At the Rolla Technical Institute (RTI) in the automotive department, students from the high school and members of the institute work on repairing dents to complete totaled cars, to make them good as new or even better.

“I plan on taking the skills from this class and molding it into a career. Not sure what path [I will take] yet but it’s a great class and I enjoy the hands on aspect of it and I recommend it to everyone,” junior Dillon “Carl” Duke said.

The students in this class get high school credit and college credit at the same time through a few colleges in the community. Students also get their own class time to finish projects that they start.

“I don’t like the morning class to start a project and then the afternoon class to finish it so it usually takes a little longer to finish then a normal shop, but it takes about two weeks for a somewhat major fix,”  teacher Eddie Sedeburg said.

Students get the experience from the cars people bring into RTI and this can save people money by bringing their broken cars to them and thus the RTI can fix your car.

“We don’t charge for labor, just a small shop fee and parts. We don’t only do repairs, we also can do modifications such as aftermarket parts and body conversions,” Sedeburg said.