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FutureForward Bollman students give back to teacher

Pictured above: Aaron Espinoza (student), Michael Archuleta (Automotive instructor), Kevin Barrientos (student), Shelly Garnett (Thornton teacher), and Angel Rodriguez (student) pose in front of the restored vehicle.

Students at FutureForward Bollman had a chance to restore a family gem for a teacher at Thornton High School. Back in October 2022, Shelly reached out to the Auto Body & Collision Repair program at Bollman to see if they were interested in helping her out with fixing some sun damaged parts of her late mother's vehicle. Unfortunately, Shelly lost her mother during COVID and did not want to let go of the last vehicle her mother ever purchased. In an effort to support Adams 12 students with applying real-life skills in their Automotive Collision repair class, she trusted the students to repair the sun-damaged paint to its original form.

Michael Archuleta, the Automotive Collision instructor, had this to say about the work his students do:

"Every vehicle we repair is an opportunity to rebuild not just the vehicle but also the lives that were impacted. It's not about fixing what's broken it's about restoring hope and giving people the confidence to move forward."

Here are photos of the work that students did as they repaired the vehicle:

Bollman Student Kevin Barrientos painting the vehicle
Car continuing the process of being restored at Bollman

 

As we fast-forward to March 17, 2023, the students held a re-gifting ceremony at Bollman to give that car back to Shelly.

Restored car is located in front of FutureForward Bollman

Shelley Garnett had this to say about the entire experience:

"Our mother's / Nan's love for children and her belief in being educated was authentic, so for students to have learned how to restore a car, her car, would have made her so proud to have been part of their educational experience."

This story exemplifies our ELEVATE Focus Area: Diverse Learning. Sharing stories of how students receive engaging learning experiences and the focused-attention they need through appropriate student-to-staff ratios and varied programming.