Texas Border Business
Valley International Airport (VIA), Texas State Technical College (TSTC) in Harlingen, and Harlingen EDC are teaming up to send 20 students this April 15th to Houston, for a unique, one day, behind-the-scenes tour of Johnson Space Center NASA to be led by top NASA Engineers.
This past November, during the Annual SpaceCom Conference in Houston, representatives from Valley International Airport and Harlingen EDC met with some NASA engineers. The NASA engineers were impressed with Harlingen Aerotropolis Propulsion Test Center 3D Renderings created by TSTC Students enrolled in the Architectural Design and Engineering Graphics Technology program (ADEG) a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) degree program. The NASA engineers proposed to host a special tour for the students.
“Because of the Aerotropolis project and what it brings to the community, current and future generations of Architectural Design & Engineering Graphics Program, students will be exposed to exciting STEM related careers and Aerospace Engineering innovations,” said ADEG chair and instructor David Campos.
“This will be awesome experience for them to see STEM skills applied at NASA , hopefully it will expand their minds to the future career possibilities in the aerospace industry right here in the Rio Grande Valley” said Marv Esterly Director of Aviation VIA, The TSTC students will fly Southwest Airlines from Valley International Airport in Harlingen to Houston’s Hobby International Airport, and be shuttled to NASA.
Upon arrival they will spending the day learning about the history of NASA space missions, International Space Station, and current and future Mars Mission. Students will interact with robotics and see how STEM is applied in all areas of space technology.
TSTC looks forward to building the partnership with VIA and Aerotropolis in the future to bring more STEM education opportunities to TSTC and students of all ages in the area. According to Dr. Stella Garcia, TSTC Provost, “one of the unique qualities of earning a degree from TSTC is that our students gain knowledge and skills not only in the classroom and labs but from experiential learning projects such as this. TSTC is truly thankful to VIA for allowing our students the opportunity to apply their skills to this project and for connecting our students to this career changing networking opportunity.”
“This is just the beginning, as our aerospace cluster develops, we will need to show potential prospects that we have a readily-available workforce to meet their needs. Initiatives such as this trip help develop that workforce and helps us bring jobs to Harlingen. “Raudel Garza, Manger and CEO, Harlingen EDC.
If you would like to learn more about this trip or sponsor a student please call Amy Lynch South Texas Director of Development The TSTC Foundation at 956-364.4500 or email my.lynch@harlingen.tstc.edu see also this vide fro HEDC: https://harlingenaerotropolis.com/
