LAUNCH: Driving On Sunshine

The dozen kids in W.T. White’s Longhorn Solar Corps are about to make history. They will be the first in Dallas ISD (and 17th in the United States) to build a solar car for the Dell-Winston Solar Challenge, a four-day national race at Texas Motor Speedway. “They’ve done everything from drafting to welding,” says physics teacher Louis Glover, who is overseeing the project. With donated parts, several salvage yard visits, and hundreds of hours before and after school, these students have created a 15-foot solar-powered car — a task that has not been cheap. The students managed to raise about half of the $15,000 needed. The rest came out of Glover’s own pocket. “I don’t care if I have to empty all my savings; I’ll do it for these kids.” The reason, he says, is because the project is reaching students who might not otherwise have been turned on to math and science, and that is giving them a new sense of empowerment. “These kids are realizing they’re capable of learning and using math and science. They’re realizing that education has a purpose outside of the classroom, and that with it, they really can achieve some big things. I hope that’s a real life lesson they’ll carry with them forever.”