Since Henry Ford produced the first car, more commonly known then as the automobile, the complexity that lays under the shiny hood of cars has captivated the eyes and imaginations of adults and kids alike. 

Auto Technology teacher Christian Tamiesie and senior Mary Ellen Williams, give an inside look at why the roar of an engine and the art that lays underneath the hood puts people in a trance. 

Tamiesie’s passion for teaching students about the craft that goes into the creation of vehicles started when he realized that college was not for him.   

“When I was in high school, the only thing that I was told you got to go to college, you got to go to college, you got to go to college. And I went to college for two years I realized I did not want to do it,” Tamiesie said.

For Williams, her desire to work on cars started when she was young, driven by growing up around them.

“I grew up around truck and boats, so it was just one of those things where I wanted to learn how to work on my own car,” Willams said.

Learning how to work and fix your car is no easy feat, while some students may back down to the challenge, others embrace it and find a feeling of rewards when they’ve tackled the issue.

“They realize that cars can be difficult to work on, or isn’t as easy as they thought it was going to be,” Tamiesie said. “But for others, the passion for cars, I think, ends up driving them to also enjoy working with their hands and seeing the result.”

For Williams, she found the passion that Tamiesie described and she finds working on cars more of a form of art.

“It’s kind of like being an art kid. You can take automotive and turn it into an art really easily,” Williams said. “Auto body and painting and mechanics, you can turn almost anything in the automotive world into an art project.”

Even if a student doesn’t plan to use the class to enter the work force, students can take the lessons learned and apply them to their lives and save themselves a trip to Jiffy Lube.

“You learn how to do an oil change, how to take stuff out of a vehicle. Not everybody knows that there’s more to a vehicle than just the steering wheel and the gas pedal,” Williams said. “You have the ability to further your understanding.”

Tamiesie says that his main goal is to create great technicians to hopefully pass along to the industry post high school life.

“I want to help create solid technicians for the industry and help students find a passion that didn’t necessarily require them to go to college,” Tamiesie said.