Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

PCC students build Cobra kit car

Photos and story by James Hill

ROCK CREEK CAMPUS – The auto collision repair program at Portland Community College is helping to build a Cobra kit car that will be auctioned off at a Northwest Education Automotive Training (NEAT) fund-raiser in November.The money raised by the auction will help fund scholarships for PCC students in auto collision repair. This endeavor is part of a partnership with other schools, automotive education programs and industry partners. The last time this was done, NEAT donated more than $13,000 toward automotive programs at Rock Creek and Sylvania campuses.PCC students Ty Tibbets (The Dalles), Colin Janikowski (southeast Portland), Derek Reaney (Warren) and Dustin Fanger (Newberg), worked on the body of the car winter term in the PCC repair shop. The students will prime and paint it black with a silver racing strip this term.NEAT’s scholarships are targeted to high school seniors or graduates interested in careers in the automotive industry. The educational sponsors of NEAT include PCC, Clackamas Community College, Clark Community College, Clark County Skills Center, Portland Public Schools and Reynolds High School. Industry partners include the Northwest Automotive Trades Association, Northwest Tire Dealers Association, Oregon Auto Parts Association and Oregon Gasoline Dealers Association.PCC is the largest post-secondary educational institution in Oregon, enrolling 100,000 students annually, and operating three comprehensive campuses along with five workforce training and education centers, a small business development center and education outlets in hundreds of community and business locations.