Motoring Into the Future

An inventive program offered by Halifax County both teaches and prepares students for life after high school. The best part: it harnesses their interests and trains them to keep moving forward in life.

The sign of a progressive school system is many times not defined by numbers. SOL scores and spreadsheets listing GPAs and attendance records aren’t the full measure of a school system making a difference in the lives of its students and serving their needs.

Sometimes that story is told by what the school system does to change with a fast-changing world, identifying opportunities that may not have existed even five years ago. The school system moves quickly to capitalize on those opportunities in an effort to give its students a means for a leg up once they leave high school.

That story is exactly what is occurring in Halifax County with its Motorsports Academy program. Founded in October 2007 by Halifax schools superintendent Dr. Paul Stapleton, it is the first of its kind not just in Virginia, but in the country.

In brief, the Motorsports academy offers middle and high school students who want to pursue a career in auto racing a curriculum designed to provide training in the discipline necessary to do just that. The program begins in earnest in middle school and offers students a path of opportunity through a progressively building educational mission.

The career paths students can choose run the gamut, from sports marketing specialist, master mechanic, racing engineer, race car driver, car chief, chief steward, race broadcaster, and even event manager and a variety of duties in the pit crew. The curriculum begins with an introduction to the program and career paths and includes a karting program. It extends through high school with automotive mechanics and a recently-added motorcycle repair program. It is open to all students and encourages minorities and females to participate.

Classroom work is chock full of hands-on work with cars in addition to traditional and non-traditional book training. However, like any quality training program, the hands-on work extends outside of school and into a real-world setting, allowing students to get a true feel for their interests.

Students compete, exactly like varsity athletics, for a spot on the Blue Comet race team that competes at the South Boston Speedway in short track stock cars. There are 15 spots up for grabs on the Blue Comet team. Students also receive a varsity letter like other sports—when combining classroom work surrounding technical aspects with performance in the Blue Comet pit crew in whatever capacity they are placed, the result is a letter.

Its impact is also measured by how it is received in the community. The motorcycle program was kick-started with a $100,000 government grant; however that barely covers starting expenses. The Halifax community stepped up and donated motorcycles and related equipment for a new motorcycle program. They recently hired their fourth instructor.

The program has been duplicated in other places, but not this early in school and with this much long term focus, which is a key to its success. In Charlotte, the de facto home of NASCAR, high school students can earn college credit through a motorsports program at Central Piedmont Community College. And there is a similar program that runs grades 9-12, billing itself as “the first motorsports boarding school in North America, attracting the best and brightest youth with interests in motorsports from around the world.”

But this is the first, and it is showing it can make a difference.

The community focus and educational benefits to Virginia’s youth made the program a natural for a company like Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance to sponsor. The Richmond-based insurer is entering its third year sponsoring the program, providing logos for the cars and apparel for the pit crew. Importantly, Farm Bureau is also behind a $1,000 scholarship given to a student or students deemed accomplishing it.

It’s one thing for a school system to try new and different techniques to engage its students. It’s entirely different to create—quickly and effectively—an entire program that begins in middle school and carries through high school and farther.