Luis Corona (left) and Ben Dubose show off their plaques as 1st place winners in Auto Refinishing and Collision Repair at the SkillsUSA State competition in Corpus Christi.
Stuart Career Center Program
has a History of Producing Winners
By: Susan Passmore
It is not surprising that Goose Creek CISD students from the Collision Repair and Auto Refinishing classes at Stuart Career Center are going to SkillsUSA Nationals again. In fact, the program has a history of producing winners.
Ben DuBose, a senior at Goose Creek Memorial High School, will compete in Collision Repair, and Luis Corona, a senior at Ross S. Sterling High School, will compete in Auto Refinishing at the national competition in Kansas City, MO, in June after winning 1st place at state in Corpus Christi. The wins at state for the students, under the direction of James Wheeler, auto collision and refinishing instructor at SCC, included $10,000 scholarships. DuBose, who competed at nationals last year, performed timed estimating, structural analysis, welding, sheet metal straightening and plastic repair. Corona took a written test and was required to perform a timed estimate, color match a panel, blend a panel and apply sealer, primer base and clear coat on a panel of bare metal.
“The program has a long history of industry involvement so that the students are well aware of the skills used today. It is definitely relevant to their lives, so they have a strong interest in it and want to do well with it,” said Renea Dillon, director of career and technical education. “Students receive hands-on learning as well as classroom instruction about techniques.”
Josselyn Cruz, a graduate of GCM in 2014, won 2nd once and 1st two times at the state convention, as well as competed in nationals in 2013 and 2014, placing 8th the first time and 6th the second time. In fact, Wheeler said her welding was some of the best, and she scored the highest in estimating. Cruz now works at Community Toyota as the head estimator.
Greg Thomas, former SCC instructor, who retired in 2012 and is still involved in teaching, helped develop the program and set the standards high so that students would not only be competitive, but also would be prepared for post-secondary education and/or careers. Thomas observed his first competition during the 1987-88 school year, and with guidance from Johnny Dickerson from the Dallas Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) and Janet Connor of SkillsUSA, he prepared to give his students the skills to win at competitions.
“We set our program goals for our district contest to mirror the state contest so that students would have a good idea how it would be at state,” said Thomas. “The skill levels they have to be able to win at a contest are unbelievable. These students are excellent at what they do, and they have to be strong in six areas.”
Jose Flores from Robert E. Lee High School was Thomas’ first student to compete at SkillsUSA in 1994. He won four of the six events and took 8th place in nationals. Flores also competed at nationals as a freshman at Lee College. Wesley Bertrand from Ross S. Sterling High School placed 5th in the nation and is now working for ExxonMobil. REL’s Daniel Hernandez placed 9th in SkillsUSA Nationals in 2008, and Rafael Silva, also from Lee, placed 8th at nationals in 2011.
“We were competing with 43-45 students from the United States, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and we just didn’t have the extra training we needed to do better,” said Thomas. “Our structural event was the weakest.”
Wheeler took over the classes in 2012, and was fortunate to have had Thomas to help guide him when Cruz got ready to compete again. Wheeler’s program continues to hold students to high standards, and he is working to provide more opportunities, materials and structural training for them. Mercedes Benz International, where Wheeler received certification, donates car shells and materials to help students learn to measure, do body work and disassemble. Frank’s Collision Repair and First Collision in Baytown have hired students in the program. Other local body shops also have offered to help the students.
“One thing that has helped us is that it’s not all about the students, it’s about the teachers getting the materials they need to teach the kids. You find out who has equipment and get someone to help you out with it,” said Wheeler. “If the students don’t have it to practice, they can’t prepare. The last three or four years, my kids have won by 300-400 points at competition.”
Not everyone wants to compete, but all students learn various skills they could carry over into a career. Wheeler said that fewer than 40 percent of his students want to do this full-time. Some enjoy it as a hobby or just want to get their car painted. He makes it relevant by showing them that the same procedures they use to work on a car will apply to working on a house, just with different materials. It’s important to keep them learning new things.
“I try to get a few weeks of custom – custom paint, flames, airbrushing, ghost effects, woodgrain and marble effects – to keep them interested and give them something a little different. This industry is just about the same as it was 10 years ago,” said Wheeler.
Starting this year, students in the Collision Repair class who take and pass the I-CAR Pro-Level I Non-Structural Repair Test will be certified in Non-Structural as a Pro-Level I Technician, which is beneficial to shops considering hiring them because they know they already have training in that area.
Whatever the motivation is for students to take Collision Repair and Auto Refinishing - competition, career, hobby or just to fill a spot in a schedule - Wheeler is willing to work with them, and he knows he can teach them some skills they can use.
“It’s fun! You show the kid something, and you see the light bulb click on,” Wheeler said.