Career Certifications in Deer Park

The Range

For live-fire tests, San Jac CHL's instructors use the range at Pasadena Gun Center.

The Rentals

Instructors rent semi-automatic handguns to students who do not have their own firearms. They also supply safety gear; students can purchase ammo at the range.

At a Glance

San Jac CHL's owner Wes Geddes knows how to safely handle firearms. His career as a deputy constable for Harris County depends on it. When not on duty with the police department, Wes teaches classes that qualify students to apply for concealed-handgun permits. These sessions start in the classroom, where lectures touch on topics such as weapon safety. A live-fire test follows, before students return to the classroom for lessons on gun laws and assistance in completing the required application, with Wes available for help with followup questions.

PADI instructor Bob Henry dove in the Caribbean, South America, and other tropical locales, but he always returned to his home base—B & W Dive Co., a scuba shop he founded in 1991. Since the ‘90s, his children Amber and Warren have taken the reins, carrying on their dad’s legacy by organizing dive trips and helping students earn their PADI certifications. The shop’s classes cover topics beyond open-water diving, though; they can introduce pupils to scuba basics, such as breathing underwater without trading in their ability to breathe on land, or focus on snorkeling and swimming. Visitors can also outfit themselves for solo underwater journeys with dependable aquatic gear, culled from makers such as Oceanic, Tusa, and Sealife.

A nationally renowned tutoring program, Sylvan Learning utilizes a personalized tutoring approach to develop students of all ages and abilities into perceptive pupils. During the initial visit, children will partake in a Sylvan Skills Assessment that reveals areas a child may need help in and serves as a base line for future progress. An erudite educator then leads four one-hour tutoring sessions tailored to young minds' particular needs, covering subjects that include math, reading, writing, and the ethics of alligator wrestling. Polymaths looking to increase their potential can use their customized tutoring sessions to prepare for future algebra tests or fine-tune study skills to get a head start on memorizing next year’s phone book. Sylvan Learning gifts proud progenitors with regular progress reports granting comprehensive summaries of their offspring's progress. All six Sylvan Learning Centers are open Monday–Saturday, with hours in the morning and afternoon to accommodate busy estival schedules.

Combining freeform painting with socializing, Shelley Shanks' Scribble Birds invites artists of all skill levels to join in colorful revelry by providing supplies and instruction in a relaxed environment. Groups gather around canvases and easels on the last Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. for around two hours, grabbing drinks from the nearby bar that can serve as liquid inspiration or as a diluter for watercolor works. Paintbrushes dance across canvases, colorfully waltzing to the tune of the artists' desires and creating an original piece that accompanies students home.

Alfonso Ayala, who's been snapping photos for more than a decade and has professional graphic-design experience, loves to capture life's happiest moments, which is why he specializes in wedding and family photography. He also loves the technical aspect of photography and spends his free time experimenting with lights, equipment, and accessories, such as lens toupees, to figure out what steps he needs to take to capture the best image. Artful close-ups, classic portraits, and candid kisses pepper his portfolio, which represents a range of wedding vignettes.

Tanya Gorguraki and Chris Chung bring more than four decades of combined diving experience to the classes at Dive Zone Scuba, a wealth of expertise that help the facility earned a five-star rating from the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI). The diving duo conducts confined water pool sessions in a heated Olympic-sized indoor pool, allowing students to focus on learning proper dive techniques in a controlled environment away from the ocean’s inconstant currents and heckling fish. Each of their courses equips students with certification in a particular area of diving proficiency, unlocking underwater avenues related to open water diving, rescue, or specialty skills.