Chicago’s Public School System sucks.

Misspending, crumbling infrastructure, budget cuts and revolving leadership have created a volatile environment for students across the city – specifically students at our neighborhood high school.

Enter Honor Roll: a program that rewarded and surprised the school’s brightest students by taking them to the first day of the 2016-17 school year in style. The school’s honor roll students were given rides to school in Lamborghinis and Ferraris with professional NASCAR drivers behind the wheel.

Upon arrival, Honor Roll students were greeted with food, a DJ and refreshments to celebrate their accomplishments and kick off the upcoming year. But most of all, students were reminded that good grades can get you a lot more than just a gold star.

With the help of a local automotive supercar experience marketing team, we shed some light on our local high school’s financial struggles and the talented students that attend the school every day.

We worked with school administrators to select the most promising, hardest-working sophomore, junior, and senior to give them the ride to the first day of the 2016-17 school year in style.

Each student was surprised outside of their home with a custom Lamborghini or Ferrari and arrived to a cheering crowd on the front lawn of the school. Students were welcomed with food, a DJ, refreshments and plenty of engine revving.

The first year of Honor Roll was just the beginning, and we’re already planning ways to expand and benefit more Chicago Public Schools.

The Honor Roll has achieved immediate positive results. Since our activation on the first day of school, 26% of students have made high enough grades to earn a spot on the honor roll. That’s 133% more than last school year.

Additionally, the response on social media and in the press was astounding with more than 21 million impressions in one week. Local news coverage ignited a positive conversation around the first day of school in Chicago, offering a pleasant contrast to the negative headlines that had been dominating local news.

Not only did we give the community, teachers, and the kids something to talk about with the event, we also contributed $5,000.00 and raised more than $2,000.00 in merchandise in school supplies, winter coats and other school donations.