Taylor’s Temple College is one of the two campuses where the administration will offer a new Semiconductor & Advanced Manufacturing Training System, the first of its kind in Texas, starting August 2025.
The system will include two major components — a semiconductor- wafer processing system and a manufacturing line incorporating integrated robotics, robotics maintenance, metallic 3D printing, computer numerical control production, programmable logic-controlled systems, packaging and logistics.
The courses take on added importance as Taylor and surrounding cities become the state’s new high-tech hub, especially with the pending debut of Samsung Austin Semiconductor’s $17 billion foundry, officials said.
“The future is very bright for us,” Taylor Independent School District Superintendent Jennifer Garcia-Edwardsen said following an announcement about the new curriculum. “I’ve been saying that we’re going to be the semiconductor hub of the world. … There are so many opportunities for our kids. I’m just so excited to be part of this journey.”
The college partnered with Advanced Technology Consultants to secure the system from robotics education company Roots Education and with Texas A&M University-Central Texas to co-design and co-deliver the program, allowing students to gain a bachelor’s degree alongside an associate degree.
“That’s what happens when you’re building these things in partnership and not in isolation,” DeDe Griffith, Temple College’s vice president for workforce development, said when college officials visited Taylor Oct. 8 during an area bus tour. “With that is an opportunity for those students to have work-based learning opportunities.”
After the new program announcement, different Taylor leaders and community members — including Garcia-Edwardsen, school board member Marilyn Tennil, Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce President Tia Stone, Taylor Economic Development Corp. President Ben White and Taylor Temple College student Regan Revia — spoke on a panel and shared their knowledge about the Taylor community and economy with Temple College leadership.
They also highlighted how the college can best support the city’s campus.
The visiting group included members of the college’s trustees, foundation board and administrative leadership.
“We care about what’s happening at Taylor,” said Evelyn Waiwaiole, a Taylor native and Temple College’s vice president of resource development and external relations. “These (members of the bus-tour group) are our decision-makers and our policymakers, and they need to know what’s happening so we can come along and serve with you together.”
Stone began the discussion by recounting Taylor’s history compared to the city of Temple, where the college began. Both burgs were founded by railroad companies and named after railroad officials, but Taylor declined to have Interstate 35 go through the city, which runs right through its northern neighbor.
“That’s where our economic fortunes started changing,” Stone said. “When we made that decision, we really valued our farmland. … Before then, we were very well connected to Austin and to the Air Force base. … Later on, we made that decision not to take 35, and our economy suffered from it.”
Tennil and Tim Crow, Taylor ISD’s communications and community liaison, shared with the Temple College visitors what it means to be a Taylor Duck, which is the mascot of Taylor High School.
“New parents would come in with the new students. Those former students began bringing their children to our schools, and now those former students are bringing their grandchildren into the schools,” Crow said. “To get to see three generations is the greatest blessing I can think of working in a hometown for so long.
“To put that in perspective,” he added. “Ms. Tennil was my teacher.”
But keeping the generations in Taylor isn’t easy. Stone said economic decline has often meant residents send their children elsewhere to get jobs.
Many, however, returned after building their careers elsewhere, such as Tennil and Crow.
“We’re Ducks, we are connected, and we don’t like for members of our flock to be forced to go somewhere else to have a good and happy and quality life,” Stone said.
But now, with Samsung and other supporting companies in the city, there are more opportunities for the younger population to jump-start their careers in the city.
“There is no other community in the state of Texas, and maybe the country, that has the momentum that Taylor has at this point in time, with the small-town charm, business incentives, partnerships, availability of land, a willingness to go forward with education and workforce development,” White said. “This is the time to be in Taylor.”
Taylor’s Temple College campus, in conjunction with Legacy Early College High School and the new University of Texas at Austin-Taylor Center, helps facilitate this initiative, officials said.
The school district has 44 freshmen enrolled in dualcredit business courses at the Taylor Temple College campus, and Legacy High School has 86 students earning college credit.
To showcase the college’s impact, Revia shared his story as a student in the computeraided design program. He was led to the college by Samsung representatives he spoke with at a college and career fair he attended in high school in 2022.
“Temple (College) has been extremely beneficial for me,” said Revia, who has three semesters left in his program. “Not only for giving me something that I would enjoy as a career … but it has significantly altered my life for the better and has put me on the track to actually perform and reap the benefits of whatever I can get out of a career.”
After learning about the Taylor community, Temple College board Chairwoman Lydia Santibanez-Farrell asked the panel what future programs they wanted at the city’s campus.
Stone noted that medical programs would be a great addition to help support the growing SPJST nursing facility.
Garcia-Edwardsen added that advanced mathematics and soft skills are other areas the school district wants to help students improve on.
“Let’s continue to do great things,” Garcia-Edwardsen said.
