FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 16, 2020 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 67
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Courtesy of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association
The winning team from Thomas A. Edison High School in Queens. Coach Miguel Sierra holds trophies with team members Omesh Deaudharrie and Brian Persaud.
Seniors from a Jamaica high school win top
prizes at Whitestone auto repair competition
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Students from a Jamaica technical education
high school cinched the top two
prizes at the 30th annual New York City
Auto Tech Competition in Whitestone.
Th omas A. Edison High School seniors
Omesh Deaudharrie and Brian Persaud
showcased their car repair mastery on
Jan. 8, earning the top honors and $25,000
each in scholarships. Second-place winners
and fellow Th omas Edison students
Bryan Jean Louis and Felix Mercado and
third-place fi nishers Leon Boodram and
Vishnu Sawh from A-Tech High School in
Brooklyn also earned scholarships.
During the competition, Deaudharrie
and Persaud correctly diagnosed and fi xed
pre-programmed bugs in a Mazda in the
shortest time and claimed victory as the
city’s top auto technician students. Th omas
Edison Coach Miguel Sierra managed and
helped train both of the school’s competing
teams.
Th e six students earned a trip to the
state fi nals in February, aff ording them the
chance to represent New York nationally
at the New York International
Auto Show in April, when 29
teams from across the country
and Canada will compete for the
chance to win $3 million in prizes
and scholarships.
Th e Greater New York Automobile
Dealers Association-sponsored competition
took place at the Center
for Automotive Education and
Training in Whitestone,
where 20 teams of seniors
from career and technical
education (CTE)
schools in New York
City, Rockland and
Westchester Counties
fi xed real engine and
car parts at 15 work
stations as part of
this timed competition.
“Each work station
is a diff erent
Bryan Jean Louis Felix Mercado
skill set and it would be anything that they
would have to do at a dealership. We have
wheel alignment, basic electrical, tool identifi
cation, engine repair,” said GNYADA
Executive President Eddie Gazzillo. “We
try to push them a little
bit further than
what they’re doing
at their regular
schools.”
Queens Village
resident Jean Louis
said that Sierra prepared
them
w e l l ,
so they knew what to expect on competition
day.
Photos by Jenna Bagcal/QNS
“We’ve been training for this competition
since school started in September,” he
said. His teammate Mercado added that
they clocked in more than 20 training
hours at home and at school.
“At school, we would work on cars
and when we went home we had a
website, Electude, that has courses
you can take,” said Mercado. “Aft er
school, we used to meet up when our
instructor had time. We’d meet up
with him and we’d go over
anything and everything
that we could in
that short amount of
time.”
Both of the students
said that they
intend to pursue
a career in the auto
industry once they
graduate high school.
According to GNYADA,
there will be approximately
75,000 open
auto tech jobs in the
coming years. The
skills the students displayed will help them
as future auto technicians, who can earn
upwards of $100,000 working at dealerships
across the region.
Bryan Jean Louis Felix Mercado
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