FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2003
CONTACT: Roland Ruiz, St. Philip's College Director of Community and Public Relations
210.208.8006

NEW ST. PHILIP'S COLLEGE AUTOMOTIVE ACADEMY OFFERS COLLEGE CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

St. Philip's College, with help from the Texas Independent Automobile Association (TIAA) and the Alamo Region Tech Prep Consortium, has launched a new Automotive Academy that offers college-level courses in automotive technology to San Antonio area high school students beginning this fall.

The St. Philip's College Automotive Academy is a new tech prep/dual credit initiative designed to enable students to earn up to six college credit hours per semester in automotive technology while still in high school. The Academy is open to San Antonio area high school seniors interested in pursuing a technical-based educational program upon graduation that will provide a seamless pathway from high school to community college to the workforce.

"Technical programs like automotive maintenance and repair are increasingly technology driven and require advanced training equipment to be most effective. Consequently, many school districts are finding it too costly to operate these kinds of programs," said John Carnes, St. Philip's College dean of Applied Science and Technology. "An automotive academy helps fill the void. We can offer a high quality education geared too today's workplace standards in a dual credit format that benefits both students and the automotive industry in general."

The St. Philip's College Automotive Academy, located on the college main campus, was made possible in part through a $30,000 grant from the Alamo Region Tech Prep Consortium. The grant funded the purchase of specialized hands-on training equipment that meets National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) standards. A contribution from TIAA funded the purchase of textbooks, meaning there is no cost to students.

Students in the Automotive Academy remain enrolled in their respective schools, but attend the dual credit automotive courses for a couple of hours each afternoon Monday through Thursday. Anyone interested in learning more about the St. Philip's College Automotive Academy should call 531-3571.

The first Academy class consists of students from Highlands, Lanier, Phoenix and East Central high schools. Academy students are: from East Central--Alexander Civick, Drek Real, Luis Hernandez, Alberto Escobar, Alex Cardenas, Jonathan Sharpless, Adrian Flores, Shay Stewart and Denise Casanova; from Lanier--Christian Rios and Adareli Vasquez; from Highlands--Jeffrey Rangel, Alfonso Macias, Daniel Gonzales and Crystal Martinez; and from SAISD's Phoenix High School-- Daniel Valdez.

St. Philip's College, one of the Alamo Community Colleges serving the greater Bexar County region, is a comprehensive community college. The college is designated as both a Historically Black College and a Hispanic Serving Institution, the only one in the nation to carry such a distinction. St. Philip's College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.