Instructor Spotlight
When you walk into River Bend Career and Technical Center this year, you will see some new faces in various positions, and you will see some familiar faces in new positions! The Center is off to an exciting year with one of the largest student populations to come through the programs, ever! Activity in the Center is always buzzing! This series of articles will focus on some of the newest members of the faculty and, hopefully, give the reader some insight as to the knowledge and skill that each person brings to their respective program.
It is time to meet Peter Rosenson! Peter, or “Rose” as he is known by his students, can be found splitting his time between the Heavy Equipment program, and the Diversified Agriculture program. In these two programs, he shares his years of gas engine mechanical skill, diesel engine mechanical skill, technology teaching, road and bridge engineering experience, and his love of racing with students.
“Rose’s’ love for mechanics started years ago, as he came from a “racing family” in New York City. In the early 1990’s, he designed, built and drove a number of “road course cars”; and has been an active member in the Sports Car Club of America ever since. He also started teaching automotive mechanics in the 90’s, mostly in New York City or on Long Island, at various trade and technical high schools. One school where he taught, John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx was the third largest high school in the United States, working with 6000 students each day on eight floors!
“Snap-On Tools” worked with Rose while he was teaching and he later went to work with the Snap-On company, becoming a technology teacher for them to teach teachers about the latest innovations in both gas and diesel mechanics. Other work that Rose has done over the years includes becoming a Roadway/Bridge and Tunnel Engineer for the State of New York, which, again, broadened his background to add to his teaching depth. Rose was also an instructor at the post-secondary level for a large technology school, Lincoln Tech, in Queens, New York.
Throughout his career, his own children and his students have been the focus of his life. He missed teaching at the high school level, and came back to career and technical education at the secondary level after leaving Lincoln Tech, working in four-year technical high schools in the Metro New York area. For over thirty years, Rose had the idea, and possible opportunity, to move out of the city and to Vermont, as he has had friends and family in the Tunbridge area over that time. The timing to make that move really did not become available to him until April of 2020, when he moved north, eventually settling in Newbury Vermont. Rose has spent his career helping others learn about mechanics and about themselves. Radio listeners may remember the old National Public Radio program that ended in 2012 called “Car Talk”. Rose has his own version of an automotive diagnostic show. If you travel to Facebook and search “Car Fix by PizzaCarGuy”, you will find Rose offering information and advice to anyone with a question, comment or concern!
Over the years, Rose’s philosophy of education has not changed with the thousands of students he has taught. His goal with every student is to make sure that learning can, and should be, fun and enjoyable. Moving to Vermont and working at River Bend is allowing him to reach a life-long goal that was more difficult to complete in the city, as he now has the opportunity to teach students in the very community where he lives. This brings his work full circle from teaching, to application in the community, allowing him to see the growth in his students. His goal for his students is that, say, twenty years from now, when those students might be celebrating Thanksgiving, that they may remember how they enjoyed learning with Rose, and how that learning had an impact on their lives. From the reaction of our students in this 2023-2024 school year, Rose will more than meet his goal!