Brendan Batchelder

Brendan Batchelder
College: Paris Junior College, Main Campus
State: Texas
GPA:  4.0
Current Major: Biology. 

Career Goal: Brendan plans to become a doctor specializing in pathology with an additional interest in research and development. His passion for medicine started when he took a combat lifesaver course. 

Brendan’s mother immigrated from Mexico, and he is a first-generation college student. In high school, he failed biology and ended up with a 2.1 overall GPA. He didn’t think school was for him, so he joined the Marine Corp. Once he completed his military service, he decided to give community college a try and it has changed his life. The accessibility of mentors has helped him tap into his potential and believe himself. Ironically, he now loves biology! He plans to transfer to Texas A&M and possible pursue both an M.D. and a Ph.D. Additionally, he spends his time getting real world experience by volunteering at the Paris Regional Medical Center.

When he’s not at school, studying, or parenting his two children, Brendan contributes a significant amount of time to advocacy efforts that result in additional funding for Texas Community Colleges. He works with three Texas non-profits – The Young Invincibles, The Education Trust, and Breakthrough Texas – who collaborated to provide the student perspective to a commission reviewing Texas higher education policy and funding. Brendan was invited to serve on the Inaugural Student Advisory Council. He focused on advocacy, researching policy priorities across community college affordability, student loan debt, support for postsecondary success, workforce development, healthcare, and civic engagement. His participation has included volunteering to speak in multiple events, volunteering for interviews, creating one-pagers of student issues, and regular networking to promote awareness of the current funding situation. He regularly spoke with students to gather opinions and issues and performed independent research to share recommendations with legislators. Legislation is currently in session and if the recommendation for additional funding is passed, it will be made into law. 

https://edtrust.org/press-release/introducing-the-texas-community-college-student-advisory-council/

Brendan also serves as his PTK Chapter’s Vice President of Leadership and leads the chapter’s College Project.  He also has served as a Student Representative for the Community College Association of Texas Trustees Conference.