The district’s You Can Fly aviation program has been a tremendous success, with a significant number of graduates going on to become pilots, flight instructors and engineers since the partnership program with local airports and state and federal agencies launched in 2015. The district’s history of career and technical education (CTE) dates back to Steubenville high school graduates and World War II Tuskegee Airmen Jerome and John Ellis Edwards and an aviation club that was formed in 1936, according to Shana D’Aurora-Wydra, the district’s director of STEM and CTE.
She and Natalie Campana, the district’s aviation instructor and a certified pilot and flight instructor, presented “Preparing Students for Careers in STEM, Aviation, and Aerospace” during the National School Boards Association Annual Conference in New Orleans. The session was attended by education leaders from across the U.S.
With 2,874 students in grades pre-K-12, Steubenville ranks 560 out of Ohio’s 608 school districts in median household income, so vocational programs remains a focus. A number of workforce development courses were in place well before the aviation curriculum, including professional certifications for coders and pharmacy technicians. But when the COVID-19 pandemic led to new federal funding opportunities, the district acquired pandemic relief funds to build a 48,000-square-foot STEM building next to the high school, and its aviation lab is at a nearby airport, D’Aurora-Wydra said.
Students can’t get behind the wheel of a plane until junior year, but aviation instruction to include topics relevant to planes, drones and spacecrafts starts as early as grade four, infusing lessons about math, science, social studies and English language arts throughout. The state of Ohio pays for student drone pilot certification, and the district has secured grants through public and private partnerships to cover scholarships for plane pilot licenses, Campana said, adding that the abundance of materials provided by the partners pairs well with state requirements for math and science.
“They need to know the math, or they know it won’t turn out very well,” she said.
NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and various other public and private agencies provided the district free resources to make the program affordable. Beyond that, Campana said, “everything we purchased is either from Amazon, the Dollar Tree, or I dumpster dive.”
Agencies and companies are happy to partner with schools because there is a critical shortage of pilots, aircraft mechanics and aviation engineers, Campana said. Some commercial airlines have dropped their college degree requirements and will hire high school graduates with industry certifications. And even if a district is not located near an airport, there are still great opportunities to establish drone programs.
“Because that’s where the industry is headed right now,” Campana said.
The two STEM teachers answered several questions from audience members interested in starting their own aviation programs. Before the session, many of them would have thought putting students in and around planes was an unattainable goal.
“You can do it all,” Campana said. “Try it. See what happens. Be inspired.”
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