Tyler Junior College will award 1,282 degrees and certificates for the spring 2018 semester.
Candidates for graduation will be recognized during spring commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 11, in Wagstaff Gymnasium.
TJC will hold three commencement ceremonies:
• 10 a.m. -- School of Engineering, Mathematics and Sciences and the School of Humanities, Communications and Fine Arts
• 1 p.m. -- School of Professional and Technical Programs
• 4 p.m. -- School of Nursing and Health Sciences
TJC Chancellor and CEO Dr. Mike Metke will confer the degrees and certificates of proficiency and certify the graduates.
State Sen. Bryan Hughes will offer the invocation and benediction at the 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. ceremonies.
TJC will award degrees to 15 Chapel Hill High School students receiving associate degrees before their high school diplomas -- as well as the first 11 graduates of the new TJC Veterinary Technician program and 10 graduates from the second class of graduates from the Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene program.
During the 10 a.m. ceremony, the high school students, all from Chapel Hill’s early college program Chapel Hill Collegiate, will cross the stage to receive Associate of Arts degrees, followed by TJC North’s inaugural class of veterinary technician graduates. The dental hygiene graduates will be recognized in the 4 p.m. ceremony.
Chapel Hill Collegiate
Chapel Hill Collegiate began in fall 2014 as collaboration between Chapel Hill High School and TJC.
“We created this program with a desire to turn a college-going culture into a college-graduating culture, and today we celebrate this first class of graduates and congratulate them on this remarkable achievement,” Metke said.
Recruitment for the program is held during the students’ eighth-grade year, then an information session is held for parents, and students apply through a blind application process.
Per state requirements of early college high schools, the program is free for students. TJC has waived the tuition and fees, and Chapel Hill ISD covers the cost of textbooks and other supplies.
Chapel Hill Collegiate students spend part of their day in an area dedicated solely to the program. They take their academic classes together, likely core subjects, then mix with the rest of the high school population for lunch, electives and extra-curricular activities.
Tyler ISD opened its Early College High School in collaboration with TJC in 2015 and will begin graduating students from that program in May 2019.
TJC Vet Tech
TJC’s vet tech program opened in the fall 2016 semester at TJC North, located at The Cannery in Lindale.
Veterinary technicians work in a variety of animal-related fields, from small animal clinics to emergency centers, zoos and large farms.
“It’s an intensive, two-year program,” said Dr. Louisa Schmid, veterinarian and program director. “There are 60 hours of classroom and clinical work; and upon graduation, students are eligible to take the national exam to become licensed veterinary technicians, or LVTs.”
With TJC’s two-year Associate of Applied Science degree, a licensed veterinary technician can assist the veterinarian in almost all aspects of animal care in every veterinary occupational field, from companion animal medicine to agricultural production industries to public health work to zoo animal management to biomedical research.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics currently projects that this field will grow 52 percent by 2020. In Texas, salaries range from $25,000 to $45,000 per year. The 2010 median pay for a veterinarian technician in Texas was $29,710 annually, or $14.28 per hour.
TJC Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene
TJC is the first and only community or junior college in Texas authorized to offer a Bachelor of Science degree.
In early 2015, TJC leaders put a plan in motion to pursue legislative approval for the degree. Legislative action was granted in late 2015, after then-State Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, State Rep. Travis Clardy, R-Nacogdoches, and Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, sponsored companion bills in the Texas Legislature to create the program.
In December 2017, three graduates walked the stage and received the very first Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene degrees from TJC.