PSTA employee speaks to Pinellas Technical College students after winning top bus technician in Florida
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority employee is now the top bus technician in the state.
Paul Levesque recently won the Florida Public Transit Association’s "Bus Technician of the Year." Wednesday, Levesque went back to school and shared his real-world knowledge with students at the school he credits with giving him a solid foundation: Pinellas Technical College.
"I was excited to be back and to see where the program was from where I had left, and it was definitely a deja vu experience," Levesque said.
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Levesque said he was shocked to win the honor.
"I was excited to hear I was in the top three, but to hear that I had actually won first place, I was very excited," he said. "I just love what I do, and I love fixing things."
Levesque spoke with students in the classroom and gave them pointers working in the garage Wednesday. He graduated from Pinellas Technical College’s diesel technician program in 2016 and has worked at PSTA for the past seven years as a technician three master certified.
"We preach the basics and the key important elements to students all the time, but hearing it from someone who was recently awarded with technician of the year for the whole state, an entire state for the transit authorities, it’s very meaningful," Carson Bowman, the assistant director of the diesel program at the college, said. "It has a little bit more impact."
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Levesque said Pinellas Technical College set him up for success.
"They definitely helped with the core foundation, and I believe as long as you have a foundation to start off of, you can be molded into," Levesque said. "If you go to a truck shop, you can be molded into a truck technician, or if you go to a bus shop, you can be molded, but it’s that core foundation, those core skills that kind of help you advance onto the next level, so definitely this is a great place to come to get those core foundations and those core skills."
Levesque got to show a couple techniques to students. Theo Karavokiros, one of the students who got to learn from Levesque, said seeing his success inspired them.
"He just didn’t know nothing in the program and came in, and now he’s tech of the year," Karavokiros said. "To know that there’s big growth happening out there, happening through this program."
The diesel program at Pinellas Technical College takes a little more than a year to complete, Bowman said. The school offers close to 60 programs in 40 career areas.