Hamiltonville Farm Scholarship

When I was younger, like many boys my age, I was intrigued by anything with a loud engine. I remember the first ever live show I went to was a Monster Jam show in the old Kings stadium, before they had built the Golden One Center. I can still hear those screaming racing v8s echoing through that stadium. I can remember the show ended early due to technical difficulties and I got a Donkey Kong monster truck stuffed animal for compensation. I still have that to this day. Also, the movie Cars came out a year after I was born, and my parents would watch that movie on loop with me if we got rained in. That is still one of my favorite movies to watch, even as a soon high school graduate. Before I even learned how to read, my grandparents gave me my first Lego set. From that point on I loved to tear apart and rebuild things. Fast forward to high school, I begin to learn more and more about my parents. When my parents were dating, they were in a four-wheeling club in Southern California. Well, it was mostly a Jeep club, but my dad had a Toyota. When I look at those almost 30 year old photos of my dad scaling cliffs, it makes me want to time travel to when times were simple. I wanted to live in a time when if you had motor problems, you rebuilt a carburetor. Almost every Saturday morning I try to make it to Folsom Cars and Coffee to check out some sweet rides. I have an 18-year-old pickup truck that I constantly fix small issues on. I’m even in an auto shop class, where I learn to tear down motors and piece them back together and hopefully have them run again. My junior year in high school my intro auto shop class took a tour of Universal Technical Institute near the end of the year. The first time I toured the UTI campus I was amazed at the potential opportunities for a career this school could give me. This became especially clear after seeing the unbalanced statistics of how many new mechanics are available to replace retiring mechanics. I’ve always wanted to be a part of the auto industry, and to contribute to car culture in some way. Having problems and fixing them by myself is one of the best feelings, and being a service and repair technician would allow me to do that all day. Along with restoring vehicles, I want to restore the thriving culture that is automobiles, that an older generation once knew. I still want kids to feel the same way I felt when I saw my first Monster Jam show. I want to pursue that by having my own restoration shop one day. I want to be able to restore old cars for both myself and clients in the greater Sacramento area. I want to give back a piece of history in my way. This scholarship will assist me in the financial aspect of my education at Universal Technical Institute Sacramento, where I have been accepted. I want to help my parents by contributing to my own education since I have other siblings in the home they are responsible for. I want to help do my part and my minimum wage job will not accomplish this alone, especially as I attend school full time. I thank you for this opportunity!