Faculty Stories: Matt Shanahan

Matt Shanahan


Program: Automotive Technology

Matt Shanahan became interested in the automotive field while repairing his first vehicle on his own.

"I fell in love with taking a broken vehicle, figuring out what was wrong with it, and then fixing it," he said.

Shanahan's industry experience includes repairing equipment, cars, light trucks and medium/heavy-duty vehicles. He has worked for an independent repair facility and a construction company repairing its fleet. Before becoming a full-time instructor at College of DuPage, Shanahan worked as adjunct at night. 

"Being an instructor is a very satisfying job, and I enjoy passing my knowledge and experiences on to my students," he said. "I hope they gain some basic diagnostic and repair skills that they can build on with industry experience. I hope they leave wanting to learn more and do so with continuing education as technology changes. I also hope they have learned how to present themselves in a professional manner to employers and customers."

Shanahan is continually inspired to better himself by his own students.

"Seeing a student come in knowing very little about cars and then graduating a completely different person is what inspires me to improve what I do every day."

More about the Automotive Technology program