Watauga High students win third place in National Automotive Competition

Watauga High School seniors Jessica Lawrence and Daniel Miller took third place in the National Automotive Competition in New York City last week.

This national competition included written tests on automotive technology and a hands-on “fix it” competition in which the students must diagnose and repair vehicles that are not running properly.

WHS automotive technology teacher Larry Jones said, “We were up there with all the other major cities. First place was Los Angeles, second was Toronto, and third was Boone.”

Jones praised the students for their achievement, saying, “We are very proud of the way they represented North Carolina, as well as all the hard work they put into this competition.”

Jones also praised Modern Toyota of Boone for its support of the students in preparing for the competition.

Modern Toyota supplied a Toyota Matrix for the students to work on, along with the scanning equipment used to check out the vehicle and training in how to use the equipment.

Lawrence and Miller qualified for the National Automotive Competition by winning first place in the N.C. Automobile Dealers Association Automotive Technology Competition in Greensboro last month.

Lawrence achieved the top score in the state on the written portion of that competition.

The third place awards each student received at the national competition included more than $80,000 in scholarship offers from various technical schools, colleges and universities, as well as automotive tools and other prizes.

Lawrence and Miller each also won $15,000 in scholarships at the state competition last month.

In addition, Watauga High School will benefit from the national competition through receiving more than $1,500 worth of free training materials.

Lawrence is considering higher education in both automotive technology and dairy science after high school.

Miller’s future plans include using scholarship awards to complete additional education in automotive technology and then to pursue a career in the field.