Some Rhode Island High School students who are hopeful to work in the automotive industry were surprised with a huge gift ahead of the holiday- a new pair of wheels for them to work on.

“We’re very proud to have a four generation 80 year-old company that is actively run by my family,” said Michael Tasca, one of the owners. “And to have the history with the state and New England is very special to us.”

At the Tasca Automotive Group in Cranston, the Tasca family alongside the site’s truck center manager, Tim Mitchell, invited students to their facility to surprise them with a vehicle.

Davies Career and Technical School, East Providence, and Warwick were their recipients.

Brand new, 2023 Lincoln Aviators and a Ford Explorer were the donation cars.

“They typically learn on older cars that are donated and they’re usually older, with older technology, and then they graduate and come to a dealership and then they learn on brand new cars with new technology that often isn’t the same components they learned on,” said Tasca. “To have them learn in one of these is really going to put them in a position to win.”

Led outside by Mitchell, students could be seen running to the cars.

Many of the popped the hood to take a look.

Others got in the driver and passenger seats with excitement.

“They invited us here. We’ve all just been excited about this,” said 16-year-old Jayden Cabral of East Providence.“This is the newest car we got and it’s beautiful, it’s a good car. I think it will Motivate us to just do better.”

That, is the goal.

Tasca offers opportunities like apprenticeship programs for students who can then be hired out of high school.

“The reason why I personally do it is because I am a product of a vocational school and I feel that I should’ve been in my current position probably 30 years ago,” said Mitchell. “If I had a mentor, or someone steering me in the right direction to show me all the available areas I could’ve went to, I would’ve been here in half the amount of time.”

“The need for technicians across the country is tremendous and this way, you’re not wasting 30-40k on an education, your education is your job,” he added.

Tyler Demelo, 26, said he can attest to programs.

The service technician is grateful for his opportunity.

“I was in their shoes at one point and these guys took me under their wing and put me through training and here I am making a life,” said Demelo.

“It’s a good way to get kids in here and mold them while they’re young. It’s how I put food on the table, bread and butter, I actually wake up happy to come to work every day.”

Joseph Serpa is a senior at Davies Career and Technical High School.

Though he has worked with newer cars, thanks to his part-time job, he said the donation will benefit his class and classes to come.

“Since I was young I was always interested in cars and stuff like that and I’m happy I got the opportunity to be here and do all of this,” said Serpa.

“I was grateful our class gets this and we get the opportunity to learn more about the future cars.”

Another vehicle will be donated to a school in Connecticut.

“It’s great to be able to see the smiles and be able to see them jump in but ultimately the proof is in the pudding it’s going to come down to when they learn on the vehicles, and that knowledge that they’re going to learn from these vehicles is going to take them many places in life and it feels good to play a smart part in that,” said Tasca.