El viaje que falta financed: estudiantes de Autotrónica buscan donations para completar su estadía en Buenos Aires

Cuando Patrick walks through the school workshops, the thing that catches my attention is not a conventional classroom desk, but the machinery and the tools arranged for working directly on vehicles. There, in the neighborhood of Gregorio Álvarez, 37 students from sixth year of the EPET 17 are preparing to leave for a trip that goes much further than a school outing. The aim is to get to know, from the inside, the automotive systems they study in Autotrónica, including the applied electronics used in cars and the technologies that are increasingly present in current models.

I know how easy it is to organize a school journey on paper, but also how quickly the costs add up when the group includes two sixth-year courses, four teachers and a preceptora. In this case, the educational community worked for months to get the trip off the ground, and the effort already covered the round-trip air tickets, the ground transportation in Buenos Aires and half of the accommodation. The remaining amount, between 15 and 16 million pesos, has to pay for the rest of the lodging, lunches and any additional transfers that may arise during the stay.

A trip organized from the school and the families

Patricio Fontenla, a teacher of practical instruction in Autotrónica, led the organization together with other educators and the families from the middle of the year. The campaign included bingos, raffles and the sale of chickens. Those activities, carried out for several months, have already made it possible to advance with several of the most important expenses, but the final stage still requires collaboration from anyone who wants to support the students.

The central destination is Ford's plant in General Pacheco, where the students will be able to see industrial production, alongside a gearbox factory in Bella Vista. The visits matter because, until now, most of the group has had contact with the working world through internships, yet the scale and operation of a factory cannot be fully reproduced inside a workshop. For these young people, being in a real automotive production environment is an experience that connects daily technical training with the kind of industrial complexity they may encounter later on.

• Ford plant in General Pacheco.
• Gearbox factory in Bella Vista.
• Argentine Automobile Club Museum.
• Obelisk and Casa Rosada.

The itinerary is not limited to factories. The program also includes the Argentine Automobile Club Museum, the Obelisk and the Casa Rosada. For several students, this will be the first time they visit Buenos Aires, and for some it will be their first flight. That detail turns the remaining amount into more than a budget item: it is also the possibility of a first experience that may remain marked for the rest of their lives.

The EPET 17 develops its upper-cycle workshops in the neighborhood of Gregorio Álvarez, in a space equipped with a vehicle lift and tools that make practical work possible. Part of the equipment was donated by companies and agencies connected with the sector, a sign that technical education also depends on the collaboration of institutions outside the school. Now, the same type of support is being sought to complete the journey. Contributions can be made through the alias bingo.epet17, in the name of Claudia Arrieta.

“We have been organizing this for months, and the students have already taken on much of the work. Now we are in the final stretch and need to cover what remains.”Patricio Fontenla

The departure is scheduled for Monday. When the group leaves Neuquén, it will carry not only the luggage needed for the trip, but also the effort of students, teachers and families who turned a school visit into a collective project. I would return to the workshop view, where the future of these students is prepared with tools and practice, because that is also where the fundraising effort began: in the conviction that technical education deserves support beyond the classroom. In Buenos Aires, they will see how the knowledge acquired in those workshops becomes part of a real industrial process.