Aviation and Aerospace is trending among Oklahoma students,\nand the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission (OAC) has emphatically been a driving\nforce of those trends. Through summer camp programs and primary through\nsecondary aviation education curriculum across the state, the Commission has\nboosted that interest through their aviation and aerospace education grant\nprogram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, 25 organizations were awarded Aerospace and\nAviation Education Program grants or contracts totaling over $270,000 from OAC.\nThe record amount of funds were used to educate more school-aged children in\nOklahoma to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers,\nparticularly those in aerospace and aviation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Director of Aeronautics Vic Bird said aerospace is now one\nof the state\u2019s top two industry ecosystems and when all direct, indirect, and\ninduced impacts are considered, there are almost 240,400 jobs that are\nsupported by or benefit from aviation and aerospace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the release of a two-year study on the Economic Impact\nof Aviation & Aerospace and Oklahoma, Bird feels confident that the program\nis working. \u201cWe know that workforce in\nthe aviation and aerospace industry is at critical levels and we need young\npeople to explore careers not only in engineering, but also in sheet metal\nfabrication and mechanics. The aviation\nand aerospace industry in Oklahoma support $43.7 Billion in annual statewide\neconomic activity, and we must prepare our young people to be part of that\nworkforce, directing them into STEM, as well as encouraging them to become\npilots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The program, which has been awarding aviation education\ngrants for over 30 years, is part of the OAC mission to encourage and promote\naviation throughout the state of Oklahoma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s program received 45 applications by the May 31\ndeadline. Of those, 17 were first time\napplicants,\u201d said Adam Fox, aviation program manager and aviation education\ncoordinator for the Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recognized nationally as having one of the most robust\naviation education programs among state aviation agencies, OAC has provided\nover $2M in education funding within the last 10 years alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis was the agency\u2019s biggest year in terms of applicants\ntotal program costs at $3.4M. Schools and organizations are asking OAC to fund\n$593K of those costs this year with an anticipated reach of 81,000 students. We\nare always excited to see new applicants. \nThe Commission welcomed new programs such the Girl Scouts of America,\nCache Public Schools, Atoka Public Schools, Oklahoma Air Force Association,\nMcAlester High School, Boy Scouts of America Arbuckle Area Council, and several\nmore,\u201d Fox said.\n\nIn order for a program to be eligible for an\naviation education grant or contract, it must meet certain requirements in the\nOklahoma Administrative Code. Most importantly, the program must demonstrate\nthat its curriculum is geared toward aviation and aerospace. Applicants must provide receipts and are only\nreimbursed for those items outlined in the application for their program. The May 31st deadline has passed for the\nyear, but future applicants are encouraged to explore the Commission website at\noac.ok.gov\/aviation-education\/aviation-education-grant-program.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aviation and Aerospace is trending among Oklahoma students, and the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission (OAC) has emphatically been a driving force of those trends. Through summer camp programs and primary through secondary aviation education curriculum across the state, the Commission has boosted that interest through their aviation and aerospace education grant program. Last year, 25 organizations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-education","category-oklahoma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/MetroTech-Aviation-Programedit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13071,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13069\/revisions\/13071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}