Way to Go! Bellport students win auto tech competition
Bellport High School seniors Ryan Scarola, left, and Joe Trupia, second from right, placed first at an auto tech competition coordinated by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association. They are pictured here with teacher John Mazeika, left, and Eddie Gazzillo, the association’s chief operating officer. Credit: Eastern Suffolk BOCES
Two Bellport High School seniors have been named winners of a statewide auto tech competition coordinated by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association.
Ryan Scarola and Joseph Trupia, who are also automotive technology students at the Eastern Suffolk BOCES Long Island Academy of Applied Technology's Edward J. Milliken Technical Center in Oakdale, took the top spot last month in the competition that required students to diagnose and fix preprogrammed bugs in vehicles.
This year's competition consisted of 20 two-students teams from across the state. As the top winners, Scarola and Trupia won $2,000 scholarships from the association and scholarships of up to $10,000 from technical training schools.
"It was great that we got to win," said Trupia, 18. Of the competition's importance, he said: "It definitely shows you if you're really good, or if there are areas you're not sure about."
Scarola, 18, said: "It was a lot of fun, and then winning was just more fun on top of that."
Teams rotated through 10 different workstations — each of which was equipped with different model vehicles ranging from BMWs to Subarus — and were given 20 minutes to repair a particular vehicle's issues. Problems ranged from missing lug nuts to broken electrical circuits, the students said.
The second-place team was Kevin Saravia of Brentwood High School and James Smillie of Comsewogue High Schools, both of whom are also students at Milliken Technical Center.
— MICHAEL R. EBERT
Two Bellport High School seniors have been named winners of a statewide auto tech competition coordinated by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association.
Ryan Scarola and Joseph Trupia, who are also automotive technology students at the Eastern Suffolk BOCES Long Island Academy of Applied Technology's Edward J. Milliken Technical Center in Oakdale, took the top spot last month in the competition that required students to diagnose and fix preprogrammed bugs in vehicles.
This year's competition consisted of 20 two-students teams from across the state. As the top winners, Scarola and Trupia won $2,000 scholarships from the association and scholarships of up to $10,000 from technical training schools.
"It was great that we got to win," said Trupia, 18. Of the competition's importance, he said: "It definitely shows you if you're really good, or if there are areas you're not sure about."
Scarola, 18, said: "It was a lot of fun, and then winning was just more fun on top of that."
Teams rotated through 10 different workstations — each of which was equipped with different model vehicles ranging from BMWs to Subarus — and were given 20 minutes to repair a particular vehicle's issues. Problems ranged from missing lug nuts to broken electrical circuits, the students said.
The second-place team was Kevin Saravia of Brentwood High School and James Smillie of Comsewogue High Schools, both of whom are also students at Milliken Technical Center.
— MICHAEL R. EBERT
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
