school students had challenges adjusting to college-level classes, he admires them for getting assignments completed on time and doing what is asked of them during hands-on labs.

"They think it is going to be easy, but it is not," he said.

Angel Castillo, a senior at Waxahachie High School, said he was interested in earning college credits when he signed up for the first dual credit classes he took during his junior year.

"I always knew you could learn how to work on regular automobiles," he said. "But to work on diesel you have to have custom equipment, and you can't do that everywhere."

A self-described hands-on learner, Castillo said the hardest thing about his dual credit classes is the online work.

"The fun part is getting to work on the trucks and working with my classmates," he said. "We actually get to work in the mornings and put in the labor. It boosts me the rest of the day."

Castillo said he wants to continue at TSTC after graduating from high school.

"Going to TSTC means the quickest way to get to work and make money, especially for my family," he said.

Registration continues for the spring semester at TSTC. For more information, go to tstc.edu.

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