The Trade Collective and Evanston Township High School have teamed up this month with a calendar of events to get students who are interested in the skilled trades to explore the opportunities in the automotive industry.
Automotive Month will conclude with a tire changing competition in partnership with the Community Garage and Autobarn, in which students will have the chance to win a scholarship to Oakton College or a weekend of high performance drivers’ education.
ETHS and the trade Collective signed a memorandum of understanding solidifying their partnership last year, but Automotive Month is the first time they have collaborated on a full slate of trades-based programming. Susan Besson, who manages communications and advancement for the Trade Collective, said that there is now a Trade Collective Club at ETHS with about sixty enrolled members.
Dale Leibforth, Director of Early College & Career Experiences at ETHS, said that about 75% of ETHS students attend college after they graduate. But Leibforth said that his office wanted to think about what to do for the 25% of students who didn’t attend college after graduation. The agreement with the Trade Collective, he said, has started to build some pathways for students.
“I think we’re also trying to philosophically kind of, as a school, say, we want all — 100% — of our seniors to be successful and to kind of be set up well,” Leibforth said.
“So we want to make sure that no matter where they’re going, they have the ability to do that, and there’s kind of an equal status, if you will, for whether it be a skilled trade or college [or] university, are all equal.”
“We actually have an internship program where we really partnered with the Trade Collective so we could get more opportunities within the trades and manufacturing field,” said Rosabel Arellano-Razo, early college and career experience fellow at ETHS.
Automotive Month
ETHS and the Trade Collective collaborated on a schedule of six events throughout the month, including an alumnus speaking about his experiences as a Tesla technician, as well as education about certification in the automotive trades through Oakton College. To promote Automotive Month, they brought a 1990 Mazda Miata into the main hall of the high school — which presented some challenges.
They chose February as Automotive Month because it coincides with the Chicago Auto Show. The month will close with a field trip to the Evanston Mazda Autobarn and then a tire-changing competition at the Community Garage. (The competition is not open to the public.)
According to their website, the Community Garage “offers diverse youth equitable after-school mentorship and life-skills training through creative motorsports” and science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics education.
John Santiago, a philosophy professor at the College of DuPage who has been a NASA Great Lakes High Performance Drivers Education instructor for over ten years, leads the Community Garage. He hosts students after school and on the weekends to work on auto-related projects, including engine building.
The tire changing competition, Santiago said, will be determined by knowledge and proper procedure, and is not purely a speed test.
“That turns out to be not so safe,” Santiago explained. “It has this additional element of, you have to actually demonstrate that you really know what you’re doing.”
Although Automotive Month isn’t yet done, Besson said that it’s already a great example of the Trade Collective’s partnership with ETHS.
“What we really want to do is get kids exposed to and aware of and engaged in these things,” Besson said. “So Automotive Month is, it’s just a great example of how this programming is helping all of us do what we are pledging to do.”
