Airborne academics
Airborne academics
Ask kids what they want to do when they grow up and the answers start sounding familiar: firefighters, nurses, police officers, veterinarians, professional athletes, teachers, doctors.
But how often do you hear young students say they want to learn to design, build or fix airplanes? Or fly them? Or sell them to customers around the world? Local educators hope introducing those possibilities to middle and high school students will encourage them to explore these career paths available in the Triad.
Beginning this fall, freshmen and sophomores interested in aviation can participate in a new program that is open to all Guilford County students.
Tony Burks, director of magnet and choice schools for Guilford County Schools, says he hopes Andrews Aviation Academy, a magnet program at Andrews High School in High Point, will attract a diverse representation of students.
"This would be beneficial to people of all walks of life," Burks says.
After promoting the new magnet program at job fairs and middle schools, Burks expects interest in the academy will spread by word of mouth.
As of mid-July, the 100-student enrollment cap for each grade had not yet been reached, but Andrews High School principal Monique Wallace says school representatives plan to visit other middle and high schools to promote the program.
"There's so much potential," Wallace says. "We hope families become interested in what we have to offer here."
School officials want students to know they have options and can get "exposure to a field where they don't have to move away," Wallace says.
Sharon Robinson of High Point says her 15-year-old daughter, Jameka, is planning to apply for the program as a rising sophomore at Andrews. "She's always been fascinated, even as a small child, with the designs of planes and what kept the planes in the air," Robinson says. "She's very interested in the engineering aspect of aviation."
Robinson says Jameka was torn between the health care field and aviation, but the choice became clear after learning an aviation academy would be started at her school and after recently talking with Wallace.
The main benefit, Robinson says, is knowing there will be jobs in that field close to home. "I wanted her to keep all of her options open," she says. "It's all coming together for her."
For school officials, recruiting a spectrum of students is among the challenges. According to Wallace, only one other female student had submitted an application for this fall's program.
"What we're attempting to do is show our young ladies that when you think about the aviation industry, it's not just a male-dominated field," she says. "That's what our goal is — to have students of every demographic."
Helping to achieve that goal will be an aviation job fair, which Wallace expects to take place during the 2008-09 school year. The school's business partnerships are excellent resources, she says, providing guest speakers, mentors, and collaborating for job fairs.
"For us to have as much access to it (the industry) in our own backyard is phenomenal," Wallace says.
Those businesses are keeping a watchful eye on this budding education program. The ability to grow a local work force is a tremendous opportunity, according to Andrea Miller, director of marketing and communications for the Greensboro Partnership, an economic and community development organization. Ensuring that young students are well informed of the employment possibilities that await them — with the right education and training — will be crucial, she says.
Paul Witt, general manager at Cessna Aircraft Co.'s Greensboro Citation Service Center at Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTI), is among those excited about the potential for the program. "The aviation industry is growing leaps and bounds here," Witt says. "To be able to take a high school student and mold them into an employee is fantastic."
Witt says several aviation businesses in the area were approached and asked to serve on a board as consultants to help develop the academy's curriculum. Industry representatives provided educators with an idea of what type of employees aviation-related businesses are looking for, as well as a general outlook on the future of the industry in the Triad.
"I was very grateful to be able to work on that," Witt says. "It solves future employment problems that we may have locally. And it gets kids involved in aviation again ... to show those kids there is something viable for them is good."
Wallace says aviation courses will be integrated into the curriculum of participating students during their freshman and sophomore years. They will also visit GTCC's T.H. Davis Aviation Center at PTI for field trips during those first two years. By the time they are seniors, they will spend their entire school day at the aviation center for hands-on learning.
In June, middle and high school students participated in two, weeklong Aviation Career Education Academies at PTI. The academies were co-sponsored by GTCC and the N.C. Department of Transportation.
Daily sessions offered information about aviation from speakers who specialize in various aspects of the industry, as well as tours of aviation-related companies and plane rides, according to GTCC's Web site.
Students also learned about airplane parts, reinforcement of parts, theory of flight, aircraft structures and composites, and the history of flight.
Students who participate in the aviation academy at Andrews can continue their education at GTCC and expect local aviation businesses to offer internships as well.
"The opportunities here are huge," says Witt, referring to the impact aviation-related businesses such as FedEx will have on future employment in the Triad. "Someone's going to need to maintain all those planes."
Bryan Tucker replaces a windshield on an aircraft at Cessna Airc
