Today is my retirement day after 39 years of teaching Auto/ Diesel Technology. Starting with 10 years of post- secondary diesel technology at a Vo Tech center, I transferred to Peterson Academies for 29 years of additional teaching. Looking back, my greatest joy was teaching the subject of ASE test preparation to adult students in a night program working part time for a community college. It seemed that all of the students wanted to learn and that was quite motivating for the instructor. There are also success stories among the Peterson students as many went on to employment in the mechanical field. Some students excelled on the job and were promoted to shop supervisors and service managers. In some cases, they are serving as advisory committee members for our school. My greatest regrets were students who enrolled in the class but had little to no interest in the program and the extreme lack of funding for the program. I was fortunate to have Omar Cueto as one of my diesel technology students. Many of you who follow the diesel industry in the area of fuel injection equipment will recognize Omar's name as the owner of L&J Diesel service also known as Dieselogic. Omar's father started L&J Diesel service in Jacksonville and was a very good friend to our Diesel program. Omar has developed a new line of fiber optic fuel injection test equipment and there are a number of you tube video's that show the specialized Dieselogic equipment in operation. Now that I have completed my work at the school, I have several projects that I am involved with. I am very fortunate to be involved in a writing project regarding diesel technology. This is something that I have dreamed of doing for a very long time and it has become a reality. Another project is going much further with ASE certification now that I have more time. I have a personal goal of obtaining 30 plus certifications. At the present time, I have 22 but several need recertification and I plan to take care of this very soon. I have been a big fan of ASE for a very long time but have never been good at taking tests after work in the evenings. Now that we have computerized testing, I can schedule my test for the morning hours as this is my productive time. This is a big dream but someday I would like to serve on a NATEF team to update the standards for medium/ heavy duty trucks as we are currently using the 2007 standards. If participants are needed, I would also like to assist on a test writing team for ASE Test writing or revision. I have recently joined NACAT and hope to attend a conference in the future. Last but not least, I plan to continue as a sponsoring member of IATN. This group is so very helpful in assisting others who are requesting assistance with various issues. I am constantly amazed at the amount of excellent information that is provided here. Regards, Jim

Jim Hunnicutt
Educator/Instructor/Technical Writer
Frank H. Peterson Academies of Technology
Jacksonville, Florida, USA