Editor's Commentary: How an Inner-City Public School Drives Students to Engineer Green Vehicles

West Philly's High School hybrid team takes a moment to pose, while qualifying for one of the final rounds of the  Progressive Insurance $10-million national fuel-efficiency competition.

While President Obama along with the auto industry is banking on alternative fuel vehicles like hybrids and electric vehicles to be the next wave of rides to catch the hearts of today's car-buying public, a group of inner-city teens in Philadelphia are ahead of the curve.

During this past school year, the students of West Philadelphia High School Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering decided to enter into a $10-million national competition sponsored by Progressive Insurance to build a safe and reliable vehicle that could be mass-produced, achieving at least 100 miles per gallon. Now that's a tall order for the major automakers. How could a inner-city public school filled with supposedly disadvantaged teens, living in the heart of the city, be up for the task - especially when competing against Fortune 500 companies with multi-million dollar budgets.

Now while the typical inner-city school would have probably shied away from such a challenge, over the years the students at the school's Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering have garnered a lot of positive attention in the press, as a result of winning a series of national awards for building cars that make-up the four major components of what I would consider to be a  perfect automobile: stylish, fuel-efficient, reliable and fast.

West Philly's Ford Focus hybrid appears on The Today Show.

The students of West Philly Hybrid X team, which they referred to themselves as, ironically was the only high school competitor in a field of about 90 teams from the U.S. and overseas that met the stringent qualifications of the high stakes competition. In fact, the team almost made it to the home stretch last month except their Ford Fusion-based hybrid was "1.9 MPG shy of the requirement. We had encountered some serious charging problems and the evacuation of the charging tent due to a tornado didn’t help our situation so, like several teams, we filed an appeal. Friday was an emotional roller coaster," according to a blog posting on the school's website.

Now while we continue to hear how private schools and school voucher programs are the best means for inner-city kids to get a good quality education, as a product of an inner-city Atlanta Public School myself,  I'm always eager to hear of success stories that often go unnoticed.



Ironically, while participating in Philadelphia's annual new-vehicle auto show four years ago, I had an opportunity to witness first hand a hybrid two-seater sports car that was built by the students in the school's academy. Boy, I was impressed! At the time, there were no hybrid sports cars on the market. And, still today there is only one hybrid sports car that has hit the streets - the Telsa. Just imagine what a school can do when they have a support support network that raises the bar and expectations for our next-generation of leaders?  Yes, this could be our next-generation of engineers, technicians, politicians and CEOs. After progressing through the academy, a number of the school's graduates are furthering their education.  To discover additional information about the students and the academy, visit the following links:



The New York Times article about the school's academy

West Philly High Hybrid Team's website


West Philly High Hybrid Team's Facebook page

Individual Biography of Each Hybrid Team Member

NPR Interview with Students Prior to Final Competition