Student becomes the teacher

Northeast Texas Community College welding instructor Marcos Sanchez has come a long way since moving to the United States from Argentina at age 10.
The Pittsburg resident, now 25, spoke no English when he moved to the area in 2000. He immersed himself in American culture and quickly caught on like a native speaker. He graduated in the top 25 percent of his class at Pittsburg High School in 2007.
After weighing his options, Sanchez decided to enroll at NTCC after graduation. Though welding had been a part of his life for many years, it wasn’t something he was considering as a long-term career.
“My dad ran a mechanic shop for a logging and plywood manufacturing company in Argentina, so I grew up in that sort of environment. As a teenager, I worked alongside my dad as a welder and started my own company, MC Custom Welding, at the age of 17,” Mr. Sanchez said. “After high school, I really thought I wanted to go into engineering, so I focused more on university transfer classes at first.”
Despite doing well in his classes at NTCC, Mr. Sanchez found himself becoming bored in the traditional classroom setting. On a lark, he decided to add a welding class to his already full schedule.
“I immediately felt at home in the welding shop. Even though I already knew the basics of welding, I found that learning the theory and science behind it made me so much better at it,” Mr. Sanchez said.
Before long, Sanchez was on track to receive an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree in welding. In addition to being a student, he began to take on the role of mentor to other students and became an informal assistant to program director Sergio Sanchez (no relation).
“I can’t really describe how it happened, but I began to transition from the role of a student to that of a teacher – and I found that I really enjoyed explaining concepts and helping other students,” Mr. Sanchez said.
He graduated from NTCC in 2009 with a 3.44 GPA. The next semester, Sergio Sanchez contacted about the possibility of teaching welding classes in the evening for NTCC. In 2012, Sanchez became a full-time faculty member at the age of just 23.
“Teaching at NTCC is very rewarding. There hasn’t been a day that I woke up and said, I don’t want to go to work, and that is very rare,” Mr. Sanchez said. “Being able to come ot work every day and do something I love is tremendous.”
He says that one of the most rewarding aspects of his job is seeing his students go on to find happiness and success in their own careers.
“I recently had a former student stop by to tell me that I had literally saved his family. Before enrolling at NTCC, he had been on a dead-end track and did not know how to provide the life he wanted for his family,” Mr. Sanchez said. “Now he makes a comfortable living as a welder. To know that I played even a small part in helping that family is an amazing feeling.”
One of his first actions as a full-time faculty member was to create the NTCC Welder’s Association.
“I found that the welding students weren’t as engaged in the college experience as they could be. Through the Welder’s Association, students are now bonding through social events and community service projects,” Mr. Sanchez said.
According to Mr. Sanchez, teaching is about much more than passing along technical knowledge – it’s about developing lasting relationships.
“Students who complete the welding program at NTCC go out in to the world knowing that they have the skills they need to be successful and that they are backed by a network of peers and instructors who really care about them,” Mr. Sanchez said.
 

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