Across the river, set away from the many classrooms that Sinclair Community College uses, is Building 20, also known as the John E. Moore, Sr. Technology Center. A place that is a mystery for some students and that many will never visit.
A showcase of luxury cars and an old-fashioned fire truck greet anyone who walks into the doors. The building’s views consist of a mix of the Miami River, the highway and old factory buildings.
The first floor is dedicated to the automotive and fire science classrooms.
“The second floor is actually zoned as a mezzanine; it’s kind of open to the first floor,” Nadia Carroll, an office assistant in Building 20, said. “If you walk around the second floor, you can actually look down into many of our classrooms. That makes it simpler, but at the same time, if there’s any type of fumes, it goes through the building really quick. Or if one classroom is louder than another, that type of noise tends to travel through the rooms pretty quickly through the upstairs.”
Students can rest, relax and study with a view of the river on the second floor lobby. There are also vending machines and tables for students sit at while they eat their lunch. However, there is no restaurant or food shop in Building 20. According to Carroll, Aramark tried to have a café over in Building 20 but it no longer exists because they were losing money.
The Fire Science and Automotive departments were under the Engineering division at Sinclair until the division for Science, Mathematics and Engineering were rearranged, according to Carroll. Two lab areas house the fire trucks and there is one automotive shop for students to do their work.
Students can earn a two-year degree in Automotive Technology at Sinclair. Sinclair students can take these classes to help obtain their Automotive Service Exam (ASE) certification, according to Carroll.
Sinclair’s Automotive program has a Ford program, a Honda program, a Chrysler program and a GM program. According to Carroll, to be in the Chrysler program or GM program, you must be working with that specific dealer. She said that students are in class half of the quarter and then work the other half of the quarter.
Building 20 is also home to the Fire Science Technology program. Sinclair offers Associate’s of Applied Science degrees in Fire Science Technology and Fire Science Technology – administration option as well as certificates in Fire Department Company Officer, Fire Department Executive Officer, Industrial Fire Protection Technician, Professional Firefighter Certification and Rescue Technician certification, according to sinclair.edu.
According to Carroll, every quarter there are level one and two classes to certify fire fighters. For state certification, there are volunteer level one and level two certification. She said that to work full time as a fighter, you must obtain your level two and get your paramedic certification.
“When the quarter is in session, it’s pretty busy. We have a lot of automotive and fire students walking around. The building gets used. I know with fire science and automotive, there is often some difficulties with classroom space, as far as trying to find availability. Sometimes there’s difficulty with trying to find available faculty. But it gets used to its capacity,” Carroll said.