Project Ignition Changed My Life

by Marc Martinez
Springlake-Earth High School Student
Earth, Texas

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of essays from Project Ignition students. Inspired? Get involved in Project Ignition by applying for a $2,000 grant to address teen driver safety through service-learning. Visit www.sfprojectignition.com. Project Ignition is coordinated by the National Youth Leadership Council® and funded by State Farm®.

Every day I get asked, “What is Project Ignition?”  To be honest, at first I really didn’t know. I got involved last January when my school, Springlake-Earth High School, received its first Project Ignition grant of $2,000. I participated, but didn’t really understand the significance of what I was doing. I “agreed” to pledges and I painted signs; I even went as far as to help make the required video at the end of the school year. I didn’t really see the total picture until we started to put on paper what we had done, including the changes we started to see in our peers’ driving behaviors.

Because of the success we experienced last year, we were named a Project Ignition National Leader School and were asked to expand our campaign throughout this school year. I was asked to lead the effort. I was nervous, but excited to face the new challenge. I truly want to make a difference. We did research to see what the needs were in our community and chose to focus on distracted driving. The statistics are unbelievable!

I have come to realize that if I want to see a change, I have to be the change. I was just like my peers — I texted while driving.  Because of Project Ignition, I was able to wrap my head around the real dangers of distracted driving. It hit me when I “crashed” while “driving” a simulator we brought to school. That moment changed my life. I made the choice not to become a statistic.

We have already organized many hands-on demonstrations this year; we know the best way to change our peers’ minds isn’t to scare them, it is to involve them. They need to experience dangerous situations in a safe environment like I did.

My team members and I have become advocates for a cause we believe in strongly. We’ve learned to stand up for what we believe in and try to make a change. We’ve formed partnerships with other students, other nonprofits, our administrators, and our local law enforcement. We’ve learned to network — we make our own phone calls, we write our own emails, we submit our own newspaper articles. We are a step ahead of many of our peers when it comes to skills we will need in the real world.

Project Ignition has impacted my entire school and community. People ask us about the messages on the billboards we created. They are telling us that they’ve made the decision to stop texting while driving. They are starting to download apps like “Text Ya Later,” to let others know they’ve made the promise not to be a distracted driver.

Of course, we still have a lot of work to do — we know we won’t completely eliminate distracted driving. Some of my peers still believe they are indestructible. There are some who will never really hear our message. But if there’s just one who chooses to listen, we’ve made a difference.

Follow Project Ignition on Facebook to learn how Springlake-Earth High School and other schools are working to raise awareness this week, National Teen Driver Safety week.