MATTOON, Ill. (WAND) — Students at the LIFT Innovation Center in Mattoon are getting more hands-on experience in electric vehicle technology thanks to a major donation from Ameren Illinois.
Through Ameren Illinois' Market Development Initiative, the program received funding to purchase five complete electric vehicle racing go-kart kits, giving students in the EV Technologies class more opportunities to build, troubleshoot, and learn the growing field of electric transportation.
The donation supports LIFT, the Leading Innovations for Tomorrow program, which focuses on career and technical education and preparing students for high-demand careers in skilled trades and emerging industries.
The EV program allows students to learn by building and working directly on electric-powered vehicles, helping bridge classroom lessons with real-world job skills.Program facilitator Dan Compton said Ameren Illinois has been a strong supporter of the school's green energy initiatives since the beginning of LIFT.
"Since the very beginnings of LIFT, Ameren Illinois has been an incredible supporter of the third floor here and all of our green energy programs that I teach," Compton said. "This donation through the Ameren Illinois Market Development Initiative has been incredible."
Compton said the donation allowed the school to purchase five complete STEM EV racing kart kits from Top Kart USA, significantly expanding what students can do in class.
"Specifically here, we were able to expand the EV course," Compton said. "Through the use of the karts, we're actually able to put more students in a systemic learning environment on those carts instead of everybody just gathering around one chassis and one car."
Before receiving the new kits, students often had to crowd around a single chassis, limiting how much hands-on experience each student could get. Now, multiple teams can work on separate carts, allowing each student to participate in the full build process.
The carts arrive completely disassembled, meaning students must put together every part themselves. Compton said students build the steering and suspension systems to axles, sprockets, motors, and controllers. They also handle the electrical wiring for both the high-voltage and low-voltage systems.
"They are learning a lot," Compton said. "And I think the really neat thing is they don't realize how much they're learning because, I mean, we're building EV go-karts. They're having a lot of fun."
Compton said the lessons go far beyond mechanics.
"Beyond just the mechanical aspect of building the vehicles, they're really learning life skills," he said. "Working with groups of people they wouldn't normally work with, solving problems with other people as a group and a team… basically just team-building skills on top of all of the applicable everyday things that are handy."
Students also gain leadership experience and confidence as they work through challenges.
"It's really teaching them how to be responsible for themselves, how to work in a team, how to be a leader," Compton said. "There's some sort of aspect of being a leader in all of us."
Senior Riley Hershberger said he joined the program after hearing from friends that it was both fun and different from a traditional classroom setting.
"I wanted to join the LIFT program because my friends said it was fun, and it was a different change of pace from school," Hershberger said. "And now that I'm in it, it's really fun."
Hershberger said the program helped him learn practical skills he had never developed before.
"I wasn't really good at building anything until I came into this program," he said. "This was a great experience for me to learn different tools, different components of car parts."
He added that the teamwork has been one of the best parts of the experience.
The skills students gain are already paying off. Compton said two students from the program's first year are now working their way through the ASE Master Mechanic program and training with local dealerships to become technicians.
"It's important that as we train our youth, especially in trades, that we look at it from a community focus where we are actually training those future leaders and keeping them in our communities," Compton said.
As the program continues to grow, Compton said the goal is to keep creating new opportunities for students interested in the future of transportation and skilled trades.
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