If you’re ever on the second floor in math class and hear the whizzing sound of power tools or the loud striking sound of a hammer hitting metal, you’ll know the auto shop is in full swing. The auto shop has been a staple elective since the 1950’s when York created the program.

Students are in the auto shop at all periods of the day working on the various vehicles that the school has for students to work on; or learning how to do bodywork on practice panels by bringing them back to ICAR standards. Students that start out taking Auto Tech 1 tend to stick with the program and inevitably become sucked in and take an auto class all four years of their high school career.

Part of the charm perhaps is Mr. Ron Robak himself. He always has something funny to say and truly enjoys helping students learn new skills. Regardless of the year, make and model of the vehicle, you can always find Mr. Robak under the hood diagnosing and repairing teachers and students cars while managing to teach his students the process of repair with his hands deep in crevices of the hot engine bays.

“Kids like the hands on ability to learn. It gets them out of the classroom and more involved in the program,” Robak said.

Senior Dylan Luehring is frequently down in the shop as an aid for lower classmen.  After taking auto classes four years in a row he’s learned to weld, repair and replace tires, how to do bodywork and many other various tasks that are not ordinarily taught at public high schools anymore.

“It’s a nice break from normal classes. Every day I get to come down and learn something new. It’s fun to learn the process and actually fix the problem,” Luehring said.

The thoroughness of the program comes to surface once students realize that most high school auto shops don’t have nearly half of the tools or resources that York’s program has to offer. At other schools such as TCD; students have to pay a fee to bring their vehicles in to the shop, or take a look at Palatine high school where the shop is miniscule. Along with being a fun and engaging class, the auto shop also prepares students for working out in the field and becoming a good consumer. These skills are life long and will surely never be forgotten

Also full of energy, the screen printing room is always a buzz of commotion from Mr. Joe Stolz’s classroom sessions to the chaotic printing of club t-shirts. For the most part any club or extracurricular activity shirts are produced by the students who take this course.

Aside from producing the schools shirts, students learn real life skills such as mastering Photoshop or InDesign.  The screen printing program has been at York since the early 1990s and to this day is still a beloved class amongst students. Senior Matthew Shepard has taken the class four years in a row and loves every minute of it.

“I really enjoy printing the shirts, It’s fun to come down with a couple of friends and knock 40-50 shirts out. It’s rewarding to make these shirts because I get to see my work worn all over the school by all of the different clubs and organizations,”  Shepard said.

Mr. Stolz himself has been screen printing since he was in high school and still to this day loves doing it.

“It’s always fun using an idea from your mind and actually putting it on an object,” Stolz said

Students taking the course are allowed to create their own designs and print them onto t-shirts which is extremely neat. Not many classes allow students to creatively express themselves anymore, so what better way to do that then print something that interests the students and teaches them a life long skill along the way. Anyone at any grade level can take a screen printing class at their skill level and learn something new and have fun along the way.