Maui High Wins 2nd Place in Ford/AAA Auto Skills Competition

Auto Team Hawaii. Photo courtesy of AAA.

By Sonia Isotov

The two-person team of Jimbo Paranada and Marc Paguirigan, with instructor Shannon Rowe,  from Maui High won 2^nd place in the “America’s Best Student Auto Technicians” 62nd annual Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition, held last week at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Mich.

At the National Finals, teams from all 50 states had their automotive skills and knowledge put to the test with a 100-question written exam and a timed event in which they raced against the clock and each other to identify glitches and repair 14 deliberately installed “bugs” in identical 2011 Ford F-150 XLT trucks.

The two-person team of Jimbo Paranada and Marc Paguirigan, with instructor Shannon Rowe, from Maui High won 2nd place in the "America's Best Student Auto Technicians" 62nd annual Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition, held last week at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. Photo courtesy of AAA.

Teams competed for $12 million dollars in college scholarships. Only the top 10 teams received full and partial scholarships from some of the leading automotive technology institutions in the country, including Lincoln College of Technology, Universal Technical Institute, University of Northwestern Ohio, Ohio Technical College and WyoTech.

This year, a team from Oregon won the national championship by earning the competition’s best combined written and hands-on score.

“In an economy in which drivers are looking to extend the lives of their cars through maintenance and repair, the need for skilled automotive technicians continues to be strong. We saw 100 of the very best and brightest young automotive technicians in action today. For more than six decades, the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition has helped fund advanced automotive education for promising students and continues to prepare these future professionals for careers in the automotive industry,” said Marshall L. Doney, AAA Vice President, Automotive.

2011 National Auto Skills featured teams from all 50 states. Photo courtesy of AAA.

“The automotive technicians of tomorrow must be well-educated and highly skilled to meet the current and future technological advances in automotive technology,” said Steve DeAngelis, Ford’s Global Manager of Technical Support Operations. “The people at Ford are committed to training and retaining the best technicians in the industry, which is why we are so proud of our continued involvement in the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition, which invests in our highly skilled technicians of tomorrow.”