Maya McFadden Photo
Gateway GM lab students mine the mysteries of a Chevy Colorado.
Like this year’s Major League Baseball players, a team of future mechanics is racing through a condensed in-person season at Gateway Community College with precautions aimed at avoiding a Covid-19 outbreak.
The future mechanics have made it to Week 5 in a fall General Motors (GM)-affiliated program this fall at Gateway. Their work requires learning in person — as some discovered in the spring, when classes were held only remotely because of Covid-19.
The program has returned to a set of shop labs with some safety adjustments, to try to hone the students’ skills for the workforce despite the pandemic.
Due to Covid, the GM program has been reduced to 12 weeks rather than its usual 16 weeks. Lab hours have been increased for GM courses for students to get as much hands on work time as possible to meet the needed amount of hours for program completion. The students study in person Tuesdays and Thursdays straight from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m
In the past the GM courses would separate lecture and lab day each week. Now students are given a condensed lecture at the start of each class. Then they go into the lab for more hands on work. Since the pandemic, lab times have nearly been doubled.
During one this past Thursday’s GM labs on Gateway’s North Haven campus, Annie Smith (pictured) worked with her small group on a white 2019 Chevrolet Equinox. They reinstalled the differential and drive shft. In order to do so, Smith and her group had to remove some of the car’s suspension parts to get to the differential.
Smith got into automotive work because of her interest in learning about her own car and how it functions like pieces of a puzzle.
Students in the GM program must intern at a dealership at least part-time to complete the program. For almost a year now, Smith has been doing her internship hours as a technician at a BMW dealership.
As a result of the pandemic, Smith has had to take extra sanitary precautions before getting to work on the cars that come to the dealership. Each car brought in is sanitized before and after service work is done. A 20-minute full car sanitizing service has also been introduced at Smith’s work.
Instructor of Automotive Technology Allyn Manning led the GM cohort of 12 through last Thursday’s lab.
Manning helped a group work on taking the transmission out of a 1996 Camero and disassembling its clutch. After lifting the car overhead, the group used an oxygen-acetylene torch to unscrew some stuck bolts.
Kyle Anastasio 19 (above) worked on the black Camero with his group. Anastasio has had a love for vehicles since the age of 3. He decided Gateway’s Automotive Technology program was for him while a senior at Sound School.
Anastasio said he hasn’t had much difficulty adjusting to the new norms of Covid in the class and outside of class. He has gotten used to the face masks that sometimes come in handy to keep from inhaling strong fluid smells, he said. Anastasio said the GM course is most effective in person.
“We treat this like it’s a dealership. Our goal is to get the cars back on the road,” said Anastasio.
During the Thursday lab each group’s lesson differed slightly.
One group’s lesson was on removing a car’s front axle. The group started with looking up the vehicle’s service infomation, then removed the front tires. “Because we have cars all the way from the ‘90s, we get to learn how to do this stuff on almost everything,” said student Jeff Mayo, who is 19.
On the other side of the shop, Adam Aponte, 19, Kyle Foy, 20, and Jailene Paez, 20, worked together. They changed the rear differential cover of a Chevrolet Colorado and changing the thick dark differential oil.The group decided the new differential cover would be red.
The rear differential cover before …
… and after.
Before Aponte, Foy, and Paez replaced the cover, Manning gathered the class in front of the Chevrolet Colorado to explain the function of the rear differential, which gets power from the transmission and allows the wheels to be controlled and to rotate at different speeds.
When needed, the students stepped outside the shop’s garage and took a break from the lesson and their face masks and shields
While on break, John Bell, 19 enjoyed a virtual game of golf on his phone. Bell said he has been toughing out the longer days because “this is better than no class.”
“I’m taking it a day at a time,” he said, “so I don’t worry.”
This story was produced with financial support from Solutions Journalism Network.
Previous stories:
• Students Play The Covid Heavy
• 2 Campuses, Week 1: Zoom vs. Zip
• Albertus Continues Convocation Tradition, With A Twist
• Yalies Begin 14-Day Dorm Quarantines
• Future Mechanics Return To Class In Person
• Prof, Students Forge “Hybrid” Routine
• Coronavirus Takes A Seat