Ford Motor Co. awarded Kristopher Young for being the first Automotive Student Service Educational Training (ASSET) instructor who has been a Service Engineering Operations (SEO) Senior Master for ten years.
Henry Ford College instructor Kristopher Young has achieved something no one else in the country has ever achieved, and Ford Motor Co. has recognized him with the first-ever award for becoming a ten-year Service Engineering Operations (SEO) Senior Master in the Automotive Student Service Educational Training (ASSET) program.
According to an article on Henry Ford College’s website, Brendan Coursey, who is the National ASSET Coordinator with Ford Motor Co., presented the award to Young on October 8. While presenting the award, Coursey was quoted as saying, “More than 500 hours of training and commitment go into this achievement, and we are all very proud of your dedication to excellence and learning new technical competencies. Retaining this certification year after year requires mastering many new courses, as our technologies progress and new curriculum is released. On behalf of Ford, our dealer partners, and students, we are very grateful for you and your efforts. Congratulations!”
The ASSET program at Henry Ford College is the only program of its kind in the state of Michigan and exists as a partnership between Henry Ford College and Ford Motor Co., though the program does exist in other states, with 41 other ASSET programs in existence. Students who take the ASSET program at Henry Ford College will study in classrooms and in hands-on experiences at Ford and Lincoln dealerships to earn an associate degree in automotive service technology. The program rotates between classroom work and work in the dealerships on an eight-week schedule, giving students the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge almost as soon as they learn it, which gives them a solid foundation to continue their studies.
Young’s award comes as the result of him having been a Service Engineering Operations (SEO) Senior Master for a full decade. In order to achieve this, he would attend several trainings every year in order to stay on top of his certifications as an instructor in the program. For this reason, Young found it surprising that no one else has ever achieved what he has.
“It really blew my mind that nobody else in the U.S. has done this. I wasn’t doing this to get an award. I did all this training throughout the years to get and maintain all my certifications. I just wanted to keep up the high standards of this program. It didn’t occur to me that this would become an award. For Ford to go out of their way to create this award to recognize my work feels really good, because this was not something they had to do,” said Young.
Young has spent his education and career immersed in the automotive service technology world. He himself attended Henry Ford Community College’s automotive service technology program and earned his associate’s degree. Then he went on to earn a bachelor degree in automotive service technology from Siena Heights University. In addition to his degrees, Young has several certifications, including being an ASE Certified Master Auto Technician, a Ford Certified Senior Master Technician Gas/Diesel, a Medium/Heavy Truck Technician, and a State of Michigan Master Certified Technician. He has been teaching Henry Ford College’s automotive technician program since 2007.
Speaking of his experiences teaching in the program, he said, “I enjoy being able to train the next generation of Ford and Lincoln dealership technicians the way they should be trained. I spend five straight semesters with the same students. By the time we get to the end and they graduate, we’ve become a big extended family.”
The Associate Dean of Industrial Technologies at Henry Ford College, Dr. Sašo Krstovski, commented on Young’s achievement, saying, “Kris's commitment to excellence, innovation, and student success has set a high standard. This award is a testament to the influence he has on both his peers and the broader academic and ASSET community.”
For more information about Henry Ford College, visit the school’s website.