NATCHEZ — If it’s got an engine and it moves, Eric Stewman loves it.

“It’s a passion,” Stewman said of his fondness to work on anything with an engine, but mostly on cars.

Stewman, an auto mechanics teacher at Fallin Career and Technology Center, is passing that passion on to his students.

At a recent meeting of the Natchez-Adams School Board, Stewman was recognized by the board because students in his class earned the highest average score in the state on the Mississippi Career Planning and Assessment System exam.

The exam is given to students in programs like Stewman’s and rates their performance in their main area of study.

“I knew they were going to do well,” Stewman said. “But I didn’t know they would do that well.”

But for new students in Stewman’s class, it’s easy to see why last year’s class scored so high on the test.

“He tells us what we need to know and then he lets us work,” student Curtis Norton, 14, said. “And he really understands all the stuff he’s telling us. He knows what he’s talking about.”

Fellow student Brandon Moore, 16, said he especially likes the way Stewman treats his students.

“We know what we’re supposed to be doing,” Moore said. “He just doesn’t weigh us down with work. He teaches us.”

And Stewman knows what it like to be in his students’ shoes.

When he was 15 he took same auto mechanics class at Natchez High School.

“Since then I’ve loved it,” Stewman said. “If it’s got and engine and wheels, I love it. Even if it’s a weed-wacker or a chainsaw. I love it,” he said. “And that’s what I want to show (students.)