By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
OXFORD TWP. — Skalnek Ford of Lake Orion donated a 2024 Ford F-150 to Oxford High School’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program and two scholarships worth $2,500 to two Wildcat seniors on April 28.
The truck will provide students with opportunities to gain hands-on learning experience with updated technology in a rapidly changing automotive industry, according to OHS automobile technician teacher John Howell.

“The newer the vehicles that we have in the shop, the newer the technology the students see,” Howell said. “And that way when they get out into the workforce they’re more prepared.” Howell later added without donations similar to this one, OHS cannot teach students state-of-the-art theory and get them up to date with the industry.
OHS CTE Director Lisa Butts said the school’s ultimate goal with its CTE programs is to ensure all students have an opportunity to get experience in an industry.
“(Students are) really not having to ask the question ‘when am I ever going to use this,” Butts said.
Skalnek Ford General Manager Ryan Skalnek attended to present the truck, and to present seniors Dayton Horning and Cameron McCarthy with the first Skalnek Family Automotive Scholarships worth $2,500. Skalnek said the scholarship is for graduating seniors who will pursue a career as an automotive industry technician.
“I think it’s important to highlight maybe (an) alternative career path outside of just the standard four-year university path,” Skalnek said. “There’s a lot of good industry and trades that you can go into out of high school that might be a little more untraditional, but (are) very great careers for these young students.”
He added whether a student decides to go to a two-year university to study a trade or enter right into a trade field, it can set them up for a “very prosperous” career.
OHS’s automotive technology program is one of the school’s 10 CTE programs.