{"id":23570,"date":"2022-10-01T23:01:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T23:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=23570"},"modified":"2022-10-01T23:02:40","modified_gmt":"2022-10-01T23:02:40","slug":"oklahoma-aeronautics-lands-national-award-for-aero-education-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/oklahoma\/oklahoma-aeronautics-lands-national-award-for-aero-education-program\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Aeronautics Lands National Award for Aero Education Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Photo above &#8211; Representing the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission were, from left, Grayson Ardies, State Director of Aeronautics, Michelle Bouziden, Grants Administrator, Paula Kedy, Aerospace and Aviation Education Coordinator, Nick Young, Airports Division Manager, and Kelly Fincannon, Chief Airport Engineer. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of its work in the development of a unique aero\neducation program, the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission was awarded the \u201cMost\nInnovative State Program Award\u201d for the agency\u2019s Aerospace &amp; Aviation\nEducation Program at the annual meeting of the National Association of State\nAviation Officials (NASAO) this month in Greenville, South Carolina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The award recognizes truly unique and service-oriented state\naviation programs, projects, and activities. Many innovative aviation programs\nthat began at the state level have spread to other states or in some cases have\nbeen adopted or accepted by the federal government and the aviation community.\nThis year, NASAO recognized Oklahoma Aeronautics for its education program\nwhich has impacted thousands of students with varying levels of awareness,\nexposure, and certification to better prepare them for a career in the aviation\nand aerospace industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A renewed vision for the program started several years ago\nwith a strategic focus to add aviation and aerospace curricula at all school\nlevels with special attention placed on expanding the AOPA \u201cYou Can Fly\u201d high\nschool curriculum. There was a considerable outreach effort to connect the\nagency to schools across the state and create a team involving higher\neducation, industry, government, and primary educational institutions to better\naddress workforce challenges the aviation and aerospace industry is\nencountering across the 77 counties in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Developers of the program believe it will be an innovative\ntemplate for state aviation agencies looking to address the aviation and\naerospace workforce challenges that the industry will face in their respective\nstates while also providing a holistic approach to both awareness of the career\nopportunities and advocating for solutions to partner with education\nproviders.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI had the opportunity to observe the aero education grant\nprocess and was inspired to see Oklahoma math, science, and technology teachers\nimmersing themselves in this program to benefit this generation of students,\u201d\nsaid Secretary of Transportation Tim Gatz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oklahoma Aeronautics hopes to encourage other states to\nimplement similar programs to address national workforce issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday, Oklahoma is leading the Country with our innovative\nAERO Ed Program by having the largest number of AOPA \u201cYou Can Fly\u201d High Schools\nalong with one of the largest aerospace and aviation education grant budgets\nfocused on a wide variety of educational programs.&nbsp; We also had the privilege to be selected by\nthe FAA for one of their Workforce Development Grants for our statewide\nworkforce development initiative,\u201d said State Director of Aeronautics Grayson\nArdies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paula Kedy, the agency\u2019s aero education expert, has been\nworking for the last two years traveling across the state to share how\nimpactful this program can be while raising Oklahoma to the top spot in the\nnation for aviation education.&nbsp; Oklahoma routinely\nimpacts close to 30,000 students and hundreds of teachers, counselors, and\nsuperintendents each year through its grant program, seminars, and\nconferences.&nbsp; As an example, at its\nAugust Commission meeting, just over $450,000 was distributed to nearly 60\ndifferent aviation-related school systems and organizations.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are honored to be recognized for the development of a\nprogram that is so critical to the advancement of our industry workforce,\u201d\nstated Kedy. \u201cOklahoma schools are recognizing the need to prepare students to\nenter Oklahoma\u2019s second leading industry, and we are thrilled to have the\nopportunity to guide them in the development of strong aviation education\nprograms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASAO is the nationally recognized voice for the public\ninterest in aviation on behalf of the states and territories. Its mission is to\nencourage and foster cooperation throughout the public sector in the\ndevelopment and promotion of a national aviation system that safely and\neffectively serves the needs of citizens, commerce, and communities throughout\nthe United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo above &#8211; Representing the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission were, from left, Grayson Ardies, State Director of Aeronautics, Michelle Bouziden, Grants Administrator, Paula Kedy, Aerospace and Aviation Education Coordinator, Nick Young, Airports Division Manager, and Kelly Fincannon, Chief Airport Engineer. Because of its work in the development of a unique aero education program, the Oklahoma Aeronautics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23571,"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-23570","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\/IMG_8792-edit2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23570","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=23570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23573,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23570\/revisions\/23573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}