{"id":21498,"date":"2022-03-29T00:38:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T00:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=21498"},"modified":"2022-03-29T00:38:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T00:38:11","slug":"walt-ginger-woltosz-establish-bessie-coleman-scholarships-to-support-auburn-aviation-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/alabama\/walt-ginger-woltosz-establish-bessie-coleman-scholarships-to-support-auburn-aviation-students\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Walt, Ginger Woltosz Establish Bessie Coleman Scholarships to Support Auburn Aviation Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A newly established scholarship fund in the College of Liberal\nArts at Auburn University will honor an aviation legend by supporting the next\ngeneration of aviation leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bessie Coleman Annual Scholarship, established by Walt\nand Ginger Woltosz, will be awarded to Auburn students in professional flight\nand aviation management. Their annual gift of $100,000 is expected to support\nup to 10 students each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walt and Ginger Woltosz are aviation enthusiasts and avid\nAuburn supporters. From 1969 to 1970, while Walt (\u201969, \u201977) was a graduate\nstudent in aerospace engineering at Auburn, he taught in the aviation\nmanagement program and learned to fly planes in Lanett, Alabama, taking his\nprivate pilot check ride in 1970 under former Auburn University Chief Pilot\nGary Kitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than 40 years, the Woltoszes have flown across the\nU.S. in their own airplanes, ranging from single- and multi-engine\npropellor-driven planes to business jets. They now add the Bessie Coleman\nscholarships to a tradition of supporting need-based financial assistance at\nAuburn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been extremely fortunate to be able to satisfy my\npassion for flying, and we love sharing the experience with others,\u201d Walt\nWoltosz said. \u201cOur goal with the Bessie Coleman scholarships is to allow\nstudents who could not otherwise afford to attend Auburn to be able pursue\ntheir dreams. The professional flight program is expensive, and the costs alone\ncould turn many students away. A prospective student who dreams of becoming a\nprofessional pilot and has the aptitude and attitude to be successful, but is forced\nto give up their dream, is heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Breanna Amstutz<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Breanna Amstutz is a senior in aviation management with a\nminor in business who received one of the first Bessie Coleman scholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week before Amstutz planned to start college, her father,\nPeter, passed away. He was a helicopter pilot and largely supported the family\nfinancially. The grief of losing a loved one, combined with the financial\nstress placed on Breanna, her mother Yvonne and her three younger siblings\nthrew the future into uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amstutz said the Bessie Coleman scholarship is a \u201cgodsend\u201d\nthat will not only allow her to finish school with a decreased financial burden\nbut will help support her entire family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTelling my mom I got the scholarship, and seeing the relief\nand happiness in her eyes, was honestly the best for me because I feel like I\ncan now continue to move on with school and know that my mom\u2019s not stressed\nabout how I\u2019m going to pay for it,\u201d Amstutz said. \u201cThis has definitely allowed\nus to feel less stressed and more hopeful for the future financial-wise. This\ngives us an opportunity, and we can start saving up for my brother now, who\nwill be going to college next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scholarship fund is named after Bessie Coleman, born of\nan African American mother and Native American father in 1892. In 1921, Coleman\nbecame the first American of any race or gender to hold an international\npilot\u2019s license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She\nis remembered as an iconic aviator who performed dangerous air shows and an\nactivist who refused to perform at venues where guests of color had to enter\nthrough different gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kadon Luke<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For professional flight junior Kadon Luke, the Bessie\nColeman scholarship will cover tuition and flight training costs. Beyond the\nfinancial assistance, Luke said the opportunity drives him to work even harder\nto become an airline pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis scholarship means a ton to me, and to be one of the\nrecipients of the first ones makes it even more special. Bessie Coleman is a\nvery important person in aviation history and to be chosen to receive a\nscholarship in her name is an honor,\u201d Luke said. \u201cAfter learning about her\ncommitment to becoming a pilot despite everything against her, it gives me\nmotivation to keep pushing through my training and go into an industry where\nsometimes I may feel like an outlier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auburn School of Aviation Director James Witte said the\nBessie Coleman Scholarship offers students in both the professional flight and\naviation management programs a new opportunity to succeed by bridging the gap\nbetween students and costs associated with aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s world, the attainment of commercial flight\ncredentials is a resource-intensive undertaking, particularly in view of the\ncost of learning to fly,\u201d Witte said. \u201cFor the Auburn Aviation student, the\npathway to success is broadened and allows a wide range of students who\npreviously would have sought less expensive career opportunities. We cannot\nsufficiently express our thanks and appreciation for the generosity of Walt and\nGinger Woltosz, who made the Bessie Coleman Scholarships possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A newly established scholarship fund in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University will honor an aviation legend by supporting the next generation of aviation leaders. The Bessie Coleman Annual Scholarship, established by Walt and Ginger Woltosz, will be awarded to Auburn students in professional flight and aviation management. Their annual gift of $100,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","category-aviation-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Woltosz.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21498","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=21498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21502,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21498\/revisions\/21502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}