More than a decade removed from high school with four kids and a wife to support and no career prospects, 32-year-old Rey Rodriguez turned to Barton Community College’s Automotive Technician program to change his life.
Rodriguez graduated high school in 2000 and bounced around from job to job and city to city.
“I did a lot of stuff ... I worked at a warehouse in Kansas City, and I really didn’t like what I was doing anywhere,” he said. “I was going nowhere. I needed a failsafe skillset, something that I could go anywhere and do outside of Kansas or outside of the country if I wanted to. It’s what made sense to me.”
The family man went for it and started at Barton in the fall of 2012. It wasn’t long before his choice started paying dividends, as he was hired part-time as a technician at Kansasland Tire in Great Bend in October 2012 and was able to go to school while gaining experience in the field.
“Just being able to say that I was in a program that was Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) certified, got a lot of my potential employers looking at me,” he said. “With Barton’s great reputation and the instructors they have had for years, I was almost a shoo-in with my grades. Having the Barton name and certifications attached to that made it really easy. It was almost instantaneous. I started applying and a week later I had a job.”
Rodriguez is finishing one summer course, and will have his Associate in Applied Science degree in Automotive Technology after the completion of the course. He is now working full time at Kansasland.
Kansasland Manager Terry Petrik said potential employees with an education like Rodriguez’s are highly valuable.
“It’s very important when we are looking at applications for people to hire,” he said. “They’re the ones that will stand out.”
Rodriguez said the program is very hands-on and in-depth, and that the course prepared him for the field.
“The program covered everything,” he said. “We completely rebuilt two engines and that was awesome. Just finally getting to see the ins and outs and how they work was definitely my favorite part. Going from the classroom to real world settings, it has definitely made me ready for the real world. It covers the basics from the front end of cars to rear-ends, drive trains, transaxles and all of that.”
Rodriguez partly attributes his success and ability to learn to Barton’s facility.
“It’s state of the art,” he said. “I’ve been on some tours of some other colleges and programs and Barton’s is by far the cleanest, most well-put-together facility I’ve seen in central Kansas. I really liked it here.”
Rodriguez is very happy with what he has accomplished and said it has afforded him the ability to make his own way in life.
“My future is wide open,” he said. “I can go wherever this takes me, and wherever I want it to stop.”
For more information on the Barton Automotive Technology Program contact Executive Director of Workforce Training and Economic Development Mary Foley at foleym@bartonccc.edu or (620) 792-9278.