Girls Mechanic Team takes over Centennial’s automotive labs
When she first started driving, mechanical engineering graduate Jowana Burgan would watch YouTube tutorials to learn car care basics. While helpful, she felt she still needed some hands-on experience to understand how best to keep her vehicle running.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that other women felt the same way.
Being inquisitive and resourceful, Burgan founded Girls Mechanic Team in 2018 and organized workshops to help women young and old learn the basics of automobile maintenance so they’ll be more comfortable talking to auto technicians, as well as save money and prevent repair-related headaches.
Burgan brought her tutorial to Centennial College’s automotive labs at Ashtonbee Campus in Scarborough on Saturday, September 10.
With the assistance of Mary Greene, an automotive professor at the college, some 10 women of various ages and backgrounds received a practical workshop that taught them the basics of auto maintenance – everything from opening the hood to jump-starting the engine and changing the oil.
“The main objective of our workshops is to empower and educate women to create confident drivers and smarter consumers,” says Burgan. Word got around. “We have appeared on CP24 Auto Shop, CP24 Breakfast, CTV and Omni-TV.” In addition to Centennial, Burgan has run workshops at Fanshawe College and Niagara College outside of the GTA.
In addition to the media coverage, Burgan is an accomplished social media influencer who shares her experiences on Nextdoor, Facebook groups and Instagram to get women interested in auto maintenance. Her participants range in age from 18 to 50+ with a wide variety of backgrounds.
“An accepting and open environment where girls can learn everything they need to know about cars and safety, while pushing the boundaries on girl stereotypes!” one participant wrote online. One of the more helpful lessons is the handout Burgan provides that decodes all of the warning symbols that can appear on a car’s dashboard at the first sign of trouble.
“This is a great opportunity to support women in the automotive trades,” points out Paulo Santos, chair of the automotive and motorcycle programs at Centennial’s School of Transportation, which hosted the training workshop. The college operates the largest transportation technology training centre in Canada.
While it’s a great side hustle for this young York University graduate, Burgan currently works full-time as a test engineer at Multimatic, the Markham-based global automotive supplier and engineering company that put together the Ford GT sports car, among many other technologically advanced vehicles and components.