More Students Get Hands-on Training

Mrs. Brenda McGurgan, an instructor at Byron Martin Advance Technical Center, Lubbock, Texas, teaches C-Tech for her high school students and also the Adult Education Class at night.  Her high school students gained real-world experience when Mr. Joe Marnell, the IT Director at Wayland Baptist University, asked Brenda for help with the wiring for their new classrooms.

Joe had been taking the Fiber Optics Adult Education Class with Brenda.  Brenda took her high school students to the University and they walked into a situation where several classrooms had been recently renovated and needed network connectivity.  The unfinished work consisted of pulled cable and terminated drops in the classrooms.  The students soon discovered that the drops were not terminated correctly and the telecommunications closet drops did not meet industry standards for termination.  The students re-terminated all the wall jacks in the classrooms and installed two patch panels in the telecommunications closet.  They tested all the cables and labeled them for future use. 

After the high school students completed the wiring at Wayland Baptist University, the Adult Education class completed their training and took the certification test.  Cox Communications visited the school on the night of the exam and interviewed each technician present for three position openings they had.

 Brenda has been and instructor for C-Tech at Byron Martin since her training in December of 1999.   Currently Brenda and Dusty Thomas, also a C-Tech instructor, are conducting Fiber Optics classes at the Adult Training Facility.  This advanced class for adults is a collaborative venture with South Plains College through the Workforce Development programs and provides adults in the community an opportunity to learn a marketable skill.