The automotive shop at the Trades and Technology building was a place of celebration on Tuesday as Stellantis NV and Mopar dignitaries joined the community of San Juan College to award student, Carl Cuthair with a scholarship.
In May, Stellantis announced a partnership with the Jeep brand and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society to award three scholarships to Native American students who are training to be automotive service technicians.
The scholarships are valued up to $20,000 that will reimburse students for purchasing the necessary tools and for two years of tuition at a participating Mopar Career Automotive Program, according to the Stellantis news release.
The program has partnered with more than 99 schools across the nation with a focus on placing students in a continuous automotive training said Kelly Faley, Mopar CAP relationship manager.
“Now you have electric vehicles coming out, more and more hybrids, diesel, lot of green energy vehicles,” Faley said “You’re now a technician because you’re basically you’re an IT person, but now you know automotive.”
According to Faley, technicians are needed to replace retirees across the nation.
“Automotive students are highly valuable,” she said.
The Indigenous Cultural Opportunity Network is a business resource group within Stellantis that keeps camaraderie among employees of a similar background while supporting their lives outside of work, said Jacob Belin, member and propulsion systems engineer.
“It’s incredible opportunity to be in that space, to be a Native American, to be in this large corporate space and having these connections to help lift the people that come after us,” he said. “Getting students into the work space might be daunting, but they are always just creating a pathway for others.”
Cuthair said he is affiliated with both the Diné and Ute tribe, residing in Shiprock with his family, doing automotive work for family members.
“My wife is one that persuaded me to come back to school,” he said.
Cuthair works with the Tru West dealership in Cortez and plans to stick with it until he continues with Mopar for engineering.
Cuthair gave credit to Jeff Schofield and Darwin Tom while accepting the scholarship on Tuesday.
Cuthair describes his journey as a sacrifice that required long hours of studying in the night to maintain family time.
Rene Cuthair, wife, said she was excited for her husband after he expressed there was some nerves around applying for the scholarship.
“Carl has had struggles in the past, and I have been there as his wife to see the potential in him,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of times that he doubts himself, saying ‘I don’t think I can do it,’ and I always tell him, of course you can.”
After receiving his high school equivalency, she said it was her who encouraged and assisted him through the application process.
“He was happy when he got his acceptance letter to San Juan College, and I was excited,” she said.
The two started that semester together, and they have been a continuous support system for each other.
At San Juan College, Cuthair said the most challenging part of the program was learning the electrical component involving currents and voltage.
“Also, trying to diagnose for a parasitic draw inside the vehicle,” he said.
Jeff Schofield, Mopar Career Automotive Program instructor, explained electricity as applied math that some students fear.
“They’re afraid of electricity, afraid of the unknown,” he said. “We’ve been taught to fear it because it’ll shock us, perhaps and kill us, but it’s something you can’t see, but you can test it, and you can take readings, or measurements.”
Schofield said the diagnostic process can be simplified and understood when compared to a human body.
“I remember a conversation I had with a doctor about his car, I was explaining to him how I diagnosed the car and he said, ‘That’s exactly what we do with the human body,’ which the human body runs on electricity,” Schofield said.
In learning about electricity Schofield said it takes a student who is logical and is not afraid to learn.
“Carl’s that type of student and that’s the type of student that really does well in the career,” he said “Students like Carl do well, not only as a technician, but because they have good work ethics, good goals, good aspirations, and they go beyond the job they do.”
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