Jackson Bellard
Tinker Murdock Family Scholarship
Jackson's personality is of a lifelong learner, and he tries to learn something new at every possible moment; therefore his educational goals are to perpetually strive to learn at every opportunity. He wants to finish high school with a 4.0, which he maintains through rigorous study; and obtain his private pilot's license, which the Tinker Murdock Scholarship will help me to reach this milestone. His dream is to pursue a career in Aeronautical Engineering.
Jackson is an active senior at Galena High school in Reno, NV. He has volunteered with Carson City EAA 403 since his first Young Eagles flight on his eighth birthday, and regularly volunteers at the Reno Air Races. He is active in his school’s Key Club, Honor Society, Speech and Debate club and Tri-M Society, as well as being a bassist in the Reno Youth Philharmonic’s Youth Symphonic orchestra and Galena’s Chamber Orchestra. He also plays and teaches golf with the first tee of Northern Nevada. Every year of his high school career he has received a letter award for community service. This summer he was asked to participate in Nevada Boy’s State, the leadership knowledge he gained was priceless. He actively helps all EAA members building their own kit planes whenever they ask, and finds a lot of joy in trying new ways to hopefully make their experimental aircraft’s performance better.
Kyra Bowers
Florence “Coffy” C. Gregory Endowment
Kyra has always had a deep love for aviation. As a member of Civil Air Patrol, EAA, and Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp, Kyra learned about how amazing the art of aviation really is, and has only fell in love even more since. Kyra’s short-term goal is to solo on her sixteenth birthday, and her long-term goal is to gain her ATP certification and fly for a major airline.
Kyra is inspired to take to the skies as many great women pilots have done before her time. She particularly looks up to Evelyn Bryan Johnson, who trained her great grandfather and United States Air Force veteran, Paul Bowers, to get his private pilot certificate. Now it is Kyra’s turn to take off on her aviation path, and land as a memorable pilot.
Joshua Caldwell
Richard R Harper Memorial Scholarship
Joshua was born in 1983 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, while his dad was in the Navy and stationed at the Navy’s nuclear power plant. He was four years old when his dad left the Navy and began working at a nuclear power plant in southeast Alabama, where Joshua grew up and currently lives.
To get to and from their house, Joshua would drive by the local hometown airport. He remembers looking up as he drove by, hoping to catch a glimpse of a plane flying. He and his family would see planes, gliders, and occasionally a few people parachuting. This was always the highlight of his day. They would sometimes stop at the airport to watch a plane come in. Joshua loved watching the pilots gracefully come in and touch down, wondering if he would ever have the opportunity to do that. Every time he heard a plane, he would imagine what it would be like to be behind the controls.
Joshua grew up around construction; houses, cars, cabinets, model cars, and model planes. This is what drove him to take a drafting class his sophomore year of high school. This class grew his passion for designing construction projects, which led Joshua to his current career. Joshua was the president of the Drafting Club his junior and senior year of high school. He has worked for the past thirteen years as a CAD Technician in the Aviation group at Barge Design Solutions, an Architectural/Engineering firm. Some of his responsibilities are making sure all of our projects are within the requirements of the FAA’s Design Circulars. Joshua has worked on many projects for our airport clients, some of which include runway/taxiway extensions, apron expansions, new terminal buildings, airfield lighting, signage, and marking projects. Joshua had the opportunity to be on the design team for a new airport. For the past three years, he has been the lead designer for all airfield electrical and marking projects. Working on airport projects has kept his dream of becoming a pilot alive.
In October 2018, Joshua volunteered at a client’s fly-in. After walking around and speaking with some of the pilots, he realized that this dream was something he had to pursue. Recently he became a member of the local EAA chapter and has volunteered as much as he could. He really enjoyed helping coordinate the flights at a Young Eagles rally. Seeing the smiles when kids came back in from their flight was extraordinary. Joshua want to continue his training through to CFII and hopes one day to encourage and guide others on their way to becoming a pilot.
Niall Devlin
Richard R Harper Memorial Scholarship
Niall was born in 2003 in Washougal, Washington, where his mom and dad owned an airplane repair and design business at a small airport. His father, Scott Devlin, was a pilot and airplane mechanic who died when Niall was just 6 months old in a mid-air collision with a pilot flying at an improper altitude.
Niall's uncle and a cousin are also pilots, and his father's grandfather was in the Flying Tigers during World War II. He still keeps his official footlocker with the emblem on it at the foot of his bed, with his father's Civil Air Patrol uniform and flight log in it.
He grew up for most of his childhood on an organic farm in northern Vermont, in a town of 250 people, where they still live. He's currently finishing up high school at the New Mexico Military Institute, after which he hopes to become an aeronautical engineer and CFI.
Niall has always loved flight, and being in the air. His walls have always had posters of planes on them since he could barely walk, and also pictures of his first father and his planes. His dream and goal has always been to fly and become a pilot, and he has taken every opportunity to get involved with aviation and flight: Civil Air Patrol, EAA, AOPA, Young Eagles, and flight and soaring lessons as he could afford them.
Addison Flagle
Air Academy Alumni/Wilson Edwards Memorial/EAA Scholarship
Addison was active in the Civil Air Patrol and Boy Scouts, earning both the Mitchell Award and Eagle Scout. He soloed with 9.5 hours of flight time at the Nat'! Flight Academy and attended EAA's Advanced SportAir Camp. It was there he learned that he wanted to not only fly aircraft, but he also wanted to build and repair them. He went on to the Pennsylvania College of Technology and received his Airframe and Powerplant Certifications. He is now attending flight school and working there part time as an aircraft mechanic to help to pay for his flight training.
Jonah Graybill
Tinker Murdock Family Scholarship
Jonah is a 17-year-old home schooled senior living in Gardners, Pennsylvania. He has always been fascinated with birds and airplanes from a young age, and has really wanted to fly. However, he started to have a serious interest in aviation when he flew in his uncle’s airplane and took a Young Eagles flight. Since then, he has joined EAA Chapter 122 in Harrisburg and enjoys going to their meetings.
Jonah is currently taking an EMT class at the local community college, plays viola in the Central Pennsylvania Home School Orchestra, and participating in the 24/7 Leadership Program at Rhodes Grove Camp and Conference Center. His hobbies are playing music (a lot of bluegrass), performing magic tricks, solving Rubik’s cubes, and hanging out with friends from camp. This scholarship is what will help him achieve his goal in gaining his private pilot certificate and give him the potential for an aviation career.
Obed Han
Stephen “Ben” Haas Memorial Scholarship
Obed is from Silicon Valley, California. His passion for aviation began in seventh grade when a local friend invited him to a Young Eagles flight. Since then, he has been volunteering for his local EAA chapter. Through his local chapter, he has built a community of akin aviation enthusiasts and pilots who have encouraged him to become a pilot and pursue aviation-related careers. In addition to aviation, Obed is also interested in technology and is the webmaster and social media manager for his chapter. He is a leader in his community, proven by his dedication to multiple volunteer organizations. He hopes to earn a private pilot license in the next two years and is grateful that he is able to receive financial support from EAA for a dream that is now possible.
Jessica Helseth
Jason Kurt Lohr Aviation Scholarship
Jessica Helseth is 19 years old and a sophomore at the University of Central Missouri. Aviation has been a huge part of her life for as long as she can remember. Her grandfather worked for TWA with an A&P certificate, her father is a pilot with many ratings and endorsements, and her sister has her private pilot certificate. Jessica has been flying a PA-28-151 with her family for her entire life and her passion for flying has grown immensely. She has attended workshops at Oshkosh, been to fly-ins, participated in a airplane build of a celebrity with the Macon EAA Chapter 1212, flown in her neighbor’s experimental Rans-S7 homebuilt aircraft, job shadowed at Des Moines Flight Service where she assisted with maintenance on a Honda Jet, assisted in annuals on a Piper Cherokee Warrior, been skydiving with the Des Moines Skydive Team, and started flight training in 2018. Jessica graduated high school in 2019, and then began her journey at UCM.
Jessica is an active member in Lambda Pi AHP, Warrensburg EAA Chapter 1032, AAAE/MAMA (American Association of Airport Executives/Missouri Airport Managers Association), and Women in Aviation. In the future she hopes to earn her private certificate, commercial certificate, IFR rating, CFI certificate, and multi-engine rating. With this, she hopes to be able to fly for a corporate company that aligns with her core values. In the future, Jessica aspires be a role model for future women aviators, since there is such a small percentage in this career path. In the next year, she plans to earn her private pilot certificate and then start on commercial and IFR ratings. The flight program at UCM allows Jessica to fly in a Cessna 152 to earn her private certificate. They also have Cessna 172's she will eventually do some training in, so she gets a range of different aircraft to learn in. Flying is Jessica’s passion and she is glad EAA can be part of her journey to enable her to turn it into a career. Jessica is grateful for the scholarship and the support.
Hannah Hughes
EAA WomenVenture Scholarship
Hannah was born in Eastern Washington, but has spent most of her life living in the small community of Willamina, Oregon. She knew since she was 13 years old that she wanted to pursue a career in aviation and at the age of 16 she experienced her first EAA Young Eagles flight that solidified her love for flying. During the past few years Hannah has got progressively involved in aviation organizations and was ecstatic to share her love of aviation with her peers this spring by organizing her Senior Project, “Ready For Takeoff”, which allowed 24 of her classmates with interests in aviation to experience EAA Young Eagles flights and receive information about pilot career training pathways.
Hannah will attain her Private Pilot’s License this summer at Nutsch Aviation in Independence, Oregon and will attend Southern Utah University this fall to pursue her Instrument, Commercial, and CFI ratings while earning a Bachelor's Degree in Aerospace Science. Her long term goal is to become an airline or military pilot and hopefully serve as an inspiration for those passionate about aviation.
Jennifer Liams
Jim Grist Flight Training Scholarship
Though Jennifer has been working in aviation the past three years, her heart has always been in the sky. Last fall she began flight training. In the upcoming year, Jennifer’s plan is to obtain her private pilot certificate and begin work on her commercial rating.
The past few years Jennifer has volunteered her time to the thousands of people who come to share a love for all things aviation at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. However, she hopes to fulfill a dream of being able to fly in and camp with her aircraft. It is an incredible opportunity to be immersed in many different fields of aviation and around people who share the same passion.
Locally, Jennifer is part of Women in Aviation and donates her time to young girls inspiring to be like their peers. Currently she is not qualified to partake in the flying portion of this group. However, receiving this award would allow Jennifer to obtain the qualifications required to take these girls on a ride of their lives.
These are just a couple of the goals she has for this coming year, the biggest being to share the incredible feelings that come with the freedom of flight with people of all ages. In the next decade, Jennifer would like to obtain her private and commercial certificates, CFI, and hopefully tailwheel endorsements. But more importantly, this will overall enable her to eventually fulfill one of her long-term dreams of owning my own aviation business. One of the fields she is interested in is aerial photography. Jennifer is an avid aviation photographer and dreams of running a business that incorporates the two. Also, other careers she is interested in include an aviation repair shop as an A&P, sightseeing, an FBO, or maybe even managing an airport.
Along with owning her own business, Jennifer would like to start her own program to help other aspiring youth fulfill their dreams of taking to the skies. She hopes to be able to offer scholarships, rides, educational activities, and inspiration for the youth. This will be funded by designing and selling aviation related materials such as calendars, apparel, and professional grade photos. Hosting yearly auctions for some of her work and other collaborators’ will fund this desire to give to those who need it in order to achieve their dreams in the air.
But it starts here and now with the rigorous hours of training both on the ground and in the air. Achieving these goals will aid both the aviation diversity imbalance and pilot shortage, as well as help inspire future generations to do the same and more.
Benjamin King
Noah Favaregh Flight Training Scholarship
Benjamin is a junior in high school. He was born and grew up in Florida where he enjoyed fishing and boating. After moving to Colorado at the age of 13, Benjamin decided to look for a new hobby and discovered flying. He began looking into the Young Eagles program at EAA and decided to go out to the local airport to take a flight. He flew with a Young Eagles pilot by the name of Lee who saw a lot of potential in him. Lee invited him back to his hangar so they could talk about what his future could look like if he decided to become a pilot. Benjamin took his first flight at age 14 and that is when he caught the flying bug. Ever since that day he knew what he wanted to do with his life.
Benjamin was very excited to get started so he began going out to the airport more often. From that point forward he has put nearly every penny he has earned into flying and has made it to around 30 hours. He also completed his first solo which, unfortunately, he ended up losing due to the runway being closed for repair and he being unable to fly for three months. Additionally, he volunteered for the National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs where he spent time helping to maintain their airworthy aircraft. His goal is to get his private pilot certificate completed in the next three months so he can start flying with Young Eagles. He also is hoping to get to fly with a friend to Oshkosh. Benjamin's dream is to someday fly for a major airline. He is very honored to have been selected for this scholarship as it will help him to fulfill his dream.
Kristina Ledwith
United Airlines Flight Operations Pilot Scholarship
Kristina was raised in a northern California suburb, Roseville, and spent her childhood split between there and Bangkok, Thailand. No stranger to air travel, she was always enamored with aviation. It wasn’t until after college Kristina realized her potential in pursuing an aviation career when she began her flight lessons for her private pilot certificate. Following in her father and brother’s footsteps to an airline pilot career, Kristina has made great strides to accomplish her milestones towards her private pilot certificate and worked alongside her A&P dad to learn more about airframes and power plants at the same time.
Having earned her private pilot certificate in January of 2020, Kristina intends to go full throttle toward completing the next endorsements and ratings: tailwheel endorsement, instrument rating, commercial rating, and CFI within the next few years. Her ultimate goal is to become an airline pilot in the next 5 years. Kristina intends to teach one to two young girls for free when she becomes a CFI as a way to thank the aviation community and give back for all the opportunities that it’s given her. She hopes to be able to inspire and mentor other young ladies to pursue careers in aviation.
Chloe Litteral
Noah Favaregh Flight Training Scholarship
Chloe’s aviation experience can be described as a ride she never wants to end. She have always dreamed about becoming an astronaut. Chloe’s exposure to aviation has come from Civil Air Patrol (CAP) where she currently holds the rank of Cadet Chief Master Sergeant and Alpha Flight Sergeant at the Lake Charles Composite Squadron in Louisiana. She has been a CAP cadet for more than a year. In addition to her current rank, she has achieved the CAP Recruiter Ribbon, Community Service Ribbon, and was Honor Cadet of the Charlie Flight during the 2019 Louisiana Wing Encampment. In early 2020, Chloe was chosen as one of ten cadets at a national level to attend the CAP Robert Ayres National Powered Flight Academy in Hagerstown, Maryland, as a flight candidate.
Chloe has passed her FAA exam and soloed. She credits her commitment, diligence and accountability that got her through the abnormal year of COVID, Hurricane Laura, and Hurricane Delta, which all hit her hometown. Chloe is a senior at Sam Houston High School with a 3.95 G.P.A. For the past year, she has been a member of the El Camino Real Flyers EAA Chapter 1356 where she attends monthly meetings and volunteers during Young Eagles orientation flight events. Presently, Chloe is on track to obtain her private pilot certificate before she graduates high school in May 2021. Following graduation, she intends to go to the Air Force Academy while majoring in Aeronautical Engineering. She recently received confirmation of a scheduled interview with U.S. Representative Clay Higgins for a Service Academy Congressional Nomination. Upon commissioning in the USAF as an officer and pilot, she wants to fly the V-22 Osprey during search and rescue missions. Chloe’s military career will give her the experience and training needed to be NASA-astronaut worthy. She would like to thank the EAA Scholarship Committee for choosing her as a recipient, and the Noah Favaregh Flight Training Scholarship for providing funds towards her dreams in aviation of becoming a pilot.
Jack Miller
John S. Bradbury Memorial Scholarship
Jack Miller hails from Temperance, Michigan. He started thinking a about a career in aviation during 8th grade, right around the time he learned about a local aviation school he could attend and a family member started flying commercially, furthering his interest. This August, Jack starts his junior year of high school at the Toledo Public Schools Aviation Center. Jack just passed his FAA General Aviation exam and will be pursuing his FAA Airframe & Powerplant certification during his junior and senior years. Additionally, he is working towards his private pilot license. Jack soloed in May in Ohio and flew in the Rocky Mountains in Eagle County, Colorado in July. He hopes to have his private pilot license in the next few months thanks to this generous award by EAA. Together, the A&P certification and the private pilot license will open the doors to many professional opportunities in aviation for Jack to consider in the near future.
Chelsea Montgomery
Elgin Wells, Jr. Starjammer CFI Scholarship
Chelsea is a 2017 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Bloomington, Minnesota. Growing up, she attended a ballet academy and also participated in speech club, National Honors Society, and volunteered at her local senior home. She attended PSEO (Post-Secondary Enrollment Option) classes throughout her last two years of high school and attended the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Carlson School of Management with a major in entrepreneurial management and political science.
Given her background in business, Chelsea hopes to start an aviation related business someday. She has worked multiple jobs the past three years and is currently paying for flight school with hourly wages and savings. This scholarship will give her the opportunity to further her education at ATP Flight School in Mesa, Arizona, as well as accelerate the pace and give her the time to focus on causes vital to the aviation community by volunteering with organizations such as EAA, the Ninety-Nines, and WAI Girls in Aviation Day. The EAA Flight Training Scholarship will go towards helping her complete her CFI certificate. Overall, she hopes to someday return the favor and be in a position to help others reach their dreams by inspiring and financially assisting those unable to afford flight training. This scholarship has helped Chelsea get her future off the ground and she appreciates everything that EAA does not only for students, but the aviation community as a whole and young aspiring pilots, like her.
Charles Mossberger
James Morrison Memorial Scholarship
Charles became interested in flying when he was in elementary school and a friend of his showed him a flight simulator he had on his phone. He first got into the air during a Young Eagles flight his sophomore year of high school through his Air Force JROTC unit. Charles is currently taking a gap year before enrolling in college, and one of his goals for this year is to finally get his private pilot certificate. This scholarship from the EAA is a huge step towards that goal.
Timothy O'Hara Haworth
Tinker Murdock Family Scholarship
Born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, Timothy is the son of airline parents Shannon and Dennis. From an early age, Tim has wanted to fly and nearly every action taken in the past 10 years has been directed toward that goal.
Entering his senior year in the International Baccalaureate program at Westwood High School, Tim is on the varsity swim team and is Cadet Corps Commander of the Air Force JROTC unit on campus. As an Eagle Scout, Tim is also actively involved with Boy Scout Troop 10 and with Aviation Explorers Post 352 at Falcon Field Airport in Mesa. Lately, he has been busy flying in preparation for taking his Private Pilot Checkride on his 17th birthday on July 10, 2020.
Jaylen Palmer
Matt Platt Memorial Scholarship
Jaylen Palmer is a 16-year-old entrepreneur. He has been fascinated with flight for the past six years and is not really sure what got him hooked. It all started in the fifth grade when he met the Red-Tailed Hawks flying club during a career fair at his church and their president, Jesse Hayes, took him up on his first flight. Since then, his parents have driven 200-plus miles every month so that he and his sister could participate in this flight club.
Through the years, Jaylen has had the opportunity to participate in aviation programs around the country and his community. This really encouraged him to keep on pursuing his goals. Now that he is older, Jaylen started flight training and is lined up to get his private pilot certificate in the next few months. His goal is to become a pilot in the United States Air Force and Jaylen believes he can get there by working hard to accomplish his goals one at a time.
Martha Reith
Florence “Coffy” C. Gregory Endowment
Martha wakes up each morning excited to find adventure in the day. She has always loved to explore and travel but this year has found new ways to enjoy the world around her. As this new life adventure takes her deeper into the world of flight, Martha is eager to continue learning from the experiences of others within the aviation community as she works her way towards private pilot status.
Martha has experienced first-hand how aviation brings people together across all walks of life and wants to continue sharing this passion with others as she learns to fly. Outside of aviation, she spends her free time playing card games with her godsons, hiking, volunteering, and making s’mores in the backyard during outdoor family movie night.
Shakar Soltani
Florence “Coffy” C. Gregory Endowment
Shakar has always had a fascination with the airlines, but her curiosity only grew deeper as she got older. This eventually led her to being a marketing intern for Southwest Airlines and flight attendant for Spirit Airlines shortly after.
Shakar is now working on her private pilot certificate with the goal of being a professional pilot. However, more than anything she hopes to inspire or at least introduce others to careers in aviation, because it could change their life just as it did hers. Flying has given Shakar so much of a passion and purpose and she is grateful for organizations like EAA that make it their mission to give others a taste of flight. She is honored to be a scholarship recipient and excited for what’s to come.
Victoria Stevens
Florence “Coffy” C. Gregory Endowment
Victoria was born in southeast Idaho and began her adventures there. She grew up with an avid interest in reading, learning, and facing challenges. She was home-schooled all her life and graduated on her 15th birthday.
After living near Oshkosh for almost two years, Victoria grew extremely interested in flying. In June 2019, the Young Eagles program afforded her the opportunity to fly for the first time in her life. That flight sealed the deal and she began the process of becoming a pilot. Since then she has been very active in several EAA chapters. Over this next year, she plans to obtain her private pilot certificate and instrument rating, then begin training for her commercial.
Michelle Trobaugh
Florence “Coffy” C. Gregory Endowment
Michelle Trobaugh is an active member of EAA Chapter 302. Her dad was career U.S. Navy aviation, working as air crew in anti-submarine warfare aboard P-2Vs and P-3 Orions. Michelle grew up seeing planes fly from the military bases where she lived. She loved hearing the sound of the engines as they would spool up and fly over. As she grew up, she wanted to learn how to fly but she also knew that learning to fly was prohibitively expensive. Michelle needed to find a way to afford to become a pilot if she ever wanted to achieve her dream of flight. She also knew she wanted to be in the military. She enlisted in the Navy Reserves and learned about avionics to help pay for college, as she knew she needed a degree to be a naval aviator. While working full-time, attending college full-time, and working in the Navy part-time, she achieved the rank of Petty Officer Second Class and earned her associate degree in 1989. She was also accepted into the naval aviation cadet program shortly thereafter. Michelle completed Aviation Officer Candidate School in 1990 and later that same year she started flight training in a T-34C Turbo Mentor, only to be caught in the Navy’s reduction-in-force following Desert Storm in 1991. She was permanently barred from what she thought was her only reasonable path to aviation.
Michelle left aviation behind and found a new path to follow. She didn’t think she would ever be back in aviation and she transferred into Texas A&M University, knowing that they had the engineering program she wanted to study and that it was a highly-endorsed program.
In 1994 she married while still in college and graduated with a degree in Ocean Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1995. After graduation, Michelle found work in the oil and gas sector in Houston, Texas, started a family, and started her non-flying career. She was living a life devoid of aviation, but she had a husband, two wonderful daughters, a dog, some cats, and a career as a subsea construction engineer. Then, in 2000, her husband asked if he could buy her a quarter share in a Grumman Traveler so she could fly again. Michelle thought he was crazy. There was no way they could afford an airplane. He laid the budget out for her and showed her how it could be done. They bought the share and suddenly I was once again living in a world filled with aviation, and best of all she could share it with her family.
Michelle finished her private pilot certificate later that year. She set a world speed record in type and frame in 2003 from Atlanta to Kitty Hawk (and Kitty Hawk to Atlanta) for the 100th anniversary of flight with a friend. She received her Instrument rating in 2013. She was amazed to discover that there was a wide world of normal, everyday people enthusiastic about airplanes and flying. Michelle discovered and joined AOPA, EAA, the Ninety-Nines, and has volunteered for Women in Aviation. In 2017 she convinced her husband to get his private pilot certificate, which he did. Michelle’s eldest daughter is also pursuing a career in aviation, and in 2019 she and her daughter were able to attend the International Conference for the Ninety-Nines in Dayton, Ohio, and then she and her husband went to AirVenture.
Michelle is proud to support and represent EAA and general aviation and looks forward to earning her commercial certification.
Jacob Westerberg
Tex Edwards Scholarship
Jacob grew up in Minnesota spending a lot of his time in the skies around the Twin Cities. His passion for aviation primarily stems from childhood experiences flying between Minnesota and Canada with family in an amphibious Cessna 206. Following his undergraduate education at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, he is now a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jacob studies how the brain processes visual information and filters out what is important from what is distracting. Specifically, he measures how neurons in the brain respond to visual items and interact to produce our perception of our environment and act on it. Flying is, of course, highly demanding of pilots in that it requires careful attention and decision making to safely take flight. Jacob is attending flight school in hopes to one day bring together his passions for science and flying to boost our understanding of pilot behavior.
David Wilson
Elgin Wells Jr. Starjammer CFI Scholarship plus EAA
For the last 18 years David has taught History and Business classes to public high school students. He became Nationally Board Certified in 2005 in Social Studies and has focused a large portion of his career on bringing technology into the classroom to augment the experience of the adolescent learner. A favorite project of David's was coaching a group of students through the LEMELSON-MIT InvenTeam process.
Currently, David teach Economics, Government, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing at STEM School Chattanooga and hosts the SURGE competition, in which high school students from across the region battle for monetary awards and internships by pitching their prototypical businesses. Next year he will be the lead teacher for the Blue Cross Technology Academy at Red Bank High School, focusing on computer science, coding, and engineering.
David holds a master’s degree in Educational Leadership, Curriculum, and Instruction and a bachelor’s degree in history from Lee University. Given the opportunity, he loves to pilot airplanes, sail, bike, travel, and read. He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with his wife and four amazing children.
It has been a life-long dream of David's to teach both high school and aviation as a CFI. Over the past four years he has built a dynamic aviation club where his students have built and flown aircraft and drones and received ground school instruction. This scholarship will make it possible for him to obtain his Instrument Rating, and a step closer to Commercial and CFI rating. He's so thankful to the Wells family, who is carrying on the legacy of their father and grandfather, through sharing the passion for life and aviation.
Elizabeth Witte
Richard R. Harper Memorial Scholarship
Elizabeth secured her student pilot certificate, first-class medical certificate, completed ground school, and passed the FAA private pilot written exam through the support of the Coachella Valley Youth Aviation Education Program (CVYAEP), a non-profit organization inspiring youth toward careers in aviation.
Elizabeth graduated high school in May and will continue her studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University having been accepted into the B.S. in Aviation Business Administration program. Elizabeth’s goal is to become a commercial airline pilot and will apply this scholarship award toward that endeavor. The sky’s the limit!
