ROP Teams Sweep OCADA Competition
North Orange County ROP students held four of the
six competing team spots in the 16th Annual Automotive
Technology Competition sponsored by the Orange County Automobile
Dealers Association (OCADA) at Hyundai Motor America's National
Technical Training Center in Fountain Valley on Saturday,
January 29, 2009.
Loara High School seniors Eric Argueta and Luis
Loera in Russ Bacarella’s Automotive Technician class, who were
sponsored by Toyota of Orange, won the contest. Their next stop
is the National Automotive Technology Competition in New York
City in April during the New York International Auto Show.
Third place was awarded another of Russ
Bacarella’s teams, Kyle Baker and Yaham Palliyage. They
were sponsored by Hardin Honda. The Sunny Hills High ROP
team, led by instructor Charles Zepeda, and sponsored by Connell
Chevrolet, placed fifth. The Buena Park High School ROP
team, led by instructor James Williamson and sponsored by Renick
Cadillac, placed sixth.
Students must pass a rigorous written portion to
qualify for the elite troubleshooting portion of the contest.
More than sixty students this year competed for the spots, and
four of the six high school teams that qualified are North
Orange County ROP-trained teams.
All of the student participants received one-year
scholarships from OCADA to pursue studies in the automotive
industry, and partial scholarships from Universal Technical
Institute and Ohio Technical College. Each student also
received sets of automotive tools and industry equipment.
Many thanks to the sponsoring dealerships that
gave hundreds of hours to help students train, to OCADA for the
opportunity to compete, and to Hyundai Motor America for the
location to compete.
Congratulations to ROP's New
Superintendent!
The appointment became effective
March 3, 2009.
Michael Worley, Ed.D.
Michael Worley, Ed.D., deputy
superintendent of North Orange County Regional Occupational
Program headquartered in Anaheim, was selected by the ROP Board
of Trustees to succeed Dr. Patricia Frank in the role of
superintendent.
Dr. Worley, 53, has been with
North Orange County ROP for thirty years. He began his
career as a welding instructor at Anaheim High School in 1978.
In 1989, Dr. Worley was named administrator, Instructional
Services. Seven years later he was selected as assistant
superintendent of Educational Services. In 2003, he was
named assistant superintendent of Administrative Services, and
in 2007, Dr. Worley was named deputy superintendent.
North Orange County ROP is a
collaborative effort in career technical education by five
school districts: Anaheim Union High School District; Fullerton
Joint Union High School District; and Brea Olinda, Los Alamitos
and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School Districts, and is
governed by elected members appointed from their district
Boards. ROP educates more than 22,000 students annually in over
100 career-technical classes on 25 high school campuses, five
ROP campuses and in more than 650 community classroom sites,
such as shops, clinics, hospitals, theme parks and more.
ROP Teams among Top Three in VEX Robotics
Demonstration Competition
ROP’s Western High School and Anaheim High School
engineering teams joined forces to come in second and
third in the VEX Robotics Demonstration Competition on Saturday,
March 7, at Fullerton College. Participating were Anaheim High students
Alan Amada, Rudy Gamboa, Leo Lopez ,and Ivan Penukoko, along
with
Western High student, Anthony Nevils. Rudy Gamboa
controlled the programmed activities of their robots and
received points for the robots’ completed tasks.
ROP had three teams in the competition: one from
each high school, and one combined team, with students from ROP
Western, ROP Anaheim and Gilbert High School. The combined team
(Anaheim, Western and Gilbert) qualified as number two and took
second place. The Anaheim High students teamed with
Western to take third place.
Anaheim High School students,
from left, are Leonardo Lopez (in the Colonists shirt), Rudy
Gamboa, Ivan Penukoko and Alan Amada. Students are pictured
with their robot in the Fullerton College parking garage
where the Vital-Ling sponsored competition took place.
Anthony Neville (foreground) is intently
watching his robot as he controls the delicate maneuvers
necessary for the robot to pick up and deposit ping pong
balls into cylinders of varying heights. Students had only
two minutes in which to complete the delicate maneuvers. All
student participants won new starter kits to make new
robots.
The robot has a simple task: scoop up a
ping pong ball and deposit it into a cylinder. What they
are doing with the robots is roughly the same thing as
operating remotely a Mars Lander from a station at JPL in
Pasadena.
The annual event is jointly sponsored by
Fullerton College and Vital Link. ROP instructors Steve
Heck, Western High, and Ron Ponce, Anaheim High both teach
Design and Fabrication for Engineering Careers.
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Astronaut Credits Selection to ROP Metal Fabrication Class
Joe
Acaba blasted into space early Monday, March 16 from the Kennedy
Space Center in Cape Canaveral, with a job
to do. He and six other crewmates of the space shuttle
Discovery are going to install the
International Space Station's last pair of solar wings so the
orbiting outpost can operate at full power. He credits his
selection to the team to his experience in his ROP Metal
Fabrication class at Esperanza High School from 1984 to 1985.
Joe Acaba, Astronaut
Dennis “Walt” Walters was his teacher then and still teaches ROP
Metal Fabrication at Esperanza. When Joe dropped by Walt’s
classroom after his selection to the astronaut team in 2004, he
told Walt he was sure his time in the class made the
difference in his being chosen for the program. He
said all three of his interviews focused on his experiences with
metals in the ROP class.
Walt
said, “At that time, my advanced metals program was an ROP
class. Joe was a slight student and very energetic and
kept me on my toes always wanting to learn more, and picked
things up very quickly. I found out during his visit that
he was an AP kind of kid and he didn't let on to anyone in our
classes.”
“He had taken
all the science and math we had to offer at that time. As
we talked I realized we didn't have the grad requirements we
have now and Joe took the class as his extras, instead of going
home. He carried full loads all 4 years so he could take
the fun classes. We at Esperanza are very proud of him and
wish him and his fellow astronauts good luck and a safe
mission.”
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For
more information about classes and services, call
1-714-502-5858; visit North Orange County ROP on the web at
www.nocrop.us, or come to 385 North
Muller Street, Anaheim, CA 92801 between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm,
Monday through Friday.
