Girls in Aviation Day draws 150 young women

“This was our largest Girls in Aviation Day event yet,” said Amy Preis, Outreach Coordinator for SLU’s School of Science and Engineering. “Our goal is to connect students with the opportunities in the aviation industry that are out there and possibly haven’t been considered before.

“The entirety of the aviation industry is hungry for more women in its ranks,” she said. “We are helping to bridge that gap by exposing women in our community to aviation, encouraging them to consider the types of careers that are available and empowering them to pursue whatever they are interested in.”

Attendees could climb into the cockpit of aircraft used by St. Louis University’s certified flight instructors for pilot training. The event also featured a career expo, where students had the opportunity to connect with representatives from more than a dozen organizations in the aviation industry about different job opportunities and the paths leading to them.

AeroCareers, NFP; Gateway Jets, GoJet Airlines and SLU Oliver L. Parks Department of Aviation Science provided the static displays of the planes that students were able to see up close. The event was sponsored by GoJet Airlines, Ideal Aviation, Gulfstream and the Greater St. Louis Business Aviation Association. GoJet, the headlining sponsor, flew a CRJ-550 into the airport during the event.

“The future of our industry is bright, and when I look around this room, I see a lot of leaders that can be leaders in the aviation industry as well,” said Rick Leach, CEO of GoJet Airlines. “It takes a lot of hard work, but the pathway to a career in aviation is achievable.”

Students attending the event were excited to learn about the possibility of pursuing a career in aviation.

“It’s a good opportunity to come here and see if I’m interested in a career in aviation because I hadn’t really learned anything about it yet before today,” said  Lexi Timmerman, a freshman at Mehlville High School,. “Aerospace is a big field, but there are a lot of different career options. I think it’s a cool thing to learn about.”

Three SLU’s Women in Aviation members — Hafsa Mou, a junior; Mary Cortesi, a senior; and Jocelyn Ciotti, a freshman — are all pursuing aviation science degrees and starting careers as pilots. Cortesi and Ciotti both said they stumbled across aviation – it wasn’t something they were exposed to growing up – while Mou decided at an early age she would like to be a pilot.

“I couldn’t have been more than four or five when I saw this plane and said, ‘One day, I’m the one who’s going to fly that,’” Mou said. “And everyone around me laughed. Since then, I’ve done everything I could do to make sure I could be here today and become a pilot.”

While only 5% of airline pilots are women, the panelists are hoping that will change.

“In the aviation program at SLU, 14% of seniors are girls, but it’s growing each year,” said Cortesi. “About 25% of the freshman class are women.”

Also speaking was Stephanie McCloud, founder of the Take Flight Girls, Inc., and a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve where she is an aviation resource manager and the UN Community Service coordinator. She also is a flight attendant for Delta Airlines.

“We were part of the induction of the Girls in Aviation event at St. Louis Downtown Airport back in 2019, so it’s very rewarding to see it come full circle today,” she said. “I started Take Flight Girls in 2014 because of the lack of women in aviation, especially minorities that include women of color. We’ve issued over 10,000 scholarships and connected countless girls to resources and mentors and inspired them to pursue their dreams in aviation and aerospace.”

St. Louis Downtown Airport Director Sandra Shore was pleased with the turn out and variety of careers highlighted.

“It was great having so many young women from several different schools here this year,” she said. “The students asked so many great questions and are genuinely interested in learning more about aviation and aerospace.

“And I am proud that St. Louis Downtown Airport serves as a great example of what women can be empowered to do in this industry,” she said. “The airport, the fixed space operator that operates out of the terminal, and the air traffic control tower all have female managers. It’s truly a woman-run airport.”

St. Louis Downtown Airport is owned and operated by Bi-State Development on 1,000 acres in Cahokia Heights and Sauget. To learn more about St. Louis Downtown Airport, visit www.stlouisdowntownairport.com.

To learn more about Girls in Aviation Day or opportunities to participate in future events, contact Amy Preis at Saint Louis University’s Oliver L. Parks Department of Aviation Science via email at sseoutreach@slu.edu.

source: https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/girls-aviation-day-draws-150-young-women-18423922.php