SAN ANTONIO - Hallmark University students are helping to make history. They are part of a new program to learn to assemble fighter planes.

The school's College of Aeronautics was chosen by F-35 creator Lockheed Martin to train graduates to help build their next generation of fighter planes in Fort Worth. The company recently increased their number of planes and need to hire 1,800 new technicians over the next 18 months.

These were the first group of ten students, and ten more are scheduled in the near future.

"They're looking forward to being able to talk to their children, their grandchildren decades from now and looking at documentaries of one of the best fighters in history and being able to say I was a part of that. I was able to build that," said Hallmark University President Brent Fessler.

To qualify, students must first earn their 15-month associates degree in aviation maintenance technology, then complete an additional two week training for Lockheed Martin.