By JAKE TIGER
On a field trip to a Laurel body shop, high schoolers studying collision repair got to sand bumpers, tally up estimates and catch a glimpse of the lucrative future that might be ahead of them. The students are studying collision repair at the Center for Applied Technology North (CATN), in Severn.
Jimmy Mudgett, an owner of Maryland Collision Center Silver Spring, on Muirkirk Road, encouraged the students to stick with their studies. He boasted about how much money they could make in collision repair not too long after graduating. One of his employees, a 22 year old, completed a four-year apprenticeship out of high school and now makes around $150,000 a year, he said. The students looked at each other in awe and excitement.
“Pretty cool, right?” Mudgett said, speaking over the roaring engines and whirring power tools inside the garage.
Tim Miller, general manager at the center, said that the field trip was a first for the shop. The center had previously tabled at CAT North career fairs, but the field trip gave the mostly 10th and 11th graders a sampling of work in a body shop..
“It stirs up interest in hopes of getting more body guys, painters that come through from those programs,” Miller said, of the experience. “And it teaches them. It lets them know what they’re working to and what they’re learning.”
Small groups of students rotated among three stations in the shop – parts, paint and the body shop, and also got a look at the office.
At the parts station, a student asked about the most expensive cars to come through the shop. Miller said they had worked on Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Another group of students were downstairs in the body shop looking under the hoods of a couple of Corvettes.
Deana Jones, a CATN collision repair instructor, encourages her students to envision themselves in the jobs they’re working toward. She sees field trips as an integral element of their education, and has organized other trips to car shows and the Volkswagen port in Baltimore
“[The students] love getting to see each department. And of course they love seeing how much the pay is going to be. [Field trips] set them up for their future and where they think they want to be.”
CATN student Liam Quinlan said he began to focus on collision repair as a potential career grew when he realized how expensive college could be. He realized he could make as much as a college graduate — but without the student loans.
“I’m excited about just visiting the body shops and learning about body work and possible job opportunities,” Quinlan said. “Cars will always be around, so it’s nice to know the job will never go away.”