On February 5th Former Edison student and current Collision Repair and Refinishing teacher, Barry Roopnarine, won the Teacher of the Year award. Of course, we are all proud that a teacher from our own school has won such a big award. Not only does he educate his students with knowledge of collision repair and refinishing, but he also inspires his students to do better. Aside from this, he even managed to win a $50,000 grant for the Collision Repair and Refinishing shop class in our school.
This donation was given to us from the Collision Repair Education Foundation as donations of tools and such for the Collision Repair and Refinishing program in our school. The goal of the Ultimate Collision Education Makeover grant is to honor a school that has been doing an outstanding job in educating students in collision repair, but needs some financial assistance to improve their program’s teaching materials and equipment. Over 100 high school and college collision school programs from across the country applied for this grant and each of the 2014 winning schools will have their $50,000 wish list fulfilled through the Collision Repair Education Foundation and industry donors/supporters, and we were the ones who won it.
The Collision Repair Education Foundation is non-profit organizations made to help the young people who are enrolled in Collision Education classes learn by donating tools. The purpose of this organization being made is because during the 1980s, the Collision Repair industry was facing a shortage of qualified workers to work on repairing collisions. In hopes to improve the industry, they started this organization, asked for donations from several companies and give donations to people who apply for this grant and win.