By Bernie Tafoya
Young people at a South Side high school were given a chance to hear today about career opportunities in an industry they may never have considered…aviation.
Barbara Ellzey is founder of She Flys Aviation and has been organizing the Aviation Careers event at Phillips High School for the past three years.
“We’re exposing the students here to careers in aviation, different trades, different careers just in case they say they don’t want to go to college, they have another option.”
Georgina Johnson-Hopkins, an FAA aerospace medical program analyst certifies and decertifies pilots and air traffic controllers. She’s made it a mission to help expose young people to careers in aviation. Johnson-Hopkins was at the FAA table telling the high schoolers that any job they can imagine is in aviation--from engineers and lawyers, to doctors, nurses, and program and budget analysts.
“A child can’t be what a child can’t see so, if you don’t see yourself progressing and doing something different in life, you’ll never do it. So, that’s what we do. We bring everybody together and let the kids know the sky’s the limit”, she says.
Most students who were interviewed by WBBM weren’t initially thinking about jobs in aviation beforehand but at least felt exposed to more opportunities.
Junior Rashawn Thomas says, “The air traffic control. You got a lot of people’s lives in your hands.”
17-year old Phillips senior Shamon Thompson says he was just checking out the event to see what it was all about. He says he learned there are more careers in aviation other than flying the plane.
Also on hand was a representative of Daley College which will be starting an associate’s degree program in aerospace engineering next fall.