Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Local Junior Achievement Student Gets an Inside Look at the Milwaukee Mile
- Speaking of kids, there is an organization, I don't know how familiar you are with them. We talked with the director here in Wisconsin last week, for junior achievement. And it is such a great organization for young people. It helps them to learn, well, how to evolve in terms of business once they get out of school. And we've got one of the junior achievement students joining us right now, Kobe Ortega. And last year, Kobe completed the Biztown curriculum. He participated in a day-long learning experience where he served as the CEO of US Bank. So Kobe, good morning to you. It's great to have you here. - Good morning, good morning. - Now, you had quite an experience yesterday. We've been talking about the Milwaukee Mile and those great indie car drivers. - And you got to see it up close. Tell us what you did yesterday. - So we did a tour around the garage areas where we got to see all the cars and all the teams working on their cars. - What did you like best? What was your favorite part of yesterday? - Most likely seeing how much time and effort goes into building these cars to perfection. - Really? Now, I know that you are a big race fan. Did you learn anything while you were looking at the cars, while you were talking with, I guess they were members of the Penske team. Did you learn anything that you didn't know before? - The tires and wheels are actually like very light. You can pick them up really easily. - Ooh, did you get to touch any of them? Did you get to pick them up? - Yeah. - Really? Were you able to pick it up by yourself or did you... Is that light? Wow, wow. Now, somebody told me that you are interested in a career in racing Kobe. What are the jobs that you got to see up close? Do you think you'd be interested in? - Obviously a racer, but if not, most likely someone who develops the cars. - Really? So you'd like to design some of them, huh? - Yeah. - Now, you said that you'd love to be a race car driver. You got to see those race drivers. What was the most exciting part, do you think? - Probably seeing the cars like fly by and how they all work together. - I mean, make all of them go faster? - Yeah, 'cause those things really were moving. Now, I know in school, you take some classes. Are there any classes that would help you to get a job, to have a career in racing? - Probably massing science would help me because when you're developing cars, there's a lot of science that goes into it and there's a lot of mass to fit the requirements of building the car. - Have you ever sat down and maybe made a drawing of the car you'd like to design? - Yeah, plenty. - You have? What do they look like? Do they look a lot like the Indy cars? - Yeah, they do. Probably with wings that can move, basically helping it get more grip or making it go faster and straight line. - You mean with wings that it wouldn't slow it down? It would help the speed? - Yeah. - Wow, I didn't know that. How did you learn that? - Because there's another type of racing that's very similar called Formula One and did they have movable rings, rear wings in the back, which help them turn corners easily and go down straight faster. - That's amazing. So maybe someday we'll get to see Formula One racing right here in Milwaukee too. I bet you'd like to see that up close. - Yeah, they travel around the world to do that. - Yeah, now I know you've been a part of junior achievement. Are there any other activities that you've done and what you've learned from them with junior achievement? - So yeah, in JA, I was the CFO of US Bank and we had to make sure that all our workers were getting, all our workers were getting paid and that we were sending invoices to others and paying our invoices, which was really helpful and it'll probably help me later in life. - Wow, if you ever have your own racecar team, you'll already be prepared to know how to pay, and won't you? - Yeah. - Great job. Well, Kobe, I really think you were very fortunate to be able to see all of that Milwaukee mile and the Penske team up close and I hope you keep doing a great job with junior achievement and do well in school this year. - Thank you. - Okay, Kobe Ortega from junior achievement. Thanks so much for being with us this morning on Wisconsin Weekend Morning News.