Oscar Salas is a fairly quiet Warsaw Area Career Center student, but he’s been nominated for Work-Based Learner of the Year for his contribution to Toyota of Warsaw as a technician intern.
And those who nominated him don’t want to keep that quiet.
Work-Based Learning Coordinator Angie Heinsman nominated Salas for the Impact Award from The Institute for Workforce Excellence, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
He won’t find out until Feb. 13 whether or not he won the award. That’s when Work and Learn Indiana will celebrate internship excellence at the 19th Annual Impact Awards Luncheon during the Indiana Work-Based Learning Conference in Noblesville.
Salas said he’s been working at Toyota since January as an intern.
“I help techs with the big jobs, oil changes, a little bit of everything. Job shadow, try to learn big jobs, stuff like that,” he said.
His favorite part about the job is the big projects, like taking engines apart. “That really interests me. Putting it back together just makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something big,” he said.
The job has taught him a lot. “I’ve taken out two engines. I’ve done a lot of engine work with my mentor, Drew. He helped me out a lot and I’ve learned a lot, and I’m really thankful for this opportunity,” Salas stated, adding that automotive is a career he wants to go into. “And also just helps a lot just with daily transportation if anything happens, to know what’s wrong. It’s just a pretty good job that I feel like we’ll never run out of work. So it’s pretty cool to help out people and fix a machine or something like that.”
He was kind of surprised that he was nominated for Work-Based Learner of the Year, but he’s really thankful.
“I don’t know if I deserve it, but I feel like I’ve worked hard and maybe I deserve it, I don’t know,” Salas said.
Heinsman said he deserves the award.
“From January, right out of the gate, Toyota stepped right in and were willing to work with some of our automotive students. We kind of restructured how that program went a little bit, so Oscar got paired up and he has taken Toyota certification training. So he has been pouring himself into that, and we watched him, and he chose all summer to continue to work and so then he got to carry it over to the fall, so I think his work ethic, his initiative, he starts talking to us a little bit more now,” she said.
Emily Illingworth Kosnik, general manager and owner with Toyota of Warsaw, said when Salas graduates high school, he has a full-time job there if he wants to pursue his career with Toyota.
Salas is Toyota’s second automotive intern, along with one other student.
“It’s a great program. The teacher (Andy Tuinstra) at the school is wonderful and he really preps them for to come into the real world and actually work on cars, so they have a good foundation,” Kosnik said.
Salas’ favorite vehicles to work on are the combustion engine cars. He said he’s not too knowledgeable yet on the hybrids, but maybe in the future he’ll be more comfortable working on those.
In her part of the nomination for Salas for the award, Kosnik wrote, “When Oscar first started, he was quiet and timid. Fast forward to today, and he is confident, trusted and well-liked by his fellow technicians. Not only has he grown as a person, but he has also demonstrated his ability to apply ‘Kaizen,’ a Japanese word and philosophy used at Toyota that means ‘continuous improvement.’ Oscar exemplified this by setting professional goals over the summer to learn how to complete a four-wheel alignment and mout and balance tires, both of which he successfully achieved. His growth, combined with his initiative and eagerness to learn, sets him apart as an exceptional candidate for this award.”
Salas is already maintenance certified so when he graduates he will be a step ahead of most technicians who come in with the amount of experience he has and tenure.
“So he’ll be coming in at a higher pay level and kind of gets a head start,” she explained Friday.
Heinsman said Salas always does extra and always works extra.
Warsaw Area Career Center Assistant Director Emily Campbell said, “I think one of the things with Work-Based Learning that we talk about when kids go through our Work-Based Learning program, sometimes there’s learning and realizing what you don’t want to do. But it’s always really cool when we have kids like Oscar who always know what they want to do. And I’ve used this word a lot, but it comes down to the passion. And when the passion is there, the drive is there and the commitment and dedication are there.”
She continued, “Of course, it’s a learning tool when you’re like, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to do that again.’ But it’s even cooler when you’re like, ‘Yeah, that was amazing and I love doing that and I want to continue doing that and I’m committed to getting the certifications and doing what I have to.’”
Heinsman said with Toyota, they let him work on getting certifications and the classes and he gets to be included in the work they do. Kosnik said Salas has access to all of the Toyota repair manuals and any Toyota information he would like.
Asked what his drive was, Salas said, “I like cars a lot and I just want to keep learning about them. This industry, you just keep learning and learning, so I just want to take as much knowledge as I can, just because I love cars a lot.”