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STEM/Transportation
Page 22 Electronic Edition: www.teachingtodaymn.com

RAHS Auto Shop Provides Career Experience and Affordable Services

but others open to all grades. He said, “[the Although these services are relatively
RAHS auto mechanics course] is a student- cheap, Sopcinski acknowledged a potential
run program, open to juniors and seniors, downside is the time it takes to repair the car.
no experience required, but sophomores He said, “Our motto is we are cheap, but we
need to take small engines to take the auto are slow. It is expensive to f x a car regard-
mechanic class. We need a level of matu- less, but for example our front brake job,
rity in the classroom, and that’s the entire a pretty standard service, comes out to be
reason I have the auto mechanic classes $240-280, but you bring it to a professional,
open to juniors and seniors, but Roseville it’s going to come out to $480, but we will
[Area High School] has one of the best auto need the car for two days. Like I said, we
shops in the country, which is great for the are cheap but slow, but it is ⅓ cheaper as a
students.” whole.”
To learn about cars, RAHS students can Business for the auto shop ranges, as
take Know Your Car, Small Engines, and Sopcinski sees how many cars his students said, “We really like to get more girls in our
Auto Mechanic, which can go up to Auto can handle. He said, “I try and get just classes, but we are trying to do what they do
Mechanics Five. enough, I mean if Channel 4 news wanted in woodshop classes and try to run a girls’
There is a process for training students to do a story here, that would be great but only class, if girls sign up. If you look at my
before they start working on customer’s I know my phone would be ringing off the roster, it will be all boys and maybe one or
cars. Sopcinski said, “My auto mechanics hook, and we can’t service that many cars, two girls, and I don’t blame them.”
one class is primarily training for the trimes- so I keep it to community members, and RAHS auto shop has a Facebook, called
ter, and [student mechanics] aren’t going people in the ISD 623 area.” Raider Auto Shop, where they post updates
Roseville Area Schools to go into the shop until the last few weeks The benef ts of taking these classes and pictures, check them out here: https://
www.facebook.com/raiderauto
of the trimester.” After students train, they range from being educated in car knowledge
RAHS auto shop, running now for three can jump back into working on cars after a to f nding a career in this area. Sopcinski This article was written by Naima
years, provides services on cars of Roseville’s review of safety procedures. said, “It depends on what their goals are. I Sheikh-Mohamed, Editor-in-Chief for The
students and community members, for reduced The RAHS Auto Shop offers light to have had students who take this and realize Ville (Roseville High School Student News-
prices– by having trained students work on medium maintenance and repairs on auto- they really didn’t know what they wanted to paper)
them. mobiles. These services, as Sopcinski said do in life, and they did this and they loved it
Teacher Kenneth Sopcinski teaches stu- include: oil changes, brakes and suspen- and wanted to do it.”
dents about cars in many different classes at sions, coolant changes, and tire services, or Sopcinski f nds it hard promoting his www.isd623.org
RAHS, some open to only upperclassmen
any light that pops on the dashboard. classes to female-identifying students. He

Putting Students in the Driver’s Seat

Continued from Page 17

and updated hoists,
Hunter WinAlign
Alignment machine,
a Pro-Cut X15 on-car
brake lathe, a Hunter
tire changer, a Hunter
Smartweight tire
balancer and many
other new pieces of
equipment. These
new pieces of equip-
ment will allow the
automotive curricu-
lum that is offered
to students to be
expanded and allow
for increased student
agency, as students
will be able to focus
on areas of the vehicle that interest them viduals that helped throughout this process.
the most. The cutting-edge technology Because of everyone’s support, we are truly
and lab design will offer an even more growing the technicians of tomorrow!”
real-world industry feel, mimicking the
inner-workings of an automotive shop.
“This is a really exciting time for our www.isd624.org
automotive students. They will have access
to top of the line equipment that will help
them leave this program prepared for a
career in our local automotive industry,”
said Doescher. “Thank you to all of the indi-