Flight Training - March 2019 - 19

YOU CAN FLY

BY JENNIFER NON

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NEWSHOUR SEGMENT ON STATION'S 'FUTURE OF WORK' SERIES
AOPA'S HIGH SCHOOL AVIATION SCIENCE,

technology, engineering, and math
(STEM) curriculum is less than two
years old, but it is making a name for
itself. At a training session last June,
teachers of the curriculum visited AOPA
headquarters in Frederick, Maryland,
and PBS NewsHour education editor and
veteran teacher Victoria Pasquantonio
tagged along.
The curriculum was created to pique
the next generation's interest in aviation,
and it is already a mainstay for some
2,000 students at 80 high schools across
the country. And as public awareness
of the growing pilot shortage increases,
"the new curriculum aims to instill in
young people a love of flying, which has
somewhat waned in American culture
for a variety of reasons and could be
key to driving more skilled workers into
the field," PBS reported. PBS gave its
viewers a window into each classroom,
describing how "classes offered to ninth
grade students involve a mix of theory
and hands-on projects." It will provide
a complete four years of study "by the
2021-22 school year, which will allow
this year's freshman class to take it all
the way through high school."

During PBS's visit to the You Can Fly
Academy, AOPA Senior Vice President
of Aviation Strategy and Programs Katie
Pribyl said, "At the end of the four years,
the goal of the program is to provide
students with the skills either to get a
job in the industry or pursue a degree in
a related field." Pribyl also said that "it
could never be a better time to get into
aviation and aerospace."
According to the Department of
Labor, women and minorities are historically underrepresented in the aviation
industry, but PBS highlighted how AOPA
is working to improve those numbers.
"So far, the participants in AOPA's program are much more representative of
what society looks like than the industry.
Of the 2,000 students enrolled in the
program, 25 percent are female, and 51
percent are minorities. That's compared
to 6 percent of pilots who are female and
12 percent who are minorities." The curriculum is provided free to high schools
and is made possible in part by generous
donations to the AOPA Foundation.
Applications are now open for schools
to apply to use the curriculum in the
2019-2020 school year.
https://youcanfly.aopa.org

WWW.AOPA.ORG/FT 19

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Flight Training - March 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - March 2019