Out With the Old, In With the Older!

As our campus gears up to welcome students back for another year, one sign of that preparation isn't in a classroom — it's in the garage.

This summer, our Classic Car Restoration Innovation Lab said goodbye to the 1967 Pontiac LeMans that students have spent the past year bringing back to life. In its place, we're welcoming something even older: the parts and pieces of a 1930 Model A Panel Truck, which will become the next restoration project for our students this year.

What is Innovation Lab?Innovation Lab is one of the things that makes an LHS education distinct. It's a hands-on elective period built into the school day, giving students real-world, project-based experience outside the traditional classroom setting. And the range of what that looks like is part of what makes it special.

On any given day, Innovation Lab might mean a student designing custom projects on a Cricut, programming a robotics build, working with their hands in woodshop, or training their body in the weight room. It might mean heading just up the road to The Bee Hive, a senior living community near campus, where students spend time in fellowship with residents — building relationships across generations.

And for a group of our students, it means grease-stained hands and a torque wrench, learning the craft of classic car restoration from the ground up.

Living Out the Portrait of a Graduate
Innovation Lab isn't just about the skills students walk away with — it's about the character being built along the way. Our Portrait of a Graduate calls students toward our six pillars: Integrity, Love, Respect, Involved, Servant Heart, and Perseverance. Innovation Lab puts all six on display.

A student sitting with a resident at The Bee Hive is exercising their Servant Heart and showing Love for someone simply because they're valued, not because it's required. A student getting Involved in something as unconventional as classic car restoration is stepping outside their comfort zone to try, build, and contribute. And a restoration project that stretches across an entire school year — full of stripped bolts, stubborn parts, and slow progress — is a daily lesson in Perseverance, echoing 1 Corinthians 16:13–14: "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love."
The Model A won't be finished quickly. But that's exactly the point — some of the best character is built in projects and years that take time.

Why a Model A?
The Classic Car Restoration program has become one of the most hands-on examples of what Innovation Lab is all about. Students don't just learn to change oil or swap parts — they learn patience, problem-solving, and craftsmanship on a project that takes an entire school year (or more) to complete. They learn to work through frustration when a part doesn't fit, to celebrate small wins, and to take pride in a finished product built with their own hands.
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The 1930 Model A Panel Truck will be this year's canvas for those lessons. It's older, rarer, and — like most great restoration projects — will need plenty of work before it turns heads. We can't wait to see what this year's students do with it, and how it shapes them along the way.