(2010-08-31) West Philly High Car School

The Philadelphia Pa school district partnered with the nonprofit PhiladelphiaAcademies, which has created nearly a dozen career academies at the city's High School-s. Operating as schools within schools, the academies work with area businesses to blend College Prep and vocational (Vo-Tech) education around careers ranging from electronics and the environment to business technology and tourism. In 1997, West Philadelphia High's Academy of Applied Automotive and Mechanical Science began a yearlong after-school project with an audacious goal: building an electric car... As a new take on vocational education, career academies are focused on academic rigor, not specific career paths. For that reason, they attract students of all ability levels and interests.

It was in 2006 that, thanks to the EV Team’s role in the Tour De Sol, Hauger got an e-mail asking for his input on a rough draft of the X Prize Foundation’s plans for one of its upcoming projects, the Progressive Insurance Automotive XPrize. “I knew immediately we had to participate,” Simon Hauger says... What about that strategy to produce 10,000 cars each year by 2014? That’s where the kids from Philly really shine. Many on the EVX Team specialize in the Marketing angle. Watch Carter, Kamara, and Anita Davidson display their poise and confidence at a Philly car show; they know how to work a crowd. Listen to Hill’s speech before Ford Motor Company’s head honchos. Tour Philadelphia’s old Navy Yard with Davidson to scout sites for a potential Team EVX factory. They got through at least the early stages.