{"id":26547,"date":"2023-09-02T14:53:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T14:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=26547"},"modified":"2023-09-02T14:55:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T14:55:18","slug":"oklahomas-aviation-high-schools-lead-the-way-for-the-second-consecutive-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/oklahoma\/oklahomas-aviation-high-schools-lead-the-way-for-the-second-consecutive-year\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma\u2019s Aviation High Schools Lead the Way for the Second Consecutive Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the second consecutive year, the Oklahoma aviation high school roster has been established as leading the way with the highest number of schools teaching the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) \u201cYou Can Fly\u201d high school curriculum. Oklahoma is #1 in the nation for the number of schools that are teaching this aviation and aerospace program in the classroom, 87 schools, nearly double the number of any other state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six years after statehood, powered flight came to Oklahoma on March 18, 1910, when Charles Willard flew his Curtiss Pusher airplane to an altitude of three to four hundred feet at a speed of thirty miles per hour. The age of the airplane was born as an increasing number of individuals in the 1920s became pilots. One hundred years later, the Oklahoma skies are once again calling young aviators from what was once grass strips dotting the prairies to what has now evolved into a thriving state airport transportation system with 108 airports supporting communities, economic development, and workforce education across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the consistent need for a thriving and\nsustainable workforce across the state, Governor Kevin Stitt announced in July\nthat Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell will serve as Secretary of Workforce Development\nin his Cabinet. In the new appointment, Pinnell will work closely with the\nDepartments of Education, Commerce, Aerospace and Aeronautics, and the\nCareerTech system to emphasize the workforce pipeline and economic development\nfor the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell flew with Antonin Stoddard, a senior at Mustang High School, who is an AOPA “You Can Fly” student that earned his private pilot license and tail wheel endorsement during his sophomore and junior years, and Dr. Scott Dorsey, a commercial rated flight instructor and owner of Route 66 Flight School at Wiley Post Regional Airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSTEM occupations are projected to grow 10.8% by 2031, and\nour high school aviation programs give students the foundation they need to\npursue careers in the field. Many of these students will fill critical roles as\npilots, engineers, aircraft technicians, air traffic controllers, and industry\nsupport personnel because they have been given a foundational STEM education\nfocused in aerospace,\u201d said Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oklahoma has a robust history in aviation and aerospace\neducation. In 1928 the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa\nbegan providing pilot instruction. What is now the Oklahoma Aeronautics\nCommission was established in 1931 in the transportation sector and began\nissuing pilot’s licenses that same year. With that same dedication throughout\nthe decades, the Commission established an aviation and aerospace program\nduring the early 1990s that provided grant funds to programs that are still going\nstrong today such as Sooner Flight Academy anchored in the University of\nOklahoma Aviation program and Starbase Oklahoma, a program supported by the\nDepartment of Defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOklahoma University\u2019s School of Aviation has seen a 50%\njump in enrollment over each of the past two school years, and this year that\nnumber doubled to over 350 students that are in aviation management courses,\nboth flying and non-flying,\u201d said Director Eric Wydra, Oklahoma University\nCollege of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, School of Aviation. \u201cThe\ninvestment of time and resources made by Oklahoma Aeronautics has created a\ntrusted pipeline of aviation career seekers. This new AOPA program just opened\nthe flow of students to capacity, and we and other Oklahoma colleges and\nuniversities are preparing to meet the demand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are over 400 schools in 44 states using the\ncurriculum. Just this year, Oklahoma saw a 34% increase in the number of school\ndistricts teaching the program with more signing on each year. The success of\nthe program\u2019s popularity among educators and students is due to the quality of\nthe curriculum. AOPA developed the high school curriculum to introduce students\nto aerospace and aviation concepts in the hopes that it would help support the\nindustry\u2019s aerospace workforce and bolster the declining pilot population.\nOklahoma is using it to highlight the demand for a skilled aerospace workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell and Kirby Smith, Chief of Staff, met recently with the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission Director, Grayson Ardies, Paula Kedy, M.A. Ed., Aero Education Manager, and Sandra Shelton, Government Relations and Communication Manager to discuss aerospace career pathways for Oklahoma students. Aviation and aerospace employ more than 206,000 Oklahomans, and as the industry grows, so does the demand for more workers. Through excellent high school, collegiate, and CareerTech education programs, Oklahoma is building up our future aerospace workforce.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents are rediscovering the importance of math and\nscience as they calculate the lift of an airplane at the end of a runway, how\nmuch fuel they will need to reach their destination airport, and why pilots\nsump and check fuel samples. This is STEM education for a generation of\nstudents that will usher us from the age of aviation to optimizing advanced air\nmobility,\u201d said Paula Kedy, M.A. Ed., the Commission\u2019s Aerospace and Aviation\nEducation Coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AOPA courses, which start students in Aviation I as a\nfreshman in high school, are laid out through Aviation IV as Seniors complete\ncapstone projects. The courses are designed to capture the imagination of\nstudents from diverse backgrounds and to equip them with the tools to pursue\nadvanced education and careers in aviation, aerospace, and aeronautical fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOklahoma Aeronautics has been fueling aero education for\nmany decades, and while in those early years, we started small, they were still\nimportant foundational efforts that have led us to have one of the most robust\naero education programs in the Country,\u201d said Director of the Aeronautics\nCommission, Grayson Ardies. \u201cThe work we are doing now is putting students in\nthe captain\u2019s seat insofar as their ability to choose their future aerospace\ncareer paths. We are seeing students choosing Oklahoma colleges to pursue\nengineering or aviation degrees, looking toward military service in order to\nserve our country, or joining a CareerTech aviation maintenance program to\nbecome an aircraft mechanic. These are exciting times to live in Oklahoma, and\nmany parents and students are realizing that taking aviation classes in high\nschool can motivate and vector them into selecting one of the many available\njob opportunities that the aerospace industry has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the second consecutive year, the Oklahoma aviation high school roster has been established as leading the way with the highest number of schools teaching the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) \u201cYou Can Fly\u201d high school curriculum. Oklahoma is #1 in the nation for the number of schools that are teaching this aviation and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26548,"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-26547","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\/OK-HS-Lead-Way.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26547","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=26547"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26553,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26547\/revisions\/26553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}