Kenna Edwards sat at a work bench tinkering with her slot car’s pink and white body while other cars zoomed around the eight-lane track across the room.

She wanted to race against the other students, but her car needed some improvements first. Last week, she added small weights to her car’s frame, and this week she was reinforcing the body’s flimsy parts with clear plastic.

She hopes when she’s done the car will be sturdier and more aerodynamic on the track.

Kenna, 15, is one of the students selected to participate in the new slot car program at Genius Garage, a nonprofit educational organization that began in Columbus and came to Sylvania this year.

President and lead mentor Casey Putsch started Genius Garage three years ago with a program geared toward college students.

As many as eight students work with professional drivers, including Mr. Putsch, to design, build, and maintain a race car for the driver to compete with. The college program runs during the spring and summer, and students “literally do everything except drive the car,” Mr. Putsch said.

His goal is to give students a leg up in the competitive professional world, no matter what career path they take.

“Long story short, it takes their resume from the bottom of the pile and puts it at the top,” Mr. Putsch said.

Genius Garage this November added the slot car option as a way for both college and high school students to hone their engineering skills in the off season.

The slot cars are 1/​24th the size of a standard race car, but the mechanical and design concepts are the same.

“School is great, but with this they get to put their hands on something,” Mr. Putsch said. “They get to come together as a team with their peers and do something incredible.”

Kenna applied to the slot car program for two reasons. She loves cars — she used to race go-karts — and she intends to study engineering after she graduates from Southview High School. Her work at Genius Garage will set her apart when applying to college, and it will help her decide what engineering field to pursue, she said.

“I’ve always wanted to be an automotive engineer so that’s probably what I’m going to end up doing, but this is going to hopefully help me figure out which part of automotive engineering,” she said.

Cameron McCaskey is studying electrical engineering at the University of Toledo and heard about Genius Garage through the college’s Rocketry Club. He said working with the small cars is teaching him engineering concepts such as how aerodynamics and weight distribution affect how fast a vehicle can race.

“There’s actually a lot more to it than you think there would be,” Mr. McCaskey said. “At first, I thought they were little toy cars. But they’re really not. It’s pretty cool.”

He is excited to build his own slot car this winter, but he is really looking forward to the next professional racing season set to begin in March.

Ryan Beagle, a University of Toledo student studying mechanical engineering, was part of the six-man team who worked on a 1988 IMSA Corvette GTO race car for Genius Garage’s first college season in Sylvania. The team traveled to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to race with the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association.

“That was experience and value that no classes could ever give us, and any future interviews I have for co-ops or jobs, that’s going to be completely invaluable,” Mr. Beagle said.

He’s grateful for the unique, real world experience, and said the relationships he has built are just as valuable.

“We’re a team,” he said. “We all became very good friends.”

Genius Garage is looking for bright, driven college and high school students to join the program. Visit geniusgarageracing.com or email to geniusgarage@hotmail.com for more information or to apply.

Contact Sarah Elms at: selms@theblade.com or 419-724-6103 or on Twitter @BySarahElms.

First Published December 26, 2016, 5:00 a.m.