Several afternoons each week, Metro Catholic eighth grader Aleena Grant heads down the hall from her English and math classes to work on her motorcycle engine.

“It is a good way to spice up a student’s day,” she explains. 

Aleena isn’t alone; along with classmates from Metro Catholic, middle schoolers at Archbishop Lyke and St. Francis all have the opportunity to learn how to build V8 Engine Model Kits through Motogo, an innovative Cleveland nonprofit that teaches students in middle and high schools to build motorcycles—and so much more.

Students learn problem-solving and persistence. Jaylen Batch, who graduated from Archbishop Lyke last spring and participated in the program before heading to Benedictine High School this year, explains “things don’t always go right the first time” when you are building an engine, but the persistence pays off. “It’s fun.” High schoolers in the program build Honda CB350 Engines.

Head Coach Greg Boyd notes that doing something a little unfamiliar and uncomfortable helps students build confidence. And Amir Kabir, also an alum of Motogo and Archbishop Lyke who is now a sophomore at Benedictine, is clear about one lesson he learned through the program: ”Stay organized” when you are working on an engine, he advises. Jaylen agrees—and he explains that the practice he had organizing tools with Motogo helps him now with the routine of organizing papers in his binder for high school.

“It isn’t really even about the motorcycle at all,” explains Motogo Assistant Program Director Cass Jerman. “It’s about building something fun together,” Cass adds. Motogo Head Coach Brian Schaffran clarifies, though, that motorcycles are key. 

“We could use anything, but I don’t think the kids would be as attracted to repairing lawn mowers. When we push a motorcycle down the hall of a school, kids want the coolness of it.” 

The idea for Motogo began when Brian was a teacher at St. Martin de Porres. To add a hands-on dimension to a history unit on the Middle Ages, he came up with the idea of having students build trebuchets and launch golf balls in the gym. “It should have been a two day project; it took two weeks,” he explains, because students weren’t familiar with tools or building projects. Together with his former boss Rich Clark, who went on to become the founding director of Cleveland’s Partnership Schools, Brian came up with the idea for Wonder Week, an opportunity for students to do hands-on projects like taking apart his motorcycle. From that experience and with the help of now-executive director Molly Vaughan, Motogo was born.

Archbishop Lyke was the first Partnership School to join forces with Motogo three years ago. Motogo’s fees for each school are based on the percentage of students receiving free- and reduced-price lunch.

Partnership Schools administrators like Carolyn Cutler at Metro Catholic and Archbishop Lyke’s Academic Dean, Rhiann Gordon, are huge fans of the program. Rhiann explains that participating in Motogo aligns well with the academic focuses and root beliefs of our schools. “One of our root beliefs at Archbishop Lyke is that we can do hard things. Through Motogo, students learn through their failures. They gain confidence, resilience and grit. Because building a V8 model engine is something none of the students know, they learn the process together, and the program has helped some of our students believe in themselves when they struggle in other ways at school.”

The program is not about recruiting students into trades, although students love the opportunity to work with their hands, and we celebrate students who find elements of their future careers through the program—like Amir, whose participation in Motogo confirmed Amir’s ambition to become a classic car restorer.

The scope of what students can take from some time with tools and a big project like building an engine is much wider. As Brian shares, “Once kids realize they can learn how to use tools to fix the things around them, they realize they can fix other problems around them as well.”