Leesville solar club looks to make history at national competition

The Leesville Road High School solar car team spent the last two years - meeting during lunchtime, after school and during the summer - to design and build a functioning solar car.

"Just being able to learn stuff and put your hands onto it, knowing how to do it and learning it is just awesome," said Kirk Black, a member of the team.

Leesville Road will be the first high school in the state to have a solar-powered car entered in a national race.

"In many aspects of your life, you need to deliver. We need that pressure because we need to make it happen," said Carola Bezerra, an engineering teacher. "We want to make history."

The team has entered in a cross-country race in July from Texas to California.

"It would be the start of something bigger – crossing the finish line," Bezerra said.

"There's going to be a lot of emotion there if we can make it to California and get across that line. There's going to be a lot of emotion, just the fact that we made it," Black said.

The team has a GoFundMe account, but the project was made possible by a Wake County Schools 4C grant. The grant recognizes collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking.