{"id":26900,"date":"2023-10-16T18:19:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T18:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=26900"},"modified":"2023-10-16T18:19:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T18:19:54","slug":"girls-in-aviation-day-celebrated-nationally-and-in-central-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/oklahoma\/girls-in-aviation-day-celebrated-nationally-and-in-central-oklahoma\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Girls In Aviation Day Celebrated Nationally and in Central Oklahoma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Women in Aviation International Greater Oklahoma City\nMetro Chapter in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and\nAeronautics collaborated with multiple entities including AAR Corporation, the\nWill Rogers World Airport, the 137th Special Operations Wing, the Air and Space\nForces Association of Oklahoma, Boeing, Sooner Flight Academy, Logic Aviation\nServices, Piedmont Airlines, and the Oklahoma Finance Authority to host the first\never Girls in Aviation day in central Oklahoma. The day began at AAR\u2019s Hangar\n#2, located at the company\u2019s Maintenance Base facility in Oklahoma City. The\nGirls in Aviation Day event focused on introducing young girls to the exciting\nfields of aviation, aerospace, and aeronautics, educating them on career\nopportunities, and bringing awareness to the many diverse fields within the\nindustry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historical Hangar #2 hosted over 600 girls for the Central\nOklahoma Girls in Aviation Day which took place on September 23rd. The opening\nsession \u201crally\u201d for the girls included speakers such as the Commissioner of\nLabor Leslie Osborn, State Senator Paul Rosino, the Executive Director of the\nOklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics Grayson Ardies, Director Jeff Mulder\nwith Will Rogers World Airport, and Jennifer Wong with Boeing. Lt. Col. (ret)\nDeirdre Gurry served as the celebrity emcee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worldwide, more than 16,000 girls, ages 8\u201317, experienced\nthe fun and inspiration of WAI\u2019s 9th Annual Girls in Aviation Day in their\nlocal communities through unique events hosted by WAI chapters and corporate\nmembers. In 2022, over 120 events were held at airports, FBOs, museums, and\nhangars in 19 countries across the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, and\nAsia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Girls were introduced to career and lifestyle possibilities\nin aviation and aerospace through meeting female role models, high school\nstudent aviation curriculum panels, and exploring airplanes and learning about\nthe Will Rogers World Airport. Fun and educational activities were presented\nranging from building balsa wood planes, learning about aircraft engines and\navionics, and exploring military aviation careers. The girls also engaged in\nhands-on learning about aviation including piloting, aircraft maintenance, the\nphysics of flight, flight safety, aviation medicine, military aviation, and air\ntraffic control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore than 600 Central Oklahoma-area girls attended the\ninaugural event and had the opportunity to hear from aviation leaders,\u201d said\nWAI Oklahoma City President, Young Chappell, a Boeing aerospace engineer.\nChappell was one of the key champions for the event supported by the WAI\nOklahoma City members, 137th Special Operations Wing airmen, AAR Corporation,\nand Boeing volunteers. \u201cWe were so excited about this opportunity to give back\nto the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paula Kedy, Aero Education Coordinator for the Oklahoma\nDepartment of Aerospace and Aeronautics, leads the charge for the agency\u2019s\naerospace education initiatives across the state, including the AOPA \u201cYou Can\nFly\u201d program and Choose aerospace maintenance curriculum. Kedy is responsible\nfor integrating these programs and other meaningful STEM opportunities for\nstudents and educators. \u201cOklahoma is already focusing on aviation in high\nschools, career techs, and colleges, so we were very excited to support this\nspecial event to inspire young girls to seek out programs available to them\nthrough secondary and post-secondary education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women in Aviation International is a nonprofit organization\ndedicated to the encouragement and advancement of women in all aviation career\nfields and interests. We provide educational, networking, and volunteer\nactivities for our members throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were extremely pleased with the student turnout and\nresults of this inaugural event in Oklahoma City. Tulsa has hosted similar\nevents like this in the past, and we look forward as an agency to continue to\nfoster events like this throughout the state to continue to grow the aerospace\nand aviation workforce,\u201d said Ardies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other exhibitors included the 349th Recruiting Squadron, the\nFAA Monroney Center, Oklahoma Aviation, EAA Chapters of Central Oklahoma,\nOklahoma Chapter of Ninety-Nines, Oklahoma Air National Guard, Oklahoma Army\nNational Guard, Oklahoma State University Flying Aggies, University of Oklahoma\nAviation Program, Pratt & Whitney, Spartan College, and Metro Technology\nCenter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Women in Aviation International Greater Oklahoma City Metro Chapter in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics collaborated with multiple entities including AAR Corporation, the Will Rogers World Airport, the 137th Special Operations Wing, the Air and Space Forces Association of Oklahoma, Boeing, Sooner Flight Academy, Logic Aviation Services, Piedmont Airlines, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,98,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace-education","category-aviation-education","category-oklahoma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/girls-in-aviation-23.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26900","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=26900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26902,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26900\/revisions\/26902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}