KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Students at Operation Breakthrough’s Ignition Lab are hard at work on another of the Kelce brothers’ vehicles.
“Behind us is an ‘86 K-10 truck,” MINDDRIVE Director Oz Qureshi said. “It belongs to Jason Kelce, and the goal is to convert it from a gas truck to a diesel-hybrid electric truck.”
More than an engine-changing experience, it’s also a life-changing one.
“We're not a shop out here, just converting cars for clients,” Qureshi said. “We are a job-training, workforce development, youth-development program. There will be over 100 students, high-school-age students, that will get a chance to learn about battery electric, hybrid electric, diesel electric, automotive mechanics, things like that in the process of converting this truck to electric and making it a diesel hybrid.”
MINDDRIVE has partnered with the Ignition Lab to create a hands-on space for Operation Breakthrough students.
“The goal for us is to provide that training to young people and to do it in a way that exposes them to projects that are real and meaningful and impactful and can make a huge difference in determining the direction of their lives,” Qureshi said.
Jason Kelce could have chosen a professional shop in Philadelphia to do what work, but he turned the keys to his black 1986 K-10 square-body Chevrolet Silverado over to Qureshi and his students instead.
Students like Tzyiona Harris, a senior at Hogan Prep Academy and an intern with MINDDRIVE.
“Just knowing that he's helping us learn about things that we normally wouldn't, I think that's that's cool,” Harris said. “That's more important than him being a football player, because he's doing something for the community.”
She isn’t much of a football fan — “I don’t watch football,” Harris said.
That’s a little controversial — but she is a fan of working with her hands.
“I've always thought that was cool,” she said. “I can't just sit and not do something. I like learning while I'm doing it. ... This program made me realize that I'm capable of doing more than I think I can. Now, there's still certain things that I think, ‘Oh, I'm a little clumsy. I don't know how to do that. I wouldn't be able to do that. I wouldn't be the right fit to do that. I'm not strong enough to do that.’ But Oz keeps telling me I can do it, so I believe I can do it and I do it.”
Dozens of students working on Jason Kelce’s truck also helped convert his brother, Travis Kelce’s, 1969 Chevelle SS to an electric motor. That car, which he drove to a Sunday Night Football game in December, will be raffled off in September.
“As much as we can try to teach them skills and knowledge for them professionally, it's those experiences that have the biggest impact on changing the direction of their life,” Qureshi said.
The night he drove the Chevelle to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Travis Kelce invited students to the Dec. 8 game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“They got to go sit in the suite — the same suite Taylor Swift sits in,” Qureshi said. “Now, she didn't have to be in town, so that was helpful for us that weekend. But he gave tickets to the students to be able to be in the suite at the game that night, then came up and hung out with them after the game. ... He didn't have to come up there and spend that time. He's been so generous with his time with kids, and that's definitely a passion of his.”
Harris is among those who see more options for her future than she once did.
“I plan on going to trade school or something, probably for engineering,” she said. “Being in this program has gotten me interested in engineering, so I have kind of picked that relative towards my career path.”
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.