by David Snow
The Paducah Sun
December 30, 2022
Used with permission.
Wyatt Sanders has always enjoyed working on cars, and found an opportunity to learn even more about that through the automotive technology program at the Paducah Area Technical Center at the Paducah Innovation Hub.
If everything works according to plan, Sanders’ career track will take him to the race track, where he will work on drag racers or NASCAR racers.
The Paducah Tilghman High School senior is this week’s Associated General Contractors of Western Kentucky Technical Center Student of the Week. He is in his third year in the automotive technology program.
“One thing I definitely enjoy about (the classes) is that I’ll be able to make a career out of it,” he said. “I’m a real big car enthusiast. I love classic American muscle cars, and I plan on restoring them later in life.
“Sometime in middle school — I don’t really know what happened. I always liked cars and always talked about them with people. I think something got mentioned about a ’69 Camaro Z-28 between me and my dad and my grandfather, and I started looking real deep into that car and learning more about it. That just led to me becoming more interested in a lot of different cars.”
After graduation, Sanders plans to attend Lincoln College of Technology in Nashville.
“I will go through their automotive program, and then, I plan on going through their high-performance program,” he said. “After that, I plan on getting on a drag team or a NASCAR team and working for them.”
Sanders will take part in the SkillsUSA program for the second year in a row. Last year, he won the regional competition, advancing to the state competition in construction tool ID. This year, he will compete in Demo A, presenting a skill that he learned in class to judges.
Cory Polsgrove is Sanders’ instructor in automotive technology, and he said that Sanders has completed Sections A, B, C and D and is currently working in special automotive problems.
“(Sanders) and a few other students have been working on a blue Camaro that we have,” he said. “He brought in his dad’s truck, and we worked on the front-end alignment on that.
“There were some electrical wiring issues on the windows, and he was able to trace that down. He also did some (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) work from the defrosters on the floor and vent, and he got it working.”
Polsgrove said that Sanders has a talent for working through problems and determining the cause and treatment.
“That really is a big part of what we do, problem solving,” Polsgrove said. “He just takes his time, takes it step-by-step and can usually figure out anything we throw at him.”
Sanders is a four-year football player for the Blue Tornado. He is working at Linwood Motors of Paducah. In his spare time, he enjoys working on cars and riding dirt bikes.
Sanders is has earned Automotive Service Excellence certification in automotive brakes and automotive maintenance and light repair. He is the son of Paul Sanders of Reidland and Tabitha Sanders of Paducah.
A story featuring the AGC of Western Kentucky Technical Center Student of the Week will run in The Paducah Sun each Friday through March 31 with recipients chosen by instructors and administrators at the seven area technical centers that serve students in the state’s 13 westernmost counties.
In addition to the Paducah Area Technical Center, the 29 AGC of Western Kentucky Technical Center Students of the Week are chosen from the Ballard County Career and Technical Center, Caldwell Regional Career Center, Four Rivers Career Academy in Fulton County, Marshall County Technical Center, Mayfield-Graves County Area Technology Center and Murray-Calloway County Area Technology Center.
Along with automotive tech, the area technology center offers courses in carpentry, culinary arts, electrical construction, machine tool technology, pre-nursing and welding.
AGC of Western Kentucky will host a banquet in April for this year’s 29 Technical Center Students of the Week. Students will receive prizes, and Technical Center Students of the Year and an overall Regional Technical Center Student of the Year will be announced.
At the area technical centers, students are learning skills in many career areas that will help them join the workforce upon graduation and help fill the need for skilled workers in western Kentucky.