Ever since I was a kid, I have loved cars. Since I’ve started driving recently and starting taking automotive shop classes, I have become even more attached. I love driving my car and working on it in my shop class, where I can tinker around with cars and learn more about them.
I am planning to go to college at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah and major in their Bachelor of Applied Science in Automotive and Transportation Technologies program in order to learn more about cars and be able to learn hands-on how they work. This way, I will be able to have the practice to start a career doing what I love.
I want to work in the automotive industry as soon as I can. I recently turned 17, so I can’t work at most mechanic shops or dealers quite yet. Most places where I live hire at 18 because of the laws around minors and heavy machinery. But hopefully I’ll be able to get a job working in a dealership or a mechanic shop soon. I would like to work at a dealership because I consider myself to be pretty outgoing, so I could be good at sales or in the maintenance area.
A Day in the Life
I recently was able to go to the city fleet maintenance center in my town where I was able to follow around a young mechanic who taught me about everything they do there. This includes the police, fire department, snow removal, and many other types of maintenance vehicles. I went there for about three hours while following and helping a young man who works there. He was very helpful and answered all of the questions I had. I got to see what a day of work was like for him and the tasks that he had to do.
We did a couple of important tasks in order to keep the city vehicles up and running—construction vehicles needed to have batteries replaced or charged, because we’ve been having cold weather recently and the batteries were drained. We had to jump start some of them to get them into the main auto shop and fix a broken harness on one of the battery cables. We also had to fill a police car’s tires with air and change oil on one of the other city vehicles.
I helped to do some of the tasks and learned more about how to work on larger vehicles. I definitely recommend a job shadow in a mechanic’s shop or dealership to any high school student interested in automotive technology, because of the hands-on approach students can get in a short amount of time.
Automotive Education
A way that I would plan to use my automotive education is to be able to learn and grow my knowledge as a mechanic and be able to build a good reputation as an auto technician. By doing this, I will have good footing for when I open my own shop.
My goal is to become someone who can be trusted and relied on in regards to fixing up people’s cars and that I will have the knowledge to be a good mechanic and to be able to improve cars performance wise. I like to watch Youtube videos and read about people who have modified cars to have high output, and that is something that I would like to pursue.
Something I’d like to do hopefully within the next few years is to buy and fix up a project car. I’m not sure which kind of car I would like to have as a project car, but I have some ideas. I would like to experience getting a car running, and building it up to have higher performance. I think that would also give me a lot of practice for when I encounter customers who have cars that won’t start, or that have problems that require work beyond basic maintenance.
I would like to be able to learn how to do advanced maintenance on my own car first, before I try and use other peoples’ cars, so that if I mess up, it won’t ruin someone else’s car. Building my own project car would definitely give me a lot of experience, which I need, because, outside of my two automotive classes, I haven’t had the opportunities yet. Despite that, I am very eager to learn more and expand my knowledge about being a mechanic.
Why UVU
UVU offers a lot of advanced automotive classes. Some of the programs that I would like to go through are the engine performance and repair classes, because that is what I would most like to pursue in order to get better at aftermarket diagnostics and repair.
The performance tuning class would help me to understand and learn about performance upgrades to cars, so that I will be able to do that in the future. UVU has a race team where they use a 90’s Mazda Miata to race in endurance races at a nearby track. The team is very selective and it is difficult to get in, but I’d like to try and join, as it would be an incredible experience. Part of being on the race team is to maintain the car which is often under high stress, and learn about what it takes to build a race car. This would help me learn more about performance upgrades and working on my own project car and ones in the future.
And once I turn 18, start college, and am living away at school, I definitely intend to pursue a job opportunity at one of the nearby dealerships, both to help finance my education, and for the on-the-job training I hope to obtain.
Kyle Lewis is a high school senior at Herriman High graduating in June of 2025. He lives in South Jordan and plans to attend Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah this fall, enrolling in their Transportation Technology Bachelor of Applied Science program.
