Maintenance, Remodeling and Construction owner Mark Roanhorse teaches students electrical house wiring in the CCC Fourth Street workshop. Courtesy photo.
FLAGSTAFF — The Certified Apartment Maintenance Technician (CAMT) program at Coconino Community College prepares students by teaching them about performing maintenance tasks, locksmithing, OSHA 10, product repair, customer service and safety in the workplace.
The CAMT program helps students refine their apartment maintenance skills and gets them ready for their future career. Not only do the CAMT program instructors teach students from textbooks but also from personal experience and real-life scenarios in the newly renovated shop at the Fourth street campus. They can teach the students wiring, plumbing, construction, and HVAC by reproducing scenarios in the lab.
“The book is great, but it is always great to have that on-hand experience,” said Mark Crawford Roanhorse, a CCC electrical instructor and CCC alum who received his construction management degree in 2008. “It’s nice to see the shop remodeled. Now we have state-of-the-art equipment for students to learn with.”
Roanhorse has been teaching at CCC for about a year. He currently teaches the CTM 151 House Wiring classes. Last year he taught plumbing. He decided to teach at CCC when his previous instructor, Ken Meyers, the lead faculty member of the Construction and Sustainable Building Trades Department, sought him out. Roanhorse not only took his coursework at CCC, but he also applied what he learned to his own business in the construction industry.
Roanhorse is from The Navajo Nation in New Mexico and moved to the Flagstaff area about 15 years ago. He works with the non-profit organization, Red Feather Development. Red Feather Development partners with homeowners, tribal agencies and community members to help with home repairs around the community. It also provides training for repairs and sometimes raises funds to help residents with urgent safety repairs.
With more than 10 years of experience in the construction and maintenance industry, Roanhorse says he tries to teach his students from his own experiences in the workplace. His business, Maintenance, Remodeling and Construction LLC, holds a commercial and residential remodeling license. Roanhorse sometimes hires students to work for him after they complete their classes.
Out of all of his employees, he says, the ones who have completed CAMT training classes have performed better in the workplace than applicants who don’t have the certification.
The CAMT certification is accepted anywhere in the United States by prospective employers and is a rigorous six-week program.
For more information about CAMT classes at CCC, visit https://www.coconino.edu/community-course/camt
Story and photo by Courtney Maxwell
CCC PR and Marketing Intern