Texarkana College’s ‘Summer Fest’ Is This Friday From 11 till 2!

Join Jim Weaver from the Wakeup Crew for the second annual Texarkana College Summer Fest this Friday, July 13 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at TC’s Pinkerton Fitness Center located on Coolidge Avenue. This free event will offer food, fun and college registration opportunities.

The community is invited to join Texarkana College staff, students and faculty as they beat the heat with this indoor event. Families are welcome to bring their children to the event for fun and a free lunch. Children can enjoy a bounce house, games and face painting offered by TC cosmetology students. Adults will have the opportunity to win fast cash in a money booth.

Summer Fest will also allow people access to all of the resources they need to get started in college, including financial aid specialists, advisors, Educational Opportunity Center specialists and general information. Representatives from the TC workforce division and Community and Business Education Center will be present to talk to those interested in non-traditional career education opportunities.

“We are looking forward to making this event even bigger and better than last year,” said Amanda Graham, TC Executive Director of Academic Services. “This is my first event with TC, and I look forward to the opportunity to showcase all that TC has to offer to our community.”

Registration for fall has already begun, and now is the time to complete the registration process to avoid wait times. While children enjoy the event’s festivities, adults and prospective students can learn everything they need to know about the registration process at TC.

“Higher education has become even more important in recent years,” said Graham. “Employers want educated employees, and in order to fill job vacancies, we need to focus on equipping our students with the tools they need to be successful in the workforce. We want to make the college application and registration process as easy and accessible as possible so that more people feel confident in pursuing a college degree or certificate.”

Summer Fest attendees will also have access to information about TC’s brand new 16-week manufacturing certificate featuring coursework shaped by local manufacturing and industrial employers. The course will focus on job readiness and provides graduates with the skills they need to be prime applicants for entry-level jobs at local industries.

“We are so excited to be rolling this course out for the first time this fall,” said Brandon Washington, TC Dean of Workforce and Community & Business Education. “Based on our conversations with local employers, there has been a need for this certificate course for a long time. This certificate will help prepare applicants to show up on time and practice the basic soft skills you need to be successful in a job, plus train them on safety and other key components of entry-level manufacturing jobs.”

Washington said this certificate will benefit students who seek entry-level manufacturing jobs but don’t have enough experience on their resume to land an interview.

“Employers understandably don’t want to spend time and money training someone who’s going to stop showing up two weeks into their paid training,” he said. “Students who apply for positions and show that they’ve completed this certificate will prove to employers that they’ve got what it takes to get to work as reliable employees.”

To find out more about Summer Fest, go to learn.texarkanacollege.edu/summerfest. To find out more about registration, courses and more visit www.texarkanacollege.edu. For those who can’t make it to Summer Fest but would like to learn more about getting started at TC, enrollment services and financial aid offices are open Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m., and Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Current and future students can stop by or make an appointment by calling 903-823-3012.