Autoshop is one of the most hands-on electives Shadow Ridge has to offer. Autoshop, or Auto for short, is available to all grade levels, freshmen through seniors. It is also a 2 year curriculum, and can potentially earn students CTE credits for college. Mr. Garrett, the Autoshop teacher, has taught Auto for 4 years, which is the same time he came to Shadow. Before becoming a teacher he was a mechanic, so he has lots of actual experience with cars.
This elective also allows students to compete in different competitions in the autoshop world, which include the SkillsUSA competition. In SkillsUSA there’s two parts, AST and MLR. AST is an automotive service technician and MLR is maintenance and light repair. AST included a Chevrolet competition, which one of Mr. Garrett’s students, senior Aiden Smith, did well. The competition was for all high school kids, and there is a qualifying round in which 4 of Mr. Garrett’s kids moved on out of 180 kids in Nevada. Smith is currently the only student doing the AST, others from Shadow Ridge are doing the MLR.
From Shadow Ridge, 22 kids went to the qualifying round, and 4 moved on. Smith, one of the students who moved on, made it past regionals as well, and is now looking forward to the state competition. If he gets gold in that, then he will get the chance to go to nationals for the SkillsUSA auto competition. Mr. Garrett knows that Smith has a lot of good qualities about him in autoshop and he really excels in the class.
“Aiden is one of my best, and overall a great student,” Garrett comments. “He remembers everything I teach or instruct, it’s like he has a photographic memory. He is very good at both the hands-on portion and written portion.”
In Auto kids get ready for real world situations like maintenance, light repair, engines, and many other essential parts of cars. They also work with all kinds of cars, including drag cars and helping to fix teachers’ cars. Mr. Garrett loves his job, but he definitely has favorite parts of teaching his students.
“I love seeing the impact it has on students,” Garrett says. “It makes me happy seeing students understand what I’m teaching and then they can use it outside of school.”
Besides SkillsUSA, the other competitions auto kids from Shadow can compete in are Tech Olympics and Universal Technical Institute, which is called Top Tech. Competitions can be really good for students because they can get recognition from colleges that they could potentially want to attend, awards, scholarships, and tools.
Smith has been in Automotive at Shadow for 3 years, ever since his sophomore year. He started with Auto I, then Auto II, and currently he’s in Auto III. Even though this is Smith’s favorite class and elective, he has his favorite parts and least favorite parts of working with cars.
“I love the hands-on part and how I can get dirty with the parts, instead of just reading textbooks,” Smith comments. “The worst part is this class is going to end soon.”
After Smith graduates high school he wants to go to a trade school where he can get a secondary education for auto, and then become a master technician at a dealership.
