Back Roads. Engine Lights. 10,000 Steps. Consider yourself lucky to meet Tonia Haney.
How many people do you know who have driven to, and through, every state in the lower 48?
To be sure, anyone with the moxie to take annual back road car trips must know quite a bit about cars and car repairs.
If you meet one such adventurous soul in your lifetime, you would be lucky.
So consider yourself lucky. In March you will have the opportunity to meet just such a character in Reynolds new Automotive Program Head and Instructor, Tonia Haney.
But, cars and car repairs were not Tonia’s first choice of career. She started out studying Chemical Engineering. A bout with Calculus II made her realize she did, indeed, enjoy the challenges of diagnosing and fixing cars, so she changed her major and graduated with a degree in Automotive Technology.
Straight out of college Tonia went to work for General Motors in Detroit. A few years later, GM sent her to work in Portland. She worked for GM in Portland for the next four years, but when the company “recalled” her to Detroit, Tonia said no. She liked Portland and decided to stay. Portland became her home and for the next six years she ran a mobile repair business, then for the next eleven years she served as Automotive Program Head and Instructor for an established Toyota T-TEN program in a community college.
It was through a monthly conference call with Toyota that Tonia heard about Reynolds joining the T-TEN program, and that the college was looking for someone to get the ball rolling. A visit to the Reynolds website, an application, and an interview later, and Tonia was packing her bags for Virginia. “The job itself is awesome,” said Tonia, “but what attracted me most to Reynolds was that I could build the program from the ground up.” Life’s challenges are clearly what excite Tonia the most.
At Reynolds, as the Program Head, Tonia’s job involves building the course curriculum, recruiting the “right” students – ones looking for a real career in automotive technology, and building relationships with the local Toyota dealers. On the Instructor side, her job is all hands on. “It’s easy to get your 10,000 steps done in a day when you’re instructing. The days are very full, and very busy.” Her plan is to recruit 16 students for the first cohort. 16 students in hands on training? Sounds like more than 10,000 steps and 10,000 turns of a wrench.
Tonia emphasizes that automotive technology these days is much more than rotating tires and oil changes. Although students will learn those basic repair skills, their studies and practice will take them well into the realm of complex technology and computers. “Consider this,” Tonia says, “The check engine light on your car has been around since the 1970s. Back then, the light meant one of five things was going wrong. Today that same check engine light could mean one of 400 things is going wrong.”
Tonia is looking to the future. Not just to her move to Richmond where she says, “I’m looking forward to meeting the awesome people of Richmond and at Reynolds,” but to the future of automotive technology. Automobiles will only get more complex along with the challenges they will represent for those diagnosing and solving their problems. It’s like Chemical Engineering under the hood . . . just the kind of challenge that revs Tonia’s engine.
Tonia’s move to Virginia will be in two stages. In March she will come to campus for the first time and will stay for several weeks. She will complete her move in late June. She didn’t say so, but it’s easy to imagine her driving the backroads all the way from Portland to Richmond.
Reynolds is lucky to have found and hired this adventurous individual. Take the time to meet and greet her when you can.
Here is Tonia with some of her students in the "classroom" in Portland.
