Sinclair’s award winning automotive program hidden in Building 20

Sinclair College is made up of 20 numbered buildings. Many may know about the first 12 that all stand beside each other like Building 10 and Building 2. Less may know about the few that are just a couple minutes of a walk away from the Welcome Center like Building 13 or Building 19.

Amongst these buildings, however, is one that sits further away from campus than any other. A little more than half a mile away from Sinclair’s Welcome Center is Building 20, the home of Sinclair’s award winning automotive department. 

Justin C. Morgan, the chairperson of automotive technology at Sinclair since 2013, said “Quality education at an affordable cost is what drew me to Sinclair.” 

Morgan got his start in 2005 after hearing about Sinclair’s automotive department winning a national award. This award just so happened to be the same one that his college won. Despite being a cheaper college, Morgan saw that it didn’t stop Sinclair from providing an upstanding education.

His day to day includes overseeing the enrollment process and providing tours for both students and parents with an interest in the automotive department, which happens to be one of the oldest automotive programs in the nation.

Sinclair’s automotive department used to be stationed in Building 17 but was granted their own space to share with the Fire Science department in 1998. The building is officially titled “The John E. Moore, Sr. Technology Center.” Moore, an African American war veteran who passed in 2021, was a 50-year volunteer and donor to the Dayton Foundation.

Among many things, the automotive department prides themself on their graduates’ transition from internships to full-time careers. 

“We have about 100 to 150 students every fall and spring semester,” Morgan said. “The way our internships work is that students transition to full-time after they get their degree. This past May, we graduated 40 to 45 students from our Honda-GM-Chrysler program. Friday was commencement. Monday morning, they’re working full-time at a repair shop.”

Morgan adds that within the first two years of earning their credentials, alumni make $40,000-$80,000 a year.

The automotive department also prides themselves on their accolades. They helped Sinclair receive enough recognition to be deemed the 2013 School of the Year by Tomorrow’s Tech. The competition, sponsored by O’Reilly Auto Parts and WIX Filters, is national and aims to award the best technician training school in the country.

Their history as an award-winning department has resulted in them being sponsored by several automotive industries in the area and are constantly being loaned a variety of equipment for their students to use.

“We’re loaned about $100,000 worth of equipment every year,” Morgan states. “At the end of the year, we sell that equipment as used to a local shop. Then, we get new equipment, so our students are always able to see brand new equipment at no cost to Sinclair or taxpayers.”

Still, Building 20 sits far away enough from campus for many to know nothing about it. When asked if that affected how they operate, however, Morgan wasn’t concerned. Rather, he was grateful.

“Building 20 is separated from the main campus, so sometimes it’s hard to connect with our peers and colleagues, but we’re also so very fortunate that we have a dedicated space for automotive. This building was built to do an automotive program really well. What’s really neat is as other automotive programs are wanting to build new facilities, we often get other colleges from all over the United States that come to tour this facility. Is it disappointing sometimes that we’re ten minutes away? Maybe, but we’re so fortunate to have really nice facilities and such nice lab space that has been a standard of other automotive departments even 20 years later,” Morgan said.

Dion Johnson, multimedia specialist

Check out more post by the Clarion:

• Sinclair’s award winning automotive program hidden in Building 20
• Preparations for NATO Parliamentary Assembly on Memorial Day Weekend
• Letter from the Editor: Graduation Salutation
• Making it to the End of the Tunnel
• Discover Dayton’s Vibrant Summer Events from Pride to Celtic Fest