{"id":31206,"date":"2025-03-30T23:32:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T23:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=31206"},"modified":"2025-03-30T23:32:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T23:32:34","slug":"careers-launch-to-new-heights-at-7th-annual-womens-aviation-career-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/michigan\/careers-launch-to-new-heights-at-7th-annual-womens-aviation-career-symposium\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Careers Launch to New Heights at 7th Annual Women\u2019s Aviation Career Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Women\u2019s Aviation Career Symposium<\/a> (WACS) celebrated their seventh year that included over 300 participants and record-breaking scholarships awarded to women pursuing careers in aviation. The annual professional career conference for women \u2013 from high school juniors through retirees \u2013 took place at Western Michigan University\u2019s College of Aviation in Battle Creek, Michigan on March 15th.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Left to Right: WACS Team- Emily Cemazar, Mary Poirier, Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, Pam Catlin, and Helen Hagg.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The WACS conference showcased over 90 representatives from different aviation companies, schools, and organizations from the Great Lakes region who connected with 200 attendees. WACS awarded $50,000 to 15 women for maintenance training, professional development, and flight training, and awarded a flight attendant scholarship sponsored by Flight Safety International. Since its inception in 2018, WACS has provided $162,000 in scholarships to 70 women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forty-seven companies sponsored this year’s event, including Gulfstream Aerospace, Western Michigan University, Duncan Aviation, Amway, Dassault Falcon Jet, The Dow Chemical Company, GrandAir Aviation, Francine and Theo Hagg, Jackson National Life, MASCO, Pro Star Aviation, and more. Seven new sponsors and organizations participated in the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is incredible to see this event grow exponentially since we began,\u201d said Mary Poirier, co-founder of WACS. \u201cThe impact of seeing so many professional women sharing their stories and encouraging the next generation in aerospace and aviation is so inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference featured time for meeting and networking with local industry companies, organizations, schools, and professional women in aviation. Attendees had the opportunity to learn about the everyday life of panelists in many different aviation careers. Sponsors and exhibitors discussed current industry topics, including how to reach the younger generation. The event featured hands-on maintenance workshops, aircraft simulator sessions in a Cirrus G7 Series single-engine aircraft and a Boeing 737, and a drone workshop. Professional development workshops provided valuable information to attendees on numerous topics including scholarship applications, internship opportunities, resume writing and review, and careers in air traffic control, pilot pathways, and maintenance. Attendees were also able to tour aircraft and the Western Michigan University College of Aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The highlight of the event was keynote speaker NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, a Marine Corps Colonel and test pilot. Moghbeli commanded the SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station, where she and her crew joined Expedition 70 for a long-duration mission aboard the orbiting national laboratory. She lived in space for 199 days and conducted significant scientific research, her first spacewalk, and landed back on Earth March 12, 2024. Attendees were inspired to keep pursing their dreams no matter what obstacles came in their path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou belong and you add value. We are shaped by our experiences in life, and as a Middle Eastern female, I have experienced things differently in my life that have shaped me. I can look at problems and challenges and bring different perspectives and solutions. You belong and you are needed,\u201d said Moghbeli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was enhanced by viewing a rocket launch during the final meet and greet. Friday evening, sponsors and exhibitors watched the SpaceX Crew-10 launch on a mission to the International Space Station, paving the way for the delayed Crew-9 return to Earth, bringing home astronauts after a prolonged mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to see these young women excited for the opportunities in aviation and to see them grow in confidence and achieve their goals,\u201d said Pam Catlin, co-organizer of WACS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Women\u2019s Aviation Career Symposium (WACS) celebrated their seventh year that included over 300 participants and record-breaking scholarships awarded to women pursuing careers in aviation. The annual professional career conference for women \u2013 from high school juniors through retirees \u2013 took place at Western Michigan University\u2019s College of Aviation in Battle Creek, Michigan on March […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,98,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace-education","category-aviation-education","category-michigan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Scholarship-winners-2025-edit.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31206","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=31206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31210,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31206\/revisions\/31210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}