Written by: Andrew Treas
There I was: In a small briefing room on Capitol Hill thinking, “This is it. Everything I’ve been working towards in the last seven months has led to this, the most important speech of my life”. I had traveled over a thousand miles, touring colleges and giving speeches to excited students and supportive professors all along the way but nothing could compare to this. Making a presentation to a congressional comittee while Congress was in session, voting on the only reason I was there; Experiental Education. I was pumped. I knew that my audiance of eighty or more politicans would have all eyes on me, so I had to give it all, as I do everything I’m passionate about.
I started off with an introduction. “Thank you all so much for taking the time to come today, it’s an honor to be in a room with such an important group.” My voice was shaky dues to my nervousness. “I’m Andrew Treas, I am an upcoming senior, and I’m here with a group called MINDDRIVE. In the last week, we drove our electric 1967 Karman Ghia from Kansas City, Missouri all the way through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland”, “We are a group of at-risk teens, and when I started the program, I was no exception. During the two years of high school before I joined MINDDRIVE, all that mattered to me was partying and drugs.” I paused and looked around. I could tell everyone felt my pain. “I’ve always struggled in school due to ADD and dyslexia. I always questioned what I was being taught because I never had the slightest idea of how I would use it in the real world.
MINDDRIVE changed my perception of education indefinitely. I used algebra to calculate the range of the Ghia at highway and city speeds, physics to predict that the co-efficiency of friction from the original VW transmission would cause a large loss in efficiency, so we took out unnecessary parts such as the gear synchronizers and the clutch plate to accommodate for our electric engine. I used my woodworking skills to build a wooden monocoque tub which sits on top of any VW bug frame, and used Inventor, a CAD program I learned at school, to make a digital model of the tub so we can reproduce it and use it for an Electric Kit Car.
“Everyone was baffled, no one expected any of that from a kid like me. I could’t help but to smirk at their reaction. I continued, “I’m one of the many success stories in MINDDRIVE, kids turn their lives around because they’re apart of something bigger than themselves, we know that with the right help, we can accomplish anything we put our hearts into. Since joining the program, my confidence and motivation took me from shy and doubtful of my future, to eager to do anything possible to better my education and myself. Before, I hated going to school but now, all I want to do is learn more. Because of my boost in motivation and drive to learn more, my grades have skyrocketed. Last summer, my GPA was 2.5, terrible to my standards. This semester, my GPA was a 3.4, a direct effect of my participation in MINDDRIVE.” To my surprise, the crowd of politicians raised and awarded me with a standing ovation, bringing a much-needed-ear-to-ear grin and tear to my eye.
This was the moment in my life that has forever changed me. It took me a while for it all to set in but once it had, I realized how through the radio interviews, newspaper articles, and new reports, I had been advocating what is now the most important piece of my past present and future; Experiential Education.