On May 7 and 8, two local OCM-BOCES students headed to Morrisville to test their car repair skills.
Tyler Farley of Liverpool and Izack Alvarado of Mattydale were among 20 students statewide to participate in the state finals of the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition at Morrisville State College. Working in teams of two, the students competed in a timed-contest against nine other teams from around the state to correctly identify and fix intentionally installed “bugs” on identical 2015 Ford Fiestas.
“Each team has to assess a car with the same 10 problems,” Alvarado said. “You have an hour and a half to go through and run diagnostics and get the car back into perfect operating condition. You pull into the finish line and get judged based on how clean the work is — nothing is unhooked or unplugged and you’ve fixed all 10 bugs. All of that goes into your score.”
In order to qualify for the competition, students had to take an online test. Farley and Alvarado were the first and second highest scorers in Erick Dodge’s automotive technology class at OCM-BOCES and among the top 20 scorers in the state (the two took home a trophy for receiving the top test scores statewide). Some 12,000 students nationwide compete at the state level. Winners at the state level earn scholarships and go onto the national competition to be held June 7 to 9 in Dearborn, Mich. The team with the best combined written test and hands-on competition scores wins the national title. In Dearborn, state champions compete for more scholarship money, as well as automotive equipment and a trip to a racing facility, where the students and their instructor will work on race cars and learn from top automotive engineers.
While Farley and Alvarado didn’t take home top honors, coming in somewhere between sixth and ninth, they still found the experience valuable, as it gave them a chance to test out what they’d learned in Dodge’s class.
“It’s helping to guide us on diagnosing certain things and teach us what to do and how to get the information, the tools to use and all that stuff,” Farley said. “It’s helped to show us what to do and what not to do on vehicles in the field. It’s better to screw up here than in the real world.”
Alvarado said the course has provided a good foundation for a career in the automotive field.
“It helps a lot. Half the stuff we’ve learned, I didn’t know before we came here,” Alvarado said. “I’ve learned a lot from Mr. Dodge and the other teachers. It’s helping us get ready for our jobs and for when we go to college.”
Alvarado is attending Ferris State University in Michigan, where he plans to study automotive technology. Farley, meanwhile, has been accepted to UTI and Northwestern of Ohio, but he has not yet decided where he will go. He’s also considering Morrisville or entering the military. Both highly recommended the BOCES course to anyone considering entering the same field.
“If anyone wants to take this program, it’s really helpful, so don’t hesitate,” Alvarado said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If it’s something you’re interested in, I would definitely recommend it. I’ve learned so much. Mr. Dodge knows so much.”
But it’s not for students looking to fool around.
“Don’t just do it to get out of class. If you want to stay in the field, this is a great program,” Farley said.
Alvarado agreed.
“The course does a really good job teaching students who are staying in the field to be ready for the jobs they’re going into,” he said. “It’s really necessary to understand how the systems work and how all of the parts work together. I didn’t know much of that when I started. I understood the basics. I’ve learned a lot.”
