- April 19, 2024
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Hilary Stevens, professor and aviation program coordinator for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, cuts the ribbon April 28 at the aeronautics lab at Flagler Palm Coast High School. Photo by Jacque Estes
Flagler School Board chairman Colleen Conklin learns about radio contact between the control tower and pilots, from FPC aeronautical student, Chris Pane, at the ribbon cutting of the new classroom, The Hangar. Photo by Jacque Estes
Ria Geary of the Flagler Education Foundation, gets flight instruction from Joshua Beaudet at the ribbon cutting of The Hangar, at Flagler Palm Coast High School. Photo by Jacque Estes
Flagler School Superintendent Jacob Oliva and student Caden Marks, watch as Flagler County Commissioner Nate McLaughlin uses one of the flight simulators in The Hangar. Photo by Jacque Estes
FPC student Sabrina Sharpe and Flagler School Board member Janet McDonald, talk during the ribbon cutting ceremony at The Hangar. Photo by Jacque Estes
“I want to enroll here,” Linda Sanders, executive director of the United Way Women's Initiative, said.
She had just attempted to fly, using a flight simulator, at Flagler Palm Coast High School's new Aeronautics Lab, “The Hangar.”
“I failed miserably,” she admitted. “But that is all the more reason they need to open this program to adults.”
The roomful of elected officials, School Board members, and organizations agreed. “We didn't have anything like this when I went to school,” was heard over and over.
“When we started with the vision of developing Flagship Programs at all of our schools, elementary, middle, and high school, we made a commitment to gear them around the targeted industries that the economic development folks are trying to bring to the area, and obvioulsy aviation was one of those industries,” Flagler School Superintendent Jacob Oliva said. “To see that vision come forward and have the community partners here today, to be able to offer dual enrollment at Embry-Riddle – what an experience for our students – and at no cost to them. You don't get to have that at every school throughout the State. This is one of those things that makes Flagler a special place.”
Linda Mahran was the person who brought the program to the attention of The United Way Women's Initiative Group.
“We learned about the Flagship Program through Deborah Williams of the Education Foundation,” Mahran said. “I gave a presentation to our board. This was an easy sell, believe me.”
Part of the “sell” was the matching $5,000 donation from the Flagler Education Foundation. The $10,000 took the program out of the crowded room they started the year in, into a space with desks on wheels, a wind tunnel, and flight simulators.
Frank Vastola, the education representative from Steelcase Education, attended to see first-hand how the equipment from the company was being implemented.
“Steelcase Education works with designing innovative spaces, and I like to see the creative things the districts are doing, like here in The Hangar,” Vastola said.
FPC junior Mario Munoz was one of the students answering questions about the program. Mario is planning on continuing his education at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“I can't believe we have a program like this,” he said. “I didn't think I would be in a class like this so early on.”
Mario said they all had the same motivation – getting the best job they can in the aerospace industry.
The program isn't just about becoming pilots. The students also learn about new career avenues in aviation -- drones.
“I can manufacture drones, write the code, build it at home, and sell it for photography, landscaping, whatever,” student Chris Wright said. “What is even cooler is coming into this classroom and seeing how much effort has been poured into this program.”
Sabrina Sharpe started in the program two years ago when her family moved from North Carolina.
“When I started this program, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, but now I have a more broad experience.”
The girls in the aeronautics class are entering what is still a male dominated field.
Professor Hilary Stevens said when she was in high school she was one of the only females in elective classes that were computer and technology-based. Even as she continued on for her bachelors and Master's degrees in 2009 and 2011 at ERAU, she was still in the minority. Now she has gone back to school to become an airplane mechanic, and is one of three females in a class of 26.
What does she tell her high school girls?
“I tell them to be fierce, because we are fierce.”
“The emphasis on women in aviation and partnering with them is part of the Women's Initiative,” Sanders said. “We're focused on educating children in general, but obviously, as women, we would like to see the emphasis on the young women and their exposure to things that are not typical.”
Joey DiPuma, innovation coordinator for the school, was the man behind the scenes in getting the classroom organized.
“We imagined the space, and revamped it, making it more flexible,” DiPuma said. “It's along the lines ERAU, it definitely has more of a collegial feeling.”
