Lockport senior auto shop students gain professional certifications

Lockport — Thirteen Lockport Township High School seniors are graduating with an extra qualification beyond their diplomas.

Mark de la Vega has been teaching auto shop at LTHS for 21 years, but he tried something a little different this year. This spring, he had his seniors in Advanced Auto Shop take the Automotive Service Excellence certification test for maintenance and light repair to potentially gain a certification they could put on their resumes heading out of high school.

Students Landon Carrera Castellanos, Austin Cichon, Zach Dallavia, Alec DeYoung, Devin Galeher, Ibrahim Haleem, Jozef Janik, Ryan Krestel, Tyler Moyano, Joe Picciola, Dominick Tucci, Luis Ventura and Nick Zahara all received their certifications, which de la Vega noted could get them entry-level jobs at most car dealerships or automotive repair shops.

“I anticipated I might have two or three students pass,” de la Vega said. “I never expected all 13 would. It was rather humbling as I watched the results come in. They were all extremely excited. I can’t take too much credit – this was all on them.”

The veteran instructor said he has wanted to try signing up the students for the test for some time but only sought district approval this year.

“Something told me this was the group to try it with,” de la Vega said of his students. “The district was very supportive of it. I got approval, and then I needed to pick a day for the students to take the test.”

The official ASE exam consisted of 60 multiple-choice questions, which the students took online during the school day with a different teacher overseeing the exam.

De la Vega said three of the students – Castellanos, DeYoung and Moyano - are planning on pursuing further education in the field and will be attending Parkland College to study automotive technology in the fall. Three other students already have jobs at local auto shops.

This was the first time any Lockport auto shop student has received their certification before graduating, but de la Vega does not plan on it being the last. Going forward, he said he plans to incorporate the ASE testing into the Advanced Auto Shop class’s regular curriculum and may offer two opportunities to test.

“Had I known it would go this well, I would have had them take the maintenance and light repair test in the fall,” he said. “If they passed, then they could take another certification in spring and, if they didn’t, they could try again later. I think that is what I’m going to try to do next year.”

ASE offers eight certification exams for different areas of auto repair that students can take, and that open new career opportunities for them in the field.

All 13 students in the Advanced Auto Shop class will be graduating from LTHS with their fellow Porters on June 1.