De Anza Auto Tech

Today, Curbee Mobile Car Care came by the Day Program to share job opportunities with our students. Many items were discussed such as services that are offered at the customers house be it battery replacement, charging system repair, brakes, diagnostics and more. It was a very informative hour and it was all for our students future. There were jacket giveaways, Frisbees, water bottles and an outstanding lunch!

Special thanks to Fabian Franco, Alexa Morreale and Alexis Guzman from Curbee for a phenomenal presentation.

Hello shop owners, Pete Vernazza here.

Retaining and hiring mechanics is as difficult as I've seen in my 30 years in the industry. Here is a free webinar on how to retain mechanics. It comes highly recommended from our friends at AERA. Here is a link to the registration page for the webinar -

register.gotowebinar.com

Here is our Ben Becker Memorial Scholarship winner. We are proud of you Danh.

Yesterday at the De Anza Auto Tech end-of-year celebration Danh Nguyen received the Ben Becker Memorial Scholarship. Ben Becker was a former De Anza College student who died in December of 2019. The scholarship is awarded to an auto tech student who possesses the determination and the drive that Ben had as a student, and who embodies the same passion for the industry that Ben had. (Pictured Linda Becker, Danh Nguyen, Stephanie Becker)

For the first time since June of 2019, we were able to host our Graduation Breakfast!

We handed out thousands in scholarships today, and sent off Lorna and Rick Maynard into retirement.

Retired faculty Gary Lewis and Michael Brandt were in attendance and there was not a dry eye in the house as we celebrated Rick and Lorna's retirement.

Due to the pandemic, all students, including third year, had never been to a Graduation Breakfast. As usual, Dave Capitolo orchestrated a seamless, incredible event.

One of the most special moments was honoring the Ben Becker memorial scholarship with his mother Linda and sister Stephanie in attendance.

Thank you to all that attended this amazing event.

Here are some pics from today's Chassis-Powertrain Class taught by Rick Maynard.

Oxeas Garcia and Gabriel Guzman Lira check out some TCM signals on a Chrysler Minivan.

Next is be Levi Goldstein, Akash Mahapatra and Joseph Moreno building a transaxle. When it is completed, they will be testing it on our new transmission dynamometer. Many students have built transmissions this year and ultimately, tested all shift points on the dyne.

Last is Lucas Washburn, Ryan Singsong and Ricardo Castillo tearing down a Chrysler transaxle.

Our Day Program is 2nd to none when it comes to hands-on learning. These young students are getting prepared to be top-notch entry level mechanics. Great job all of you!