(L to R): Tim Zilke, ASE President & CEO; Debbie Hooge, Mitchell 1 independent sales consultant; Brent Horner; and Mike Phillips, ASE Board Chairman.
Brent Horner from Lima, Ohio received the Technician of the Future award, sponsored by Mitchell 1 and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), during a ceremony on Nov. 15 as part of the 2012 ASE Fall Board of Governors meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Debbie Hooge, an independent sales consultant for Mitchell 1 in the Texas region, presented Horner with a $500 cash award and a $1,500 gift certificate from Mitchell 1 toward a subscription to ProDemand™ or other Mitchell 1 product.
“We would like to congratulate Brent on being named the 2012 Technician of the Future,” said Nick DiVerde, senior marketing director, Mitchell 1. “We are very proud of Brent’s accomplishments as they demonstrate his commitment to being the best automotive technician he can be. We wish Brent the very best – we know he will be successful in his future endeavors.”
Horner is currently a full-time student at the University of Northwestern Ohio in the automotive technology and high performance associate’s degree program. During high school, Horner worked at Pohanka Honda of Salisbury, Md. as an automotive technician student intern in the Automotive Youth Educational Systems (AYES) program.
As a junior in high school, Horner was the winner of the Maryland Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition, a competitor in the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills National Competition and placed 10th in the SkillsUSA Maryland competition. The next year, he placed second in the SkillsUSA Maryland competition and placed sixth in the Greater New York Auto Dealers Association National Automotive Technology Competition. He was the recipient of an automotive scholarship from the Association for Career and Technical Education as well as the Bob Hall Technical Scholarship at the University of Northwestern Ohio for the highest entry exam score. In addition, Horner was ASE Master Technician Certified before he turned 18 years old and graduated from high school.
Horner said he decided he wanted to be a technician because as a child, he was always in the garage watching his father and uncle work on and build race cars and hot rods. His brother had also taken auto tech classes and he wanted to follow in his footsteps. He believes it was a natural choice for him to become a technician. In his spare time he enjoys all types of racing, working on and modifying his own cars and is a member of the Civil Air Patrol.
To quality to win the Mitchell 1/ASE Technician of the Future award, the winner must be ASE-Certified, must have registered as a student, be under 30 years old and have the highest cumulative test scores on the A4, A5, A6 and A8 tests.