Tatios Kebrab, 14, may not know how to drive a car, but she has learned how to change the tires, check for air pressure and list the different fluids necessary for it to run.
Kebrab is the only girl at an automotive careers camp organized through the Automotive Trades Foundation and Montgomery County Public Schools this summer, but she said she wanted to gain some skills two years before she will even take a driver’s education class.
‘‘I was kind of clueless about cars,” Kebrab said. ‘‘I didn’t want to be like every other teenager that rushes to get a car and doesn’t know how to fix it.”
Kebrab was one of 18 students outside on a hot morning last week learning how to change donated tires on a number of cars in the first week of a free summer camp offered through the foundation, which operates used car dealerships at four high schools in the county, including Thomas Edison High School of Technology in Wheaton. The foundation is a partnership between the automotive business community and Montgomery County Public Schools.
Daniel Hagedoorn, Mustafa Kamel and Alex Vargas had a some trouble changing the tires on a 1996 Chevrolet Corsica because of the rust around one of the tires, but they said they were learning a lot and having fun doing it.
‘‘I love cars,” said Vargas, 15. ‘‘I really had to [join the camp] because it was free.”
Vargas, who has worked on cars with his dad, said it is important to know the basics even if he doesn’t yet know how to drive.
If something goes wrong and parents don’t know how to fix it, Vargas said he could at least help determine the problem.
The camp at Edison started June 9 and allows incoming ninth- and 10th-graders to learn the basics of an automotive career path before having to decide if they would like to continue with the program through one of the county high schools in their 11th- and 12th-grade years.
Francisco Ochoa, 13, who will be a freshman at Wheaton High School in the fall, said his mother thought it would be a good idea for him to join.
‘‘My dad loves working on cars ... and I want to at least help him out,” said Ochoa, who said he would be going to Edison for the program in two years.
Other students said they had career goals in other areas, but wanted to attend the camp just to learn.
Yinglun Wu, 14, said he wants to be a doctor and plans to take classes for that field when he starts at Richard Montgomery High School in the fall.
‘‘I’m interested in cars ... but I’m not interested in being a technician,” he said.
Steve Boden, the foundations program coordinator for MCPS, said in the 11th- and 12th-grade programs at Edison students are trained to become licensed technicians or to move on to higher education. He said the summer camp was popular and often filled. ‘‘This is another opportunity to build capacity, expand capacity, and giving it a try to see how kids respond to it.”
He said the program was also important to show high school students that there are many different options in the automotive field and that it’s not just about fixing cars and getting dirty.
Foundation member Harold Redden, vice president of Fitzgerald Auto Malls, lobbied for the camp and said it was good to see younger high school students get a chance to learn about options.
‘‘It just seemed logical that we needed to have a way to let potential participants in the program learn about it a little bit before they make that decision [in 11th grade],” he said.
Redden said there was a misconception that becoming an auto technician was somehow a default career, but said the career could lend itself to higher education opportunities and rewarding, high-paying positions.
Matthew Page, an automotive technology instructor at Edison, is teaching the camp at Edison this summer and would like to see it expand.
‘‘This is giving a lot of students a taste of the basic stuff,” he said. ‘‘This is nothing like what we cover in the school year, but they get their feet wet.”
