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Donations put South class in high gear Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Auto shop teacher Tim Ponzoha, top, and his South Medford students have a chance for hands-on experience, thanks to donations from local automotive businesses. Help from businesses makes auto shop a hands-on course By Vicki Guarino Car and truck engines no longer are machines to read about for South Medford High School students. With contributions from local businesses, auto class this year is real � right down to the greasy hands and skinned knuckles. "We can do the basics now; tear down an engine and learn how it works," says teacher Tim Ponzoha. For students like South junior Jesus Banuelos, the move from textbook to wrench set is a welcome change. "Last year we didn�t ever get close to a real engine," Jesus says, "I like the more hands-on work." Which businesses helped Business help, and lots of it, made it possible for South Medford High School to offer students a hands-on auto shop class for the first time this fall. South shop teacher Tim Ponzoha says the tools, manuals, software and engines that Medford area businesses offered for free were far beyond the school�s operating budget. Donors that outfitted the school auto shop are: Lithia Auto Group � $8,000 to buy books, shop manuals, tools, rollaways and cabinets. Shucks/Pro Shop Auto � shop parts catalogs, student accounts (with professional discounts for students� personal projects) and software to check parts prices. Performance Motorsports � V-8 engine, plus demonstrations of shop�s specialty engines by owner Mike Zoller. Cam Automotive � V-8 engine and several 4-cylinder engines. Umpqua Community College � Toyota Technical Education Network course and curriculum. Pulling apart his class project, a six-cylinder engine from a delivery truck, makes the internal combustion engine easier to understand, Jesus says. Until this fall, South students never had much chance to get their hands on a full-sized engine. The small-engine class took kids through the operations of a single-cylinder machine. For anything larger, students had to arrange a work experience program in a commercial shop. All that started to change last spring, when Lithia Auto Group�s Dick Heimann came to Ponzoha with an offer to help start a real auto shop class at South. The car company, working with Toyota Motors and a Toyota-sponsored curriculum at Umpqua Community College, gave South much of what Ponzoha needed to start a class. On his own time during the summer, Ponzoha created a classroom in a former storage area, clearing the garage space in the shop building for engines, benches and large rolling tool chests. He painted the walls, hung signs and motor company decals and created a "parts department" where students could price parts on computers. By the time he was done, he�d changed a ramshackle classroom into a first-rate auto shop. The transformation was completed by the help received from local businesses. Lithia contributed some $8,000 for shop manuals, the rolling tool chests and tools. Other businesses donated more engines, plus parts catalogs and computer software so that students could check on parts prices and availability just as real shop personnel do. The business also offers students accounts with mechanics� discounts for projects they�re working on outside school. "All these guys really stepped up," Ponzoha says, looking around his well-stocked room. "Instead of being a class, it�s like a work place." In class, students are starting out this fall doing what Ponzoha calls "engine postmortems." Students work on an engine, tearing it apart to figure out what�s wrong. Then, if at all possible, they�ll restore the machine to running condition. "We still don�t have the equipment to do everything," Ponzoha says, "but we can do the basics." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.