FORD/AAA Student Auto Skills State Competition Creates Opportunities for Automotive Technicians at Bellevue High School

Top high school automotive technicians will challenge their technical skills and stretch their innovative minds at the Washington Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills State competition on Tuesday, April 28. Twenty high school students from across Washington, including two students from Bellevue High School, will compete for thousands of dollars’ worth of scholarships and a chance to advance to the National Finals. The state competition will be held at Renton Technical College, 3000 NE Fourth Ave., Automotive Quad (building K), from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 28. Awards ceremony directly following.

The Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition is targeted to support students looking to jumpstart a career as an automotive service technician. A total of 21 schools and 364 students took the online exam in Washington state this year. Of those, only 20 students qualified to advance to the state finals, representing the top five percent of all students who took the test. On a national scale, a total of 13,753 students registered for the online state qualifying exam.

Each two-student team in the State Finals will compete against each other and the clock to diagnose and repair a deliberately “bugged” 2015 Ford Fiesta SE vehicle. Top ranked schools that qualified to compete in this year’s Washington state finals include:

• Bellevue High School - Pete Mccue, Automotive Instructor


• Clark County Skills Center - Justin Flick, Automotive Instructor


• Decatur High School - Tim Kelly, Automotive Instructor


• Kentridge High School - George Sichting, Automotive Instructor


• Marysville-Pilchuck High School - Chuck Nichols, Automotive Instructor


• New Market Vocational Skills Center - Mark Emmons, Automotive Instructor


• North Thurston High School - Brian Stretch, Automotive Instructor


• Puyallup Senior High School - Larry Turner, Automotive Instructor


• Sno-Isle Technology Skills Center - Gary Holboy, Automotive Instructor


• Tri-Tech Skills Center - Larry Brookes, Automotive Instructor

Qualifying teams were selected based on their scores in the online exam which tests overall automotive knowledge. The team with the highest combined score from the hands-on competition and written exam will win the state competition.

The winning two-student team will advance to represent Washington state at the national finals at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., June 7-9, 2015. At the national finals, champions from each state will vie for millions of dollars in scholarships, automotive equipment and a trip to the Wood Brothers Racing facility where the students and instructor will work on race cars and learn from top automotive engineers.

Both the national and the state-wide competitions have been organized with the support of AAA and Ford personnel, local automotive instructors and the AAA Approved Auto Repair program, a free public service AAA performs to identify quality repair facilities throughout the country. For additional details on 2015 State Hands-On Competition locations and dates, visit AutoSkills.AAA.com.

 

About Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills

The Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills is a nationwide automotive technology competition that offers millions of dollars in scholarships and prizes to high school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing careers as automotive service technicians. Nearly 13,000 students from across the U.S. compete for the chance to represent their school and state in the National Finals. The competition tests students’ automotive knowledge, workmanship and problem-solving abilities. For additional information on the competition, visithttp://autoskills.aaa.com/

Robert Flowers Elected as Chairman of AAA Washington Board of Trustees

Robert Flowers (Seattle), retired senior vice president of Washington Mutual Bank, was elected as chairman of AAA Washington’s Board of Trustees. Flowers was with Washington Mutual Bank for 35 years where he served in several leadership roles, including senior vice president and manager of Commercial Real Estate, before retiring in 2005 as the senior vice president of Community Lending and Investment.  He has been a board member at AAA Washington since 2005.

Flowers is an active member of the community and has served on several other boards including: Washington State Convention Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Seattle Children’s Foundation, The Seattle Foundation, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, University of Washington Evans School Advisory Board, African American Heritage Foundation and the Museum Development Authority for the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Sports Commission, and is a former trustee of Evergreen State College.

Newly elected officers of the AAA Washington Board of Trustees include David Madeira (Gig Harbor), CEO of LeMay – America’s Car Museum, who was elected vice chairman; Carolyn Kelly (Seattle), former president and COO of The Seattle Times, was elected Treasurer; and Kirk Nelson (Sammamish) was re-elected as president and CEO of AAA Washington.

New to the AAA Washington Board of Trustees:

• José Gaitán (Seattle), managing member of the Gaitán Group, PLLC, a Seattle law firm. During his extensive career as a lawyer, Gaitán has served as counsel to seven of the Global Fortune Ten companies in addition to serving as counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Resolution Trust Corporation, Fannie Mae, General Motors and more. He currently serves on boards for the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Independent Colleges of Washington and the University of Washington President’s Advisory Committee. Gaitán recently concluded his term as Chair of the United Way of King County.

• Patti Paris (Moses Lake), CFO of Columbia Colstor, Inc., a public refrigerated warehouse company. Paris has been with Columbia Colstor, Inc. for nearly 15 years. Prior professional experience includes leadership at LeMaster & Daniels, Grant County PUD and 10 years at Pacific Northwest Bell. Paris is also a board member of IARW (International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses), AWB (Association of Washington Business) and an Executive Board member of Grant County Industrial Power User Association.

Returning trustees are: Greg Bever (Spokane), retired publisher of Spokane’s Journal of Business; Gigi Burke (Everett), former co-owner and executive vice president of Crown Distributing; Don Brunell (Vancouver), vice president, Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs; Marilyn Batt Dunn (Seattle), retired senior counsel, UW Medicine Advancement; William Lampson (Pasco), president of Lampson International; Steve Matsko (Spokane), retired regional manager of U.S. Bank; Dennis Okamoto (Seattle), retired executive of US West Communications; and Ken Ryals (Beaux Arts), senior director of citizenship and public affairs at Microsoft.