Seniors from a Jamaica high school win top prizes at a Whitestone auto repair competition (New York: lawyer)

[Aeran]

Good for them!

https://qns.com/story/2020/01/13/sen...r-competition/

Students from a Jamaica technical education high school cinched the top two prizes at the 30th annual New York City Auto Tech Competition in Whitestone.

Thomas A. Edison High School seniors Omesh Deaudharrie and Brian Persaud showcased their car repair mastery on Jan. 8, earning the top honors and $25,000 each in scholarships. Second-place winners and fellow Thomas Edison students Bryan Jean Louis and Felix Mercado and third-place finishers Leon Boodram and Vishnu Sawh from A-Tech High School in Brooklyn also earned scholarships.

During the competition, Deaudharrie and Persaud correctly diagnosed and fixed pre-programmed bugs in a Mazda in the shortest time and claimed victory as the city’s top auto technician students. Thomas Edison Coach Miguel Sierra managed and helped train both of the school’s competing teams.

The six students earned a trip to the state finals in February, affording them the chance to represent New York nationally at the New York International Auto Show in April, when 29 teams from across the country and Canada will compete for the chance to win $3 million in prizes and scholarships.

The Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association-sponsored competition took place at the Center for Automotive Education and Training in Whitestone, where 20 teams of seniors from career and technical education (CTE) schools in New York City, Rockland and Westchester Counties fixed real engine and car parts at 15 work stations as part of this timed competition.

“We’ve been training for this competition since school started in September,” he said. His teammate Mercado added that they clocked in more than 20 training hours at home and at school.

“At school, we would work on cars and when we went home we had a [website], Electude, that has courses you can take,” said Mercado. “After school, we used to meet up when our instructor had time. We’d meet up with him and we’d go over anything and everything that we could in that short amount of time.”

Both of the students said that they intend to pursue a career in the auto industry once they graduate high school. According to GNYADA, there will be approximately 75,000 open auto tech jobs in the coming years. The skills the students displayed will help them as future auto technicians, who can earn upwards of $100,000 working at dealerships across the region.

[Mr.Retired]

Opinion:

This is very good news. Vocational schools are so under rated. While many parents are pushing their kids to be lawyers and doctors for
no other reason than the promise of big money down the road a career making good money can be jump started straight out of high school
earning one $50,000 a year from the start. Think it through parents. The guy that designs cars always has to pay fore someone to service them.

[Aeran]

Originally Posted by Mr.Retired

Opinion:

This is very good news. Vocational schools are so under rated. While many parents are pushing their kids to be lawyers and doctors for
no other reason than the promise of big money down the road a career making good money can be jump started straight out of high school
earning one $50,000 a year from the start. Think it through parents. The guy that designs cars always has to pay fore someone to service them.

This. That was my take on it. Vocational high schools, colleges, community colleges. I know some look down on those but ...I don't think they should. Some of these more traditional 4 year colleges may have great reps (with some being overrated) but ultimately it comes down to the person. And whether or not he/she will become a "success".

I had no idea a good car mechanic could make that much money. I knew licensed plumbers are coveted (if you own any kind of property, they are gold) but not car mechanics but it all makes sense if you think it thru...lol.

[Adhom]

In other countries, people take entrance exams for college to determine what professions they qualify for so not everyone can become a lawyer or a doctor. Here it's a free for all. There are enough 2nd and 3rd tier schools for everyone wanting to enter these professions even though realistically they should be steered toward more intellectually appropriate careers. This is the American way, for good or bad.

[Mimilove]

I graduated from Edison. Glad to see their students still making the news.
When I graduated from HS 10+ years ago I finished with an advanced regents diploma(which actually helped in college) and with my computer repair A+ certification, I always recommend Edison because of this.
While in school I got my first job being part of a tech club in the school, we use to provide tech support throughout the school and actually got paid by the DOE for it. Then I was able to get my first real world job because my certification and connections made in this school.

Edison has plenty of options for shop classes(chosen electives), they've even added a bunch of new ones since my time there.
I was always glad that instead of the double periods of English or math like most other high school do I was doing 2 periods of learning how to put together a computer.

[vision33r]

Many car dealerships are paying people to attend training to succeed the number of aging mechanics retiring now. There's lots of vacancies and pay is 6 figures after 2 years of being a certified ASE tech. Just because of future automation doesn't mean fixing cars and trucks will be automated. It will be a stable career for those who has the skills and no competition from overseas. People from India are not rushing to come here to repair cars.

[Dhraiden]

Nice to read some good news. Looks one of the kids might be an Indo-Caribb (Guyanese or West Indian), no surprise there. Hope they land solid jobs and have rewarding careers, we need schools to teach the trades more.

[caribny]

Originally Posted by Dhraiden

Nice to read some good news. Looks one of the kids might be an Indo-Caribb (Guyanese or West Indian), no surprise there. Hope they land solid jobs and have rewarding careers, we need schools to teach the trades more.

There is a solid cadre of Afro Caribbean men involved in auto repair, so why the "no surprise there". 2 kids did well and they one but it was their personal efforts and not their ethnicity which was responsible. A good % of Indo Guyanese kids don't even finish high school. Overall Guyanese drop out rates are higher than either Jamaicans are Haitians.