The engines behind Samo

You walk into a large, chaotic, warehouse-like room. Cars are strewn around the class. Noises of loud machinery along with the subdued noise of rowdy students fill the air. You hear a teacher yell, “Stop messing around and get over here. This is auto shop for God’s sake, not tea time!” Samo students are fortunate to have access to one of the few autoshop programs available to high school students in LA. The class learns auto mechanics through a project-based experience, and students are currently working on four cars that belong to the teacher, Winston Arnold. In addition, students will fix other’s cars for free, as long as you agree to let them work on it.Arnold is in his first year teaching Samo’s auto shop class, but has had lots of experience with the curriculum. He taught it at LAUSD for 20 years and has helped a few schools to start similar programs. This includes getting the equipment together and recruiting students to join the class. In addition, he taught the automotive technology class at Santa Monica College for two years. A current student, Christian Perez (’21), especially appreciates the experience that Arnold brings to the class.“Personally, my favorite part about auto shop is being with other students and learning from a professional who knows what he is doing,” Perez said.There are three levels of auto shop. The first level does lab projects and basic work like oil changes and tire rotations. The second level learns how to service and maintain vehicles. Lastly, the third level advances to working on engine repairs.  “Auto shop gives the students a concept of cars and how they operate, including servicing and the maintenance they need. Students also have an opportunity to get more in depth,” Arnold said. Small class sizes allow the students to work as a team and get one-on-one instruction. No prior knowledge about cars is necessary to join auto shop. In fact, according to Arnold, it is easier to build a foundation of knowledge starting from the basics. Currently, one of the advanced auto shop classes is repairing an engine. The other periods are disassembling, labeling and identifying the parts of a car to learn the anatomy of the vehicle. The class is working on multiple projects this year including repairing an engine on an old Jeep Liberty, doing a delivery system repair on a 2006 Monte Carlo and servicing a 2013 Toyota Camry. The program has given a few students the knowledge and inspiration to start projects of their own. Hugo Maida (’20) is doing an engine service on his Volvo and Philip Carnevale (’19) is servicing and repairing his own car, a Chevy pickup truck. Others do work on their own cars as well, including Isabel Lewis (’19). “My favorite thing about auto shop is having the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom by actually working on cars and engines,” Lewis said.The classes are only working on the teacher’s cars right now, but they hope to repair others’ cars as well. Arnold is working to get the word out about what services they offer. If Samo students would like to have their car fixed by auto shop students, they can contact Arnold.“Whenever they bring in the cars, they have to know that this is being done by students and there’s no charge [for labor]. Whatever parts they need, they need to buy themselves,” Arnold said.In 2012 , 548 schools in California offered auto shop programs, and in 2016-17, 551 schools in California offered auto shop classes. Even though the number of programs has gone up, the number of students enrolled has gone down from 37,373 to 35,343. Arnold feels that Samo students are extremely lucky to have a hands-on program where they can learn a trade in high school. Additionally, he thinks that it is rare for high schools to have this class nowadays and interested Samo students should certainly take advantage of it.