Sunnyside High School seniors achieve national auto certification

Nine seniors from Sunnyside High School’s automotive technology program have earned national certification from Chrysler.

Each of the students completed the first level — level zero — of the MOPAR Career Automotive Program, which seeks to develop the “best-trained” workforce in the automotive industry to work on Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, SRT and FIAT vehicles.

They are: Joaquin De La Cruz, Estefan Gonzales, Rafael Camberos, Alejandro Flores, Mar Lopez, Luis Casillas, Esteban Fuentes, Marchello Orosco and Jaron Osegueda.

The students are the first in the state to complete the training and earn the credentials focusing on topics including the role of service technicians, the use of high tech scan tools, customer relations and new car prep, putting them on track to begin doing some warranty work, said Kathy Prather, director of Career and Technical Education/JTED for the Sunnyside Unified School District.

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By completing the programming, the students earned college credit that is transferrable to Pima Community College. They have 18 months to continue on the pathway and achieve subsequent levels of MOPAR training.

On Thursday, the students’ accomplishments were celebrated during National Technical Letter of Intent Signing Day, hosted by PCC.

The event is s designed to honor students entering occupational fields while mirroring the NCAA National Signing Day for students who sign to play sports in college.