Student Ambassadors

Today, Aaron Norman is going to blog about our Student Ambassadors. He is uniquely qualified since he is President of the organization this semester.

Student Ambassadors is an elite organization on our campus. Members are required to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5. Our duties are to assist faculty and staff at New Student Orientations, we assist recruiters in aquiring new students, and generally help assimilate new students into their TSTC surroundings. Currently, we have fifteen members.

As a member of Student Ambassadors, we have many opportunities to get involved that other students might not. For example, my most memorable experience was assisting with Tech Trek 09. Tech Trek is a summer camp that TSTC has for high school students. In addition to several experiments and activities on campus, we take the visiting students on several field trips. On one trip,we took the students to Shreveport, Louisiana. They got the opportunity to go to Sci-Port and visit Barksdale Airforce Base. I really enjoyed Barksdale! We were able to board some planes and sit in the cockpits. We were "debriefed" by an Air Force Officer that spoke about the technological breakthroughs the military is establishing, and we were able to see future police dogs train.

Overall, I describe being a Student Ambassador as a serious responsibility with loads of fun sprinkled throughout. If you are interested in becoming a Student Ambassador, you need to make sure you are in good academic standing with the school and then contact Debra McIntosh at (903)923-3205.

Being Successful - Is There An App For That?

OK, there are a lot of smart people in this world; even a lot of motivated people and a few clever ones here and there. This week I had the opportunity to interview someone who has all three of these characteristics, TSTC student Robb McMahan.

A little history about Robb: He first moved to Marshall, Texas from Tennessee because he was doing website production for Kenny Wayne Shepherd, blues/rock guitarist from Shreveport, Louisiana. He started working for the Marshall News Messenger as their Website Producer and continued to share his knowledge of the music business by mentoring local musicians and songwriters in east Texas. On a whim one day, he decided to stop at Texas State Technical College and was escorted right to my office. He told me he wanted to take a couple of programming classes (C++ & Java) but really wasn’t after college credit. I signed him up through Continuing Education and off he went. About a year later, he showed back up and said he had really enjoyed those classes and wanted to get the entire A.A.S. degree in Software Engineering. He’s been going to school ever since and will graduate Fall 2009.

Well, Robb enjoys programming so much that earlier this year he sent himself to two programming workshops. One was in San Francisco and taught how to create applications for the iphone. The other was in Salt Lake City and focused on the 3D gaming platform Unity. Shortly after attending these workshops, Robb released his first iphone application, a game entitled Spacewalk 3D. Apple approved the game and began selling it in the iphone store. Since that time, Robb has created 5 more iphone applications, one of which is a mirror, or reflective device, that can change colors or be used as a flashlight. Instead of selling this application, Robb offers it for free in the iphone store. Why would he do something like that? “I make more money off of that application than any of the ones I sell. People pay me to place an ad on the application. Right now, the mirror app has been in the top 100 downloads in the itunes store and is about to be in the top 50.” The profit he’s making from the advertising well makes up for not charging people to download. And downloading the mirror app is exactly what 8,000 people world-wide are doing each day, not counting the 20,000 ad views that he’s getting on those banner ads people pay him for!

So what I wanted to know was whether or not Robb felt that his education at TSTC had helped him in these new ventures. I was not disappointed. “What I learned here was definitely the foundation to everything else I’ve learned. I learned the foundations of programming, the languages and the concepts. Plus, I absolutely love the faculty here. I can’t say enough about the program or Phyllis Hollingshead. Her dedication to her students is unmatched,” says McMahan. He marvels at how Ms. Hollingshead is able to get very difficult concepts across in a variety of ways.

He also credits Greg McDaniel, his Algebra and Trigonometry instructor, with helping to develop one of his apps, Mood Almanac. The purpose of this piece of software is to calculate a person’s bio-rhythms and predict what kind of mood they’re going to be in on a certain day. Robb was having trouble getting the calculation to work so he went to his instructor. McDaniel gave him a trigonometry function that worked like a charm!

Robb’s other apps include Twitpickr, used to see updates to friends’ Twitpic accounts, Photo Finder & Background Buddy, that use Flickr as their search engines. Now you understand why I said he was not only smart but motivated and clever!

It’s all three of those characteristics that have gotten him to his next big adventure, moving to California and going to work for TCS, a third-party contractor for Apple. He will actually be working at Apple headquarters near San Jose, California. Robb said since it was getting close to graduation, he went to monster.com and updated his resume to include his iphone app development. Calls from prospective employers started the very next morning and are still coming in at an average of 2 a day. He is excited and ready for his big move, even though the company has been very hush-hush about what he’s actually going to be doing. His title is Senior Software Developer but all he knows is he’ll be working on something “really big” that Apple plans to release in 2010.

As far as advice for others thinking of going into software development, Robb says, “The profession is a really good one to be in. Technology is always advancing. Just think about it, just two years ago, we didn’t have iphones. You do need to be detailed and patient to write code.” He also says that this career is definitely for someone who likes working at and with computers. They might find some of the programming concepts difficult at first but will probably catch on. “I could probably go look back at the first program I wrote and laugh. I never dreamed when I started taking classes that it would lead to this,” he chuckled.

Enrollment

We are extremely happy with our increased enrollment this fall. Following is an article that appeared in the Marshall News Messenger on September 19, 2009:

Texas State Technical College-Marshall has set a new student enrollment record.

School officials say a total of 973 students have registered at the college this fall semester. TSTC Dean of Enrollment Management Suzanne Carter said 946 students were enrolled on campus last year.

Of the students who registered for classes beginning Aug. 31, 252 were new students, 464 were returning students and 257 were dual-credit students.

Ms. Carter said the institution has seen a 20 percent increase in new degree and certificate students and a 24 percent increase in returning students.

"Our labs, classrooms and parking lots are full and we have seen a significant increase in students living on campus," said Ms. Carter.

Although enrollment numbers increased by 27 students from last fall, the change falls short of the enrollment numbers Ms. Carter had predicted in the summer.

Ms. Carter said previously she felt student enrollment could possibly exceed 1,000.

Ms. Carter said there were a number of contributing factors to the rise in enrollment, including the current job market and unemployment rate, an increase in the amount of funds from the Pell Grant and "expanded recruitment territories with increased emphasis on career and technology students in high schools and dual credit" programs.

Expounding on the impact of the Pell Grant, Ms. Carter said the increase has allowed students to be less dependent on student loans as they are able to use more of the money to pay for student costs such tuition, fees, books, school supplies and campus housing.

Ms. Carter said, in addition, the college has seen a rise in the number of unemployed workers enrolled at the school, meaning more students have been eligible to receive educational benefits from the Workforce Investment Act and Trade Adjustment Assistance programs — two federally funded programs for displaced workers. The funds are administered through local workforce enters.

Ms. Carter said laid-off workers from such companies as General Motors in Shreveport, La., U.S. Steel in Lone Star and Dana Corporation in Longview currently are enrolled at TSTC.

When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be A....

Today's guest blogger is Ann Scoggin, Admissions Advisor/Recruiter. We hope her post makes you stop and think, "Do I really know what all is required to go into my "dream" occupation?"

Traveling is a major part of my job. I travel to many cities and many schools and speak to many students. One of the first questions I ask is if they have any plans after they graduate. Basically, what do you want to be when you grow up? I encourage each and every student I meet to chase their dreams; yet, I also think it is important to fully understand those dreams and the amount of work required to accomplish those dreams. In this blog, I would like to highlight some of the answers and explore some of the professions in depth.

One occupation that I hear, rather consistently, is Marine Biology. It sounds interesting but what is it? Usually, when I ask the student what they plan to do in that field, I get a shrug and some mumbling about dolphins. So, I looked it up. Loosely, it is defined as the field of knowledge relating to marine organisms. Digging a little deeper, I found this definition: A marine biologist is someone who works in some way studying, observing, protecting, or managing marine organisms, be they plant or animal.

It turns out marine biologist can hold a variety of jobs and very few of them have anything to do with dolphins (they are actually marine mammalogists). Marine biologists can be a:
-Teacher in a university or high school
-Researcher
-Laboratory Technician
-Resource manager for public agencies (the EPA for example)
-Technician or field worker in consulting company
-Biologist working for environmental advocacy organization
-Biologist working in aquarium or zoo

For instance, The National Aquarium in Baltimore is currently looking for an Aquarist. The individual will be required to provide assigned specimens with day-to-day care. They must maintain exhibits and equipment. They are expected to participate in the acquisition, disposition, and acclimation of specimens. They will participate in the design and construction of exhibits and reserve tanks. Plus, they will be responsible for directing approximately two hundred volunteer divers who help maintain and feed animals. That sounds like a really interesting job. Let’s take a look at the requirements.

The individual selected for this job must have a bachelor’s degree in Biology, Oceanology, or a related field. The person must be SCUBA certified and have at least one year of experience. They must have knowledge of aquatic biology, basic chemistry, and the ability to apply them. In addition, they must be proficient in aquatic diseases, husbandry techniques, life-support technology, and basic aquarium maintenance.

In my research, I found an article by an instructor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. He stated that any individuals interested in this field need to take classes, starting in high school, that deal with biology, chemistry, physics, math, engineering, hydrodynamics, climate studies, computer skills, and writing. He also stated that the field is very competitive and that most employed marine biologist have master degrees and Ph.D’s.

I understand why people are so fascinated with Marine Biology. If that interests you and you are regimented enough to tackle the curriculum, I applaud you. On the other hand, if you would just like to work at an aquarium and get to see dolphins and other marine organisms on a daily basis, perhaps, Industrial Maintenance would be a nice fit for you. TSTC in Marshall offers this degree in both the form of a one year Certificate of Completion and a two year Associate of Applied Science Degree. You would know how to work on all the pumps, compressors, and valves that make up the habitats that the aquatic creatures call home. Granted, Shamu might not be jumping out of the water to grab his lunch out of your hand, but, you could be there, daily, for the show!

If you have no idea what career you should go into, contact TSTC for a free career assessment. You can take an interest inventory, skills assessment and values assessment and then we’ll sit down with you to evaluate the results. There’s a right fit for everybody and we want to help find the right fit for you!

Let's Talk About Moodle!

TSTC has recently transitioned to using Moodle for our online course delivery. To talk about Moodle, today's guest blogger is Bryan Maertins, Coordinator of Educational Technology:

As many of you know, over the past three years TSTC has used the Blackboard Vista learning management system for our hybrid and online courses. However, as of 1 September 2009, we now use the open-source product, Moodle, as the main source for online content. “Open-source” simply means that the programming code is available to anyone who wants to use and modify it, which means that the ideas of many can be used to make the product better. Moodle, currently, is in more than one-hundred-sixty-eight countries world-wide, utilizes various languages and is gaining ground in popularity and usability for many colleges and universities around the globe. I guess, the most compelling question asked by users, perhaps, is “What does ‘Moodle’ stand for?,” or “What’s a noodle, I mean a Moodle?” Well, I’m glad you asked… Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, which represents the creator Martin Dougimas’ belief that if you put people together who interact with their environment, great things happen and the student begins to construct his/her own learning through various experiences and interaction (see Martin Dougimas' philosophy).

So, now that you know a little bit about this new transition, check it out. Your online courses can now be found at: https://mycourses.tstc.edu/ or by clicking Marshall Moodle on the Marshall DL tab from the MyTSTC portal.

Happy Moodling!

Student Receives Presidential Coin

According to Wikipedia, a challenge coin (aka military coin) is a small coin or medallion bearing an organization’s insignia or emblem and is carried by the organization’s members. They are given to prove membership when challenged and to enhance morale. The tradition of military coins is said to have started with the United States Air Service (now the United States Air Force)during World War I and then spread to all other branches of the military. Some argue that they began earlier and some say later. Whatever the true origin, military coins have become quite significant to the modern U.S. military.

With this background in mind, it is no surprise that our President, Randy Wooten, also known as Retired Air Force Colonel Wooten, has minted his own Presidential coin. President Wooten does not bestow this award to just anyone, and it's especially rare for a student to receive one. Today, Alyssa Langford became the 3rd TSTC Marshall student to receive this honorable token from the President. She was given her coin in front of Wooten's Presidential Council for her graphic design contributions to the college. Some of these designs include computer wallpaper, various student activities and most recently, the new banners that hang from our campus lightpoles.

Alyssa just started her fourth semester here as a full time Multimedia Publishing student. She actually began taking classes with us as a dual credit student and was able to finish most of her academic requirements while still in high school. Her contributions to our campus are definitely worthy of recognition and we know she'll be successful in whatever she decides to do after obtaining her degree. And as a side note, this author is especially proud of her because she is my daughter! Congratulations Alyssa!