Jamaica high schoolers take first place at auto repair tournament

Omesh Deaudharrie and Brian Persaud, the winners of Wednesday’s competition, stand with Thomas A. Edison High School coach Miguel Sierra. Photo courtesy of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association

By Jonathan Sperling

It was a photo finish on Wednesday, as a team of students from Jamaica Hills’ Thomas A. Edison High School won the New York City Auto Tech Competition. The win netted them $25,000 each in scholarships and secured their place in next month’s state finals.

Omesh Deaudharrie and Brian Persaud, both seniors, won top honors by correctly diagnosing and fixing pre-programmed bugs in a Mazda vehicle in the shortest amount of time during the competition, which was held in Whitestone.

The two students received the scholarships, as did second-place finishers Bryan Jean Louis and Felix Mercado, also Thomas A. Edison students. Leon Boodram and Vishnu Sawh, from A-Tech High School in Williamsburg, took third place.

The students make up three of the 20 teams of two that came to compete from New York City, Westchester and Rockland counties.

In preparation for the competition, the students attended Career Technical Education programs. 

On Wednesday, they put those skills to the test, repairing real cars and engine parts at 15 work stations as part of a timed competition.

All six students will go on to represent their schools in the state finals, which take place in February. The winner of that tournament will earn a spot at the national tournament in April, where 29 teams from across the country and Canada will compete for a total of $3 million in prizes and scholarships.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the New York City Auto Tech Competition, coming on the heels of an estimated 75,000 auto tech jobs opening up in the coming years, according to the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, the competition’s sponsor.