A wave of youthful exuberance overcame Hendrick Motorsports’ campus Wednesday afternoon as the racing team and one of its premier partners Ally hosted its sixth annual Fueling Futures event. Fifty high school students from various Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools gathered for this initiative aimed for students to learn and gain firsthand knowledge about diverse career opportunities within the motorsports industry, emphasizing not only the allure of being a driver but also the multitude of supporting roles from marketing and public relations to data engineering and being on the pit crew.
The event featured juniors and seniors taking turns touring various parts of Hendrick’s expansive campus, hearing from industry professionals and learning about their career paths and how they got to Hendrick Motorsports. Each session highlighted that there are more essential roles within a racing organization that are not always thought about on the surface level when it comes to working in motorsports.
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“This is a holistic way for us to share with students the different career paths they can have,” Natalie Brown, senior director of corporate citizenship at Ally, stated. “These students have so many different challenges today than I had when I was in high school many years ago. Hearing from leaders in professional sports, it’s an opportunity that a lot of students don’t get to touch. This is also exposing students to understanding that these leaders are just like them, they have challenges and they have successes and how they overcame those challenges motivates the students.”
At the end of the sessions, Bernard Pollard, a former NFL player and Super Bowl champion with the Baltimore Ravens, held a candid interview with the wheelman of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, Alex Bowman, who talked about his career path to Hendrick and what it took to reach NASCAR’s top level of competition. During the interview, Bowman honed in on a recurring theme to not let adversity hinder you from accomplishing your goals. Both Pollard and Bowman encouraged the students to “soak in” all the information they learned, as they explore various avenues after high school whether it be in college or the workforce and to pursue their passions without hesitation.
“I think a lot of people think [careers in motorsports] are pretty narrow,” Bowman said after the event. “There’s just so many opportunities in racing at different organizations and different levels, it’s super cool to kind of expose them to that, but also teaching kids about financial literacy with Ally, it’s definitely cool to be a part of it.”
Another key focus of the event included a Money Matters workshop where students got to learn about the importance of budgeting, saving and having a financial plan once they find a job. It encouraged them to start thinking about finances in a way that could empower them as they approached adulthood.
“The biggest thing for me is being able to pour back into so many kids that I’ve been in their position,” Pollard added. “This is an opportunity to expose them to a company, a brand and a sport that can do really good things for them for setting them up in life and allowing them to see and do things in life that they never thought they’d be a part of, that’s truly a blessing.”
The Fueling Futures event served as a powerful catalyst for inspiration and continues to be one of Ally’s ongoing programs with the goal of fostering economic empowerment and career inspiration for younger generations, allowing students to gain access to resources outside of their school system to help prepare for life after high school.