Malachi Neal of Drexel Hill credits a go-kart race in Philadelphia when he was 8 and the Urban Youth Racing School for leading him on a path to become a pilot, writes Natalie Pompillo for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The race was sponsored by the school and the kids driving those go-karts weren’t much older than him. Neal decided to enroll.

“They helped me figure out what I wanted do for my career,” said Neal, now 18, and heading to Tuskegee University.  “I don’t think I’d be where I am now without them.”

The Urban Youth Racing School is a 1998 nonprofit that offers science, technology, engineering and mathematics to underserved youth 8 to 18.

The go-kart race was a tradition to reward good grades in the STEM-heavy curriculum.

Neal loved planes, trains and automobiles. The school helped him discover he wanted to be a pilot, says his mother, Tyra Virden.

Neal participated in the UYRS drone program, earned his private pilot’s license and has logged 65 hours in the air. He hopes to be a commercial pilot, though he doesn’t have his driver’s license.

“Flying a plane is a little easier,” he said.

Click here to find out more about the Urban Youth Racing School.