Interview with Mr. Sikora
The Autobody program at Santana has sadly been neglected for the last couple of years as
there was not a teacher available to teach the class. But the hope of finding a new instructor has
been kept alive. Last year, the school administration was successfully able to find a technician
willing to take the job and mentor young high school students who are interested in joining the
field. Benjamin Sikora, a highly experienced technician and mechanic, is that mentor, as he has
been a part of the industry since he was in high school. For this edition, fellow student and SHS
literary magazine editor, Kaylee Burns and I, sought to interview him, not only as a means to
allow the students to get to know him a little better, but also to encourage students to join the
program. Arriving at the designated auto body area of the campus, I was surprised by the level of
advanced equipment the program had, including practice cars for the students to work on. After
finding Mr. Sikora, we went into the autobody classroom and began the interview.
Rojin: Can you describe yourself or introduce yourself to our readers who may not be
familiar with you?
Sikora: My name is Ben Sikora. I'm a local guy that grew up here in Santee. I went to Rio Seco
school and then went to West Hills. That's where I started my automotive career in the auto shop
program there. And then I transitioned into working in a body shop, my junior year of high
school, which eventually led me here to teaching Autobody in Santana.
Rojin: How are you liking Santana so far?
Sikora: I love it. The community here at Santana is awesome. The staff here has all been a great
help. I'm obviously a new teacher this year. I've never taught before I came straight out of
industry. So I'm still working in industry in the afternoons and teaching here in the morning. So I
have a lot on my plate. And the staff here at Santana has really helped me along already, you
know, through one whole semester. I feel like I've grown a lot.
Rojin: You mentioned that this is your first year of teaching. How did you end up teaching
at Santana?
Sikora: So it's kind of an interesting story. Nick Legere is a student here, his dad owns five
collision shops here in San Diego. And I was doing a little work for him on the side on his Ford
Bronco. And he somehow the admin at the school here, got ahold of him and asked him to find
some candidates for a new auto body teacher here. And I was one of the three people he found.
And I'd like to say I nailed my interview with Mrs. Pugh and principal Schwuchow. And, and
that was a really quick process from finding out about the potential job to being hired on only
took a few weeks.
Rojin: Could you describe auto body, for those who are unfamiliar with it.
Sikora: So in our auto body class, I'm trying to modernize it a little bit from where it once was,
we're bringing in some new repair methods and techniques. And we're trying to create potential
career paths for my students. If they want to go into auto body they will have a great basis of
skills to get an entry level job in an auto body shop. So we do all kinds of stuff like welding, and
we do some plastic welding. That's what we've been focusing on a lot lately. We also learned to
take cars apart, put them back together. We're going to be learning how to repair some damage,
like some dents and some panels soon. And, and eventually, towards the end of the year, we're
going to start learning how to paint. That's the fun part. That's what everybody wants to do.
Rojin: Would you be able to describe your teaching method? Is it more hands-on learning?
Sikora: Yes, yes, it's a lot of hands-on learning. I try to do probably 70% in the shop, and 30% in
the classroom, there is still quite a bit of classroom stuff. We're using an industry recognized
curriculum, which would be called Icar. So all my students after the two year pathway, they'll
leave here with some actual certifications that would apply in the real world in a collision repair
shop.
Rojin: What are you currently teaching your students?
Sikora: Right at this moment, we're finishing up our mid-welding tests. So we've done three
different methods. Weld methods, we've done a plug weld, a standard plug weld a plug weld
upside down, so they have to be standing underneath it and do it and then we're doing some
stitch welding.
Rojin: So you're saying the exams are hands-on as well?
Sikora: Yes, very hands-on tests. So they take two pieces of metal called weld coupons that are
about the size of a credit card. They have to punch a hole in one, weld that to another one at a 90
degree angle, and then I break it apart and that destructive test shows me whether or not they
made a good weld, if they got enough penetration and heat into that lower panel. It has to break
apart a certain way to know if it's good or not.
Rojin: Is there a hobby you enjoy doing outside of school?
Sikora: I race dirt bikes. I haven't in about a year because December 16, I think, 2020, I was
racing the last race of the year, I was in the lead for the championship for the whole season and
crashed and broke my leg. So I missed out on the championship, broke my leg, I did not have
health insurance at the time, so I had to sell my bike, sell my trailer to pay for surgery. So that
was kind of a bummer, but I'm just getting healed up pretty well, to get back at it. I'm kind of
looking for a bike right now.
Rojin: What are you looking forward to in your future years of teaching?
Sikora: What I really look forward to is the old stories that I heard that came out of this
program. This program has been here as long as the school has been here, or maybe just shortly
thereafter. Everyone that I worked for locally, and worked with, not everyone but a big majority
of them, actually went to Santana when they were in high school. They learned from Clarence
Shydel , who was the first teacher here in this program. And they all went on to be very
successful. They turned into shop managers, technicians, painters, shop owners, a lot of shop
owners came out of this program. I'm talking about multi-shop owners and multi-million dollar
shop owners, came through Santana. And my big hope is that I can be the one like Shydel, who's
producing these people, for the industry that basically gave me everything I have. I started
working in the industry when I was 17 years old. I was on my own, with no parents anymore by
the time I was 19. My mom lives out of town, my dad passed away., so I basically had no choice
but to work hard. And luckily, I was working in an industry that I was pretty good at, it came to
me naturally. So I kind of want to give back to the industry because it's struggling right now.
There's no new technicians coming up from technical schools and high schools. And all the old
technicians are, well, they're just that they're old, they're retiring, they're dying off. So we're
gonna come to a head here in the next five or 10 years where there's going to be massive
demand. For technicians. We were just looking at something where it said there's they're
counting on 13 million new technician openings in the collision industry in the next nine years or
something like that. So I'm trying to pump some kids out there into the industry, I think it'll be
great. It's turning into an industry that's a lot more. It's like a lab coat style industry rather than
your old grease monkey, dirty old garage. All these cars have so much technology in them that
you really need a true technician, not just a mechanic.
Rojin: Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Sikora: I love it here at Santana. I'm so happy to be here. I hope to teach here for the next 30
years.
I was truly amazed to hear about Mr. Sikora’s experience in the industry as well as all the
obstacles he has had to overcome. Santana’s Autobody program, with the help of Mr. Sikora,
seems to be shedding its previous and outdated skin and evolving into a new and modern version
of the industry. The program holds the promising hope of many aspiring technicians and
mechanics to branch out of Santana and into the real world.