The sky is the limit: Horizon Air offers $12,500 award during Aviation Week
Utah State University hosted its first-ever Aviation Week from April 4-8. Among other activities, the university announced awards for students within the Aviation Technology program.
The biggest award came after an announcement of a new partnership with Horizon Air at a partnership fair.
The partnership creates a pipeline between USU’s fixed-wing pilot training program and Horizon Air and provides students with a $12,500 stipend to pay for school and training supplies.
“Students that receive this stipend agree to come work for us for two years after they graduate,” said Eric Braa, the Horizon Air managing director and chief pilot. “Every airline throughout the whole country is facing a pilot shortage right now, but we have over 500 students in this pipeline, including six from USU, that will be coming to us this year, next year and several years down the road.”
This is Horizon Air’s second partnership with a Utah aviation school, the first being with Utah Valley University.
Other partners featured at the fair included the U.S. Air Force, Republic Airways from Indiana, SkyWest Airlines from Southern Utah, Endeavor Air from Minnesota, Envoy Air from Texas, and Ground Base, an unmanned aircraft systems organization.
The aviation program has also grown to include a new UAS major with 51 students — the only of its kind in the state of Utah — and a UAS minor with 100 students across 30 majors, according to Baron Weseman, the director of the professional pilot program.
As the program has grown, the department’s administration has made efforts to continually recognize the success and performance of its students, such as awarding $1,400 in student achievement awards to Mina Cintron, Emma McMeekin, Parker Rollins, Lucy Hankins, Austin Bird and Nathan Hoch.
Beyond the student achievement awards, students were also recognized for their excellence within specific majors of the aviation program.
Outstanding student awards were offered to Nathan Nordwald, Kyle Carlson, Kimball Goss, Brandon George and Mary Sand.
Events for Aviation Week consisted of demonstrations and program partners were presented to share the various elements of training and career development open to students.
Other highlights included drone-flying on the Quad, jet engine cell tests, flight simulator trials, Dean White of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences being flown onto the Quad in a helicopter, and an open house of the Logan-Cache Airport USU hangar.
Along with these celebrations, 2022 also marks the Year of the Drone for the USU program, which turned 83 years old this year.
Since the program’s inception in 1939, coordinators within the program say it has made significant strides in degree offerings, pilot production and national prestige.
“Airlines see the quality of pilots we’re sending out,” said Mike Logan, the marketing, outreach and recruiting coordinator for USU’s Aviation and Technical Education program.
As one of the awardees and a former AH-64 attack helicopter repairer, Sand said she wouldn’t be where she is today without the program.
“This program has allowed me to have a more well-rounded understanding when it comes to looking at what my career will be,” Sand said.
Sand is also an officer candidate and army ROTC cadet preparing to commission as a maintenance officer once she graduates. She will head to flight school shortly after.
“By recognizing the work that those in the aviation maintenance program do, people know that we’re out there,” she said.
Sand also brought attention to another issue the aviation industry faces behind the scenes.
“There have been faculty who have been with the university for years who don’t necessarily realize we have these programs, which can hurt when so much of the industry is hurting for mechanics,” Sand said. “Yes, we talk about the pilot shortage, but there’s not always a discussion about how we also need mechanics in order to keep these aircraft up and running.”
Outside of the student achievement awards, an additional $1,500 was raised at the Aviation Week banquet silent auction to be put towards clubs and future scholarships.
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-Michael.Popa@usu.edu
Featured photo by: Bailey Rigby