BERNE — About 12:15 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon, a Jay School Corporation bus carrying two students pulls up.
A few minutes later, another student, from Bellmont, arrives in his truck.
They enter the nondescript building next to the South Adams High School tennis courts not to find a standard classroom, but rather a space equipped with hoists, alignment machines and just about any tool they would need to work on a vehicle.
This is automotive services technology.
Gary McMillan, a Jay County resident, has been teaching the automotive services technology courses, which are open to students in Area 18 — Jay, Adams, Blackford, Wells and Huntington counties — for 36 years.
The track is typically broken down into two years, with the curriculum guidelines coming from the state.
The first year — beginner — involves shop safety, tools and brakes during the first semester. The second semester shifts to all things steering suspension, such as ball joints, tie rods and wheel alignment.
The second year — advanced — begins with electronics (battery testing, alternators, starters, voltage drop, amp flow) in the first semester.
“That’s what the shops are paying for,” said McMillan. “That kid that can do this, he’s the one who is going to command the money in the shop.”
That is followed by engine performance in the second semester.
If a student gets started during their sophomore year, they can also move on to diesel in the third year of the auto mechanics program at SAHS.
The course is hands-on — the beginning class has 13 students all working on their own brake assembly — allowing students to move ahead if they are able to complete the necessary tasks.
Walking into the building that was constructed specifically for the course in 1988 is like walking into a full-service auto shop. In fact, it is.
The school has won a couple of cars in Ford contests and had others donated. But the students also occasionally work on other vehicles — their own, a school staff member’s or one owned by someone in the community who needs a helping hand.
The shop features two hoists, a wheel-alignment machine, updated diagnostic standards and brake lathes. And the class uses ALLDATA for its shop manuals.
“A lot of time there’s tools dad has at home, but we have tools that will make the job a whole lot easier,” said McMillan.
During class Nov. 13, one student was working to secure his truck’s gas tank, which was beginning to fall off.
Another was dealing with a circuit that controlled a rear, driver’s side window, and searching for diagrams in the ALLDATA manuals.
Kyle Grayson and Nathanael Day, both Jay County seniors, were teaming up to install a new brake line. While they had tinkered before, bending and installing the new line was a first-time experience.
“I think it really helps out a lot,” said Grayson, who took the class in hopes of becoming an auto mechanic. “It’s a lot of stuff that you’ll need to know if you go into this career.”
For Day, a career wasn’t the expectation. He just wanted to gain a little knowledge so that he could work on his personal vehicle.
“It’s a really good class,” said Day. “I really like it. I’ve learned a lot. I didn’t know anything about cars.”
Now he, like Grayson, hopes for a career in the field.
Beyond the class itself, students are also able to participate in the extracurricular club that takes part in competitions. That focus is on SkillsUSA, with practice beginning this week.
The competitions cover everything imaginable, from all of the course curriculum and beyond. To prepare, McMillan sets up stations for his students to work on all of the potential challenges, which are judged on both speed and accuracy.
While building their skills, the competitions also offer the benefit of scholarship money. A year ago, Bellmont’s Ethan Hiatt placed third in the state contest and earned a $7,000 scholarship.
Three of McMillan’s students — Trent Muhlenkamp (South Adams), Josh Lloyd (Jay County) and Dylan Sutter (Jay County) — have advanced to the SkillsUSA nationals, with Lloyd placing sixth in 2012.
“Those kids always excel when they go to tech school,” said McMillan. “They can’t believe how much more they know than everybody else.”
A member of the first JCHS graduating class, McMillan never saw himself going to tech school or becoming an auto mechanic. He was college-bound.
But he had all of his course requirements out of the way and room to do something else during his senior year.
“And I thought, ‘Auto mechanics. That sounds like fun,’” said McMillan. “I had John Mills as my instructor and I never looked back.”
He went on to Lincoln Tech and worked at Wabash Garage for seven years. He expected he’d work in a shop for the rest of his life. Then, the job with the then-young SAHS program opened up.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said, again crediting Mills as his inspiration.
Preparing the students for tech school and jobs is the ultimate goal.
One of the students who followed that path is Bracton Eicher, a 2007 South Adams graduate. He went on to take auto mechanics classes at Ferris State University in Michigan, got a bachelor’s degree from Bluffton University in Ohio and then earned his master’s degree from Indiana University.
“The college training that I had really had nothing over the training that South Adams offers,” said Eicher, now the vice president of Moser Motors in Berne. “He runs a first-rate program.”
Eicher is just one example of auto mechanics students who have moved on from the South Adams program to careers in the field. It’s not difficult to find more.
“You can go to about any shop in this area and we’ve got kids in there,” McMillan said.
