High school aviation STEM draws crowd

The pent-up excitement was palpable at the historic Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis. Teachers and school administrators from around the United States found great value in being a part of the three-day immersion, which included sessions about how to pitch an aviation program to school administrators, how to partner with flight schools, options for collegiate aviation, and how to utilize the free AOPA Foundation High School Aviation STEM Curriculum.

Raymond D. “Dr. G” Gonzalez is the iSTEAM coordinator and a science teacher at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, New York. He sees the event as a way to help his students get plugged into the future needs of the aviation and aerospace community.

“You really make the bridge between classroom instruction and future industry. This was a dream come true to come here,” said Gonzalez, who is a student pilot and AOPA high school teacher flight training scholarship recipient. “The opportunity to collaborate, to have different experiences, to see how if we implement this curriculum, it can positively impact not only our students’ futures, but the aviation industry in general.”

YouTuber and airline pilot Swayne Martin was host of the event. Travel media personality and pilot Kellee Edwards was the keynote speaker at Tuesday morning’s general session. Edwards told her story of discovering GA while waiting on the ramp in an airliner and seeing a pilot do pattern work in between airline operations.

Her journey into aviation began shortly after with an introductory flight at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles. In her uplifting presentation to the packed room she said that she lives by one rule: Nothing is impossible.

“Impossible does not belong in my vocabulary, it does not belong in anyone around me’s vocabulary. They know if you hang out with me, we’re going to do all the things—whether we fail or not,” she told the crowd. Edwards repurposes the letters in “impossible” to create the motivational mantra “I’m possible.”

The AOPA Foundation High School Aviation STEM Symposium has helped the high school initiative grow from 29 schools across 17 states in the 2017–2018 school year to more than 400 schools serving 15,000 students. The curriculum, supported by the AOPA Foundation, is offered at no cost to educators who complete an application process.

While the virtual versions of the annual symposium held in 2020 and 2021 produced their share of enthusiasm, everybody was happy to get back together again.

“The energy is so high. We’ve got people who are brand-new, and people who have been using the curriculum for years. They are all excited to be here and see resources,” said Elizabeth Tennyson, senior vice president of the AOPA Foundation.

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