In Leander ISD, Rouse High School is the only school with the Automotive Technology program, taught by instructors Jason Glass and Jim Davis, with the Rouse Automotive Student (RAMS) club being State SkillsUSA Champions for two years in a row.

Nine members of the RAMS club will compete at districts from Jan. 13-15 at the Texas State Technical School in Hutto. The competitions feature identifying tools, taking tests and hands on working in the shop.

“We normally try to find a lot of instructional videos for our kids to review, and once they review them, if they understand them, we go over it, and if they don’t, they tell us about it and then we go from there, and I can help them understand,” Davis said. “I live for it. I love competitions. I like it when they win, and they like it too, so I like to see them succeed.”

Automotive is a three-year program beginning with Basics/Principles of transportation then going into Auto Tech 1 and 2. There are an estimated 100 students in the program.

“As the president of the Rams Club, I would definitely say it’s best if you join your sophomore year,” senior Jade Corriveau said. “Just listen, pay attention to the life lessons, the hands-on lessons that these teachers are giving you are like once in a lifetime.”

In the basics class, students do book work, go through several chapters, then go out into the shop and learn hands on. As to the second year in the program it is double blocked with the first class period they do book work and have discussions then the second class period they work hands on in the shop.

“We work on people’s cars and it’s a real life situation, our shop looks just like a real dealership shop [with] tools, lifts, all that stuff,” Glass said. “If I’m gonna work on your car or my students are going to work on your car, we wanna fix it correctly, we wanna do it, to where it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg, we wanna take care of things. We’re also teaching the students how to work with each other.”

Students are given hands-on experience such as how to change a tire, how to paint cars, how to change oil, replacing the engine and how sensors work.

“I would say the most challenging aspect so far for me is just learning how to probably do electronic stuff just because it’s really confusing,” junior Liam Earley said. “Just because if one thing’s wrong, it can cause a whole lot of issues.”

Earley’s biggest accomplishment has been building an engine with Glass; they are currently remodeling an old Model A engine that had blown up. They had it custom built and are planning to add expensive parts.

“There was a bunch of issues with it and Mr. Glass had bought it,” Earley said. “We basically had to rip it all apart, find out what was wrong with it and then we had to take it to a machine shop, [and] do other machine work.”

For senior Joey Yang, his favorite car he worked on was a Ford Bronco, being able to change the control arms, the shocks and the bar links.

“I love the teachers and everything we are able to do,” Yang said. “I wish that everybody knew how fun it is, but if it’s not for them, it’s not for them, but I enjoy it a lot, it’s my thing.”

In the program, students are able to get industry certifications, from safety to automotive service excellence.

“What I’ve seen is students who come in that are just interested in cars, but then when they leave high school, they have a place to work,” Glass said. “They are automotive technicians, and so their careers start in our class and we get to see that.”

In September, the automotive program was able to host its first car show with around 500 attendees, where it featured a variety of cars from antiques to hot-rods. Attendees were able to vote on cars, picking between multiple categories.

“There’s so many great things that I get to witness,” Glass said. “Last year we put on the first Rouse car show in the parking lot, and we had students in automotive helping and also had students from all CTE departments help. That was pretty big.”

A former student that was a part of the automotive program was able to be hired by the Mercedes-Benz Mechanic program fresh out of high school.

“We get to see excitement in their eyes that students now are productive members in society,” Glass said. [He] bought his first house and is not even 20 years old. That was really exciting and fun, and seeing students leave high school and have opportunities because they’ve taken advantage of what Mr. Davis and I offer what they know and they’ve learned and they go to jobs.”