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Senator Cory Booker, who helped to secure the funding for\nthe program, which will be administered through the U.S. Department of Labor,\nattended the event via livestream from Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShowing gratitude to our veterans means providing them with\nthe support and resources they need to thrive in civilian life,\u201d said Sen.\nBooker. \u201cI\u2019m proud to secure funding for ACEA\u2019s drone training program to\nprovide veterans with in-demand skills training and job opportunities, as well\nas strengthen New Jersey\u2019s aviation and film industries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Veterans Film Apprenticeship program was created by Lisa\nRegina, a filmmaker who is a licensed drone pilot and an advocate for veterans.\nHer company, A Write to Heal, concentrates on offering training opportunities\nto vets in drone and other aviation-related technologies. The $150,000 in\nfunding will cover the cost of training veterans to receive their Part 107\ncommercial drone pilot\u2019s license and then help them find work in the film and\naviation industries, with mentoring offered throughout the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe reached out to Senator Booker\u2019s office a year ago and\nsubmitted a request for $150,000 to fund this worthy program that will give\nvets the training they need to be successful drone pilots,\u201d said Lauren Moore,\nJr., President of the ACEA. \u201cWe were pleased that this request was fully funded\nand put those who served on a career path to success as a drone pilot, a\nposition in demand in filmmaking, search and rescue, real estate, and aviation\ninnovation companies, just to name a few of the opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regina uses drones extensively in filmmaking and plans to\nutilize them while producing a television video series about veterans entitled,\n\u201cHeroic Episodes,\u201d which will be filmed in and around Atlantic City. Some\nparticipants in the Veterans Film Apprenticeship program may be offered\nopportunities to gain real filmmaking experience by working on the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Write to Heal participated in an accelerator program for\nearly-stage aviation-related companies in 2021. The accelerator program,\nadministered by the Smart Airport and Aviation Partnership (SAAP), is funded by\na $1.6M USEDA Innovation Challenge Grant awarded to the ACEA in late 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Carole Mattessich, Director of the SAAP, \u201cWe\nare so proud to see Lisa Regina and Write to Heal come through the SAAP\u2019s\nAviation Business Accelerator program and create this opportunity for veterans\nto take advantage of uncrewed aerial systems technologies to create fantastic\ncareer opportunities. Veterans are a principal area of focus for the SAAP and\nwe are confident that participants in the Veterans Film Apprenticeship will\nfind opportunities with the numerous drone companies that have been a part of\nour accelerator program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Veterans Film Apprenticeship is a chance for veterans\nto heal from the traumas of war and assimilate back into civilian life,\u201d said\nRegina. \u201cI am a drone pilot and I went through the [Part 107 drone license]\ntest; it\u2019s not easy. So, mentoring and support are important. Once they pass\nthe test, they receive their license, but the program doesn\u2019t end there. We\nwant them to be able to make a living, so job placement is a big part of this\nprogram. I have many inroads in the filmmaking community and made so many\nfantastic connections with drone companies thanks to my company\u2019s recent\nparticipation in the flightPlan Aviation Accelerator program, so we have lots\nof ways to help these veterans network and find opportunities for work as a\ncommercial drone pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a high-profile example of Regina\u2019s inroads with the\nfilmmaking community, Tony-Award-winning actor Joe Mantegna, best known for his\nstarring role in CBS TV series Criminal Minds, also appeared during the press\nconference via livestream. Mantegna called in to voice his support for Regina\u2019s\ndrone\/film apprenticeship program for veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis training program is yet another sign of the positive\ninterplay between the ACEA, the SAAP, and the NARTP as we work together to\nbuild out the southern New Jersey Aviation Innovation Hub,\u201d said the ACEA\u2019s\nMoore. \u201cThe SAAP\u2019s flightPlan Aviation Accelerator program is incubating\nearly-stage aviation businesses like Lisa Regina\u2019s Write to Heal to become\nthriving participants in the aviation ecosystem here. Some of them might even\nbecome tenants at the NARTP, where we have just cleared the ground to begin\nconstruction on a second building where aviation companies will make advances\nin aviation research technologies just steps from the FAA\u2019s William J. Hughes\nTechnical Center and the smart airport testbed at Atlantic City International\nAirport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moore added that more training opportunities for veterans\nwill be coming to the Aviation Innovation Hub in the not-too-distant future.\nThe ACEA has partnered with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the U.S. Air\nForce 305th Maintenance Group of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, and Atlantic\nCape Community College to co-develop the Aviation Training Academy of the\nFuture (ATAF) at Atlantic City International Airport. Authorization to fund\ninitial design and architectural work on the ATAF was recently approved in the\nNational Defense Authorization Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information about the Veterans Film Apprenticeship program, visit awritetoheal.com<\/a> or call Write to Heal at (609) 468-7474.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information about the ACEA, visit aceanj.com<\/a> or contact the ACEA\u2019s Lauren Moore, Jr. at (609) 245-0019 or lmoore@aceanj.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Atlantic County Economic Alliance (ACEA) has announced that it has received congressionally directed funding in the amount of $150,000 for a training program intended to assist veterans to become drone pilots and find jobs in the aviation and film industries. The announcement was made during a press conference held at the National Aerospace Research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-jersey","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958","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=24958"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25047,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958\/revisions\/25047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}