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I loved my shop classes in high school. We learned how to create 3D models and then how to make what we rendered into reality. I, a huge music nerd, ended up building an acoustic guitar! It wasn’t the best guitar ever made, but it was still pretty impressive! I was really proud of myself for getting the body shape almost the way I wanted it.

During the summer, I worked at Gold’s Gym Lagrange’s summer camp. Some of the camps I helped organize were the Clubhouse Making Camp, Race Car Camp, Drone Making Camp, Gadget Camp, and Science Camp. Each of these camps was extremely hands-on and taught the kids incredible craft and critical thinking skills. Between the shop classes and running these camps, I felt like I had a ton of hands-on experience that gave me, my classmates, and my campers a ton of technical experience. I didn’t realize at the time that I was one of the lucky few.

The decline of craft skills in the USA

From the 1990s to the early 2010s, students took fewer credits in Shop Class – or as it is now called: Career Tech Training – according to the National Center of Education Statistics. Instead, the priority was to secure places in four-year degree programs. Because of this priority, many schools cut funding for technical programs and eliminated them altogether, so that even if students wanted to take a trade class, they didn’t even have that option.

FDR high school classes learn how to build a car

As the need for skilled trades has increased in recent years because it has not been prioritized as highly in schools in recent decades, more and more schools are trying to reinvigorate their vocational training in the technical field. My alma mater, FDR High School in Hyde Park, NY, which I think has done a really good job of promoting its shop and technical courses, continues to be a leader in innovation and education. Their students built a car from the ground up!

FDR High School was a recipient of the Winners Circle Project, which encourages and inspires students to learn and practice STEAM-based learning. Students built a Factory Five high-performance vehicle within one school year. Factory Five Racing, Inc. is an American automotive company that designs and manufactures kits, chassis, bodies, and related components for replicas and sports cars. And of course, they painted it in FDR’s school color of green!

Douglas Egerton, one of the teachers behind the project at FDR, said:

The media class created videos and photos to show the progress of the car and communicate it to the public. The construction class was of course to build the car itself. Our overall goal for the next year is to promote the project, generate interest from the community and build a sponsor base that will help the class with their insight, expertise and financial support to make the project a success. Thank you for your interest and help in this goal.

The Winners Circle Project

The Winners Circle Project is a nonprofit organization designed to inspire young, innovative minds through a STEAM program embedded in the exciting world of auto racing. Through our work, the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and math come alive for our students on and off the race track! Over the course of a school year, high school students build a Factory Five vehicle from the ground up, learn how to promote their project in an integrated, multi-channel marketing campaign, and build a cross-departmental race team.

Over the course of a school year, high school students build a high-performance Factory Five vehicle from scratch. The program is based on a project-based curriculum from WCP and focuses not only on the mechanics of the build, but also on what it takes to develop a complete race team – a company.

WCP students participate in activities and courses that give them exposure to a range of areas including marketing, journalism, video production and public relations, allowing them to explore previously undiscovered strengths and opportunities for growth!

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