It was a beautiful weekend in Southern California for Jason Warren and his five Dos Palos High School students.
The group spent three days in the Orange County city of Ontario to take part in the SkillsUSA State Competition.
Warren and the students are part of the Career Technical Education department at Dos Palos High. He teaches Auto Collision and Refinishing, and the students have taken the talents of what they have been taught to the competition. A great number of high schools were represented from cities like San Jose, Hayward, Bakersfield, San Diego and Madera.
Representing DPHS were seniors Christobal Sanchez, Jorge Sanchez, Christian Estrada, and Raymundo Echavarria, as well as sophomore Osiris Navarro.
The young men qualified to go to Ontario after competing in a Regional Competition two months ago that was held virtually.
Warren said that at regionals, the students had to pass a 100-question test. Then it was on to the “hands-on” portion, where experts in the industry watch the students work via computer and ask pertinent questions as the students completed their tasks. They are judged on such items as mask taping properly and blending colors for the painting.
Warren, who has been teaching at DPHS for 16 years, said his students’ score qualified them for the Ontario competition.
“The weather here has been beautiful,” Warren added. “We had opening ceremonies on Thursday and then Friday and Saturday were full of competition, and the closing ceremonies are on Sunday.”
The Friday portion featured auto collision repair and Saturday dealt with refinishing.
The competition is headed by SkillsUSA, which Dos Palos High joined last year, said Warren. The organization has over 400,000 students and teachers as members. Their mission is to enhance personal, workplace, and technical skills that are grounded in academics, which is integrated into classroom curriculum.
The auto collision/refinishing was just one of the many competitions taking place. Around 4,000 students participated, and teachers like Warren can only watch.
“We can’t say one word to the students, you can only observe. You can’t even make eye contact,” he explained.
He was also amazed at the wide variety of competitions at the event.
“There were students walking around in chef hats and coats competing in culinary,” Warren said. “There were also kids in construction as well as students in suits and ties for business, plus diesel and auto mechanics.”
Warren teaches six periods of class at DPHS with about 20 students in each class. The first year deals with auto collision and the second year is centered on refinishing.
Competitions aside, Warren explained that when his students leave his program, they are ready for the auto collision, refinishing, and painting industry.
“This class absolutely prepares our students,” he said. “If they go into the industry this is exactly what they will be doing.”
