Any student with passion and drive to pursue a career in the automotive industry can pursue that opportunity at Citrus College. As students progress in the program, new students are jumpstarting their careers.
Mauricio Juarez is both a first-year student at Citrus and a first-year student in the Automotive Technology program.
“The auto program is very welcoming,” says Juarez.
The inviting atmosphere of the program has solidified his drive to become a master technician in the near future. However, Juarez didn’t always have the passion for becoming an automotive technician.
“Most of my experience came from my dad’s shop,” Juarez says.
Beyond the experience he had with his father, his brother Everuardo Juarez inspired him to enroll this term. Everuardo is a current automotive technician for Toyota and a student at Citrus College.
“I feel with my brother already having experience in the auto program at Citrus, he just kind of guided me there.”
After graduating high school in the spring, Juarez began attending Citrus this fall. He is currently a part of the T-TEN hands-on two-year program, which is an official automotive partnership between Toyota, Lexus and Citrus College. The goal of the program is to train to become Automotive Service Excellence certified in all eight areas: Engine Repair, Automatic Transmission/Transaxle, Manual Drive Train and Axles, Suspension and Steering Electrical/Electronic Systems, Heating and Air Conditioning, and Engine Performance.
As a community college, Citrus is meant to help individuals grow with their career interests whether that be obtaining an associate degree, gaining certificate credentials or both. Although the program is a commitment, Juarez is able to take Automotive, English and Ethnic Studies courses simultaneously. He believes that the hardest thing about the courses is having to wake up in the morning. Besides the classes being scheduled early in the day, he finds no other reason to dislike them.
Citrus’s Automotive Technology program offers the opportunity to gain experience and certifications in 19 different forms of automotive technician expertises.
Beyond the extensive opportunities the automotive program provides, the instructors and staff help students maintain their inspiration. Juarez is involved in his first required course, Auto 101 with Professor Matthew Reuteler, who “makes (him) want to pursue being a technician.”
The program is meant to educate, help students grow into their interests and build a path to a career. It is encouraged but not a beginning requirement that these future technicians have job experience in the automotive field while being enrolled in the program. Instructors have taught individuals that have never held an automotive tool and have now progressed into certified technicians.
Before his interest in becoming a master technician, Juarez wanted to pursue a career in physical education or barbering. He currently has a home based barbering business where he obtains a majority of his income. With this job he is able to make his own hours and availability.
“I want to be my own boss. And in the auto program, the automotive industry, I can be my own boss,” says Juarez.
