CANTON, Mich. – The Ford Motor Company teamed up with the Bill Brown and Blackwell Ford dealerships to help Canton High School host its first auto show.
The school had the makings of an auto show, featuring a Ford GT, a new F-150 and lots of bright shiny metal, but there was a lot more going on and it had to do with making high school kids interested in the auto industry as a whole.
Inside the Canton High auto program shop, dozens of students took a close-up look at classic, modern and historic vehicles.
Student Matt Sinclair isn’t in the two classes they offer here, but he’s famous for bringing his grandfather’s 1921 Ford Model T around.
“It’s honestly amazing. They got all the tools, you could ever need,” Matt said. “They let me come in and work sometimes they’ve got a whole paint room, car paint and they’re super nice to let you come in all the time.”
Matt wants to enter mechanical engineering, and instructor Chad Woodring is leading the charge to help students consider auto careers at any level.
“I want to see more individuals coming into the auto industry,” Woodring said. “We are -- as I’m sure you know -- incredibly short-staffed and it’s an industry not a lot of people are going into and we’re losing more than we are gaining.”
The auto show spilled out of the high school and even included a Caterpillar excavator with auto program student Lauren Franceschi, of Plymouth, at the controls. She said she’s proud to learn how to change her car’s power steering fluid and is even considering an industry-based summer internship.
“I had a lot of fun, learned about the excavator and a lot of opportunities for women,” Franceschi said. “How you can be like a technician, there’s a need for women, it’s just like a cool opportunity.”
They did rev up that Ford GT and that drew a crowd. The students also built an electric vehicle. They said the head of the program believes his students are the ones who will come up with the solutions to the EV problems we’re battling with today -- Plus they had a lot of fun.