Alex Street

Today, Street is embarking on his third year teaching a variety of automotive mechanics courses at Western Nevada College, and loving it! 

“I believe in this so much that I will commute the hour all of the time from way north of Reno, because I really like it, and I will spend as much time here as I can and always stick around to be by a student’s side,” Street said. 

Automotive Mechanics Instructor Alex Street can be reached at 775-544-6260 or alex.street@wnc.edu. 

Q: What is your background and how did you end up at WNC?  

ALEX: I’ve been in the automotive industry essentially since I could walk. My dad and stepdad were both gearheads who were in the field, NASCAR and things of that nature. 

After going through TMCC’s program and graduating from UTI, I’ve spent years going through the ranks to be my own business owner before deciding to try education. When I was a lot younger, my auto teacher told me that I would be a great teacher. So, I wanted to give it a try; I actually got in at TMCC, and when this position at WNC opened, I put my hat in the ring and grateful that WNC chose me to be their auto teacher. 

Q: Why do you like teaching at WNC? 

ALEX: The best part about Western Nevada College from all of the institutions that I’ve been at has been the culture. This has been the easiest group of people to get along with, both professionally and in the student body. People who are enrolled and work at this school all truly want to head forward in an upward trajectory. It's very nice to be somewhere that people are all trying to go in the same direction. We don’t all have to be the same but pointed in the same direction.  

With our Perkins funding, we received a list of items that were on my wish list, and my wish list never goes away, but we got a brand-new alignment machine and now we can actually do a great job. And along with some other new equipment, it feels like we have something new to help bring us back up to speed all of the time, so we’re getting what we need to be more successful here. 

Q: How are students adapting to the addition of new equipment, such as the new alignment machine, to the shop? 

ALEX: The students actually love it, seeing what they are going to be doing in the real world and actually putting it to use. The objective is that they have a full understanding the first time they walk into a shop what the equipment should look like, not necessarily what it’s going to be, but it should be up to a certain standard and up to par with who they want to be. 

Q: Was there a teacher, a class or someone else who inspired you to take your auto mechanics knowledge to the classroom?  

ALEX: Cliff Bartl. He was my TMCC instructor when I was dual enrolled in high school. He pulled me aside one day and told me that I have the chops to one day be a teacher, and the demeanor, attitude and the knowledge base after I’ve been in the field for a while to do it. He personally called me one day to say he was retiring, if I wanted to take his spot, and I said, “I’ll definitely give it a try,” and I’m really grateful that I did. 

Q: Why would students want to enroll in your classes? 

ALEX: I think the most important thing in enrolling, not just in automotive courses, but a lot of these CTE classes is certain life skills that you are going to learn on top of your technical skills that set you up for who you want to be in life. Even though this is an automotive class, you learn so many systems and subsystems, material sciences, thermodynamics, proper use of tools that all sorts of industries use, math principles, and they will set you up to not just be a technician but many students can go on to engineering programs, and go further then working on the floor.  

Q: What would you tell a student who might be intimidated about taking an auto mechanics class? 

ALEX: If you are intimidated to enter these classes (in order to work on your car), I think you will be generally surprised at how easy it is to get along with all of your peers in these classes; we all want to work together and progress. It’s so much fun when you finally get your hands on your own vehicle and to see how it works and how it comes apart. You get a nice sense of accomplishment when it goes back together and works how you want it to. And, heck, it might be something that you learn that you really like to do, and it might change your idea or your friend’s idea of where you are gonna be or what you are going to do with these skills. 

Q: There are a number of compelling reasons to pursue teaching as a career. Can you talk about what might inspire college students to become teachers? 

ALEX: I believe in this so much that I will commute the hour all of the time from way north of Reno, because I really like it, and I will spend as much time here as I can and always stick around to be by their side.  

I love to crack jokes with them and get to know them, always be a reference for them and help them get further in life as best as I can. 

I actually started as an auto mechanic instructor in Washoe County School District, and that was a very challenging job that was extremely difficult to get done. It’s hard for everybody, and as teachers keep seeing how hard it is, they keep leaving. But we really, really need people to come in and teach who really care about the community, care about people learning it and we need to fill in not only the skills gap for technicians but the skills gap for qualified educators who want to share that knowledge with the kids.  

Q: Your auto mechanics career includes running your own repair shop. Is that an experience that you try to encourage your students to pursue, and what has that experience been like for you and how do it come about? 

ALEX: That has been a nice way to stay on top of my skills and help out my community. There are a bunch of customers when I was fully open that I like to take care of. One of the big things that I like to push on my students is the SkillsUSA competition. I really, really think it’s in their best interest to try it, because one of my biggest regrets is not doing that multiple years when I was in school. I did it my senior year of high school, and I could have been a gold medalist at nationals if I would have kept with it, which would have gotten me quite a bit further.  

But, I’m really, really happy where I’m at.  

Q: Can you talk about how the automotive mechanics profession has changed? 

ALEX: This is no longer considered a grease monkey job, and I would almost not even call it a blue-collar job. It’s getting in that gray collar area because you have to know so many systems that make a car go down the road. It’s just a symphony of items going on. You need to know electronics, you need to know material sciences, you need to know, math, how to tear apart interiors to do warranty work so that you don’t damage things to get to that starter motor, you need to know how to work on computers because you need to know how to talk to them correctly. All of that stuff. It’s definitely not your grease monkey job anymore; there are still levels of it, but it’s going more gray collar. They get paid big bucks and they have to know a whole lot of things now. 

Q: What do you see for the future of the automotive department at WNC? 

ALEX: I see lots of growth in the automotive department. It has grown so much in the small amount of time I’ve been here. I’ve seen all of my classes move toward full capacity. 

I’m teaching 21 credits … it’s exhausting … but it has to be done to help people get their degrees by offering all of these classes in a timely manner. Hopefully, we will expand the program, expand the building, expand the faculty. I just want to see all of it go higher and higher because we need more and more technicians to fill all of these jobs, just in Carson City alone, not to mention the rest of the country.  

Q: What do you find unique about our students? 

ALEX: The big swath of the student body that WNC has is from Tahoe all the way to Fallon. It makes us a really good melting pot where we do get a bunch of ideas that we can share, multiple experiences and stories much more so than you will get with one school and one little section of town. Being able to get these people together and talk about their shared experiences through the lens of cars has been really, really cool, and I honestly wish we could make a television show about it because it’s really awesome to see all of the interaction and growth.