Champion’s auto shop and its classes come with several benefits for both students and teachers. The students of the auto shop get hands-on experience by working with cars, and teachers—as well as other students—can bring their vehicles in for maintenance and repairs.

“We can do almost everything,” said Farrah Stohner, who has been teaching in the auto shop for four years. “I want my students to learn as much about electrical and engines as possible and apply it to hands-on tasks. Even if they don’t go on to be an automotive technician, I hope they gain enough knowledge to save themselves some money doing their own repairs.”

Adriana Trevino, an Emergent Bilingual Instructional Coach who has been working at Champion for a year, brought several cars to the auto shop for work, such as oil changes,and minor repairs to the brakes and AC. 

“It is totally worth it to me to bring my vehicles in for minor repairs,” said Trevino. “The auto mechanics teachers at Champion High are always willing to teach students to work on cars. I appreciate the opportunity that students have to do hands-on learning while also saving me time and money.”

Kristin Cantu, a Special Ed. Inclusion Teacher and the Assistant Tennis Coach brought her Infiniti QX80 for a battery change and to fix up the starter. Because of the auto shop’s help, Cantu was able to identify the problems on her vehicle to take it to a dealership to get it fixed so it didn’t become a major problem.

“Our auto program is very well run, and I totally support it,” said Cantu. “It helped them learn, and it helped me out too.”

Junior Calvin Bowers started doing Auto Shop this school year and believes the class is important.

“This class should be mandatory because not many people know how to work on cars and they should,” said Bowers. “I actually get to do something instead of sit down at a desk for an hour and half.”

Bowers says that Stohner turns every car the students work on into a lesson so it becomes useful to them.

Students who are interested in working in the auto shop can test out of Auto Basics on Monday, April 29th by going to the CHS library in the morning. Those who are currently in the program highly recommend it.

“You have to prepare to get your hands dirty every single time,” said Bowers.