Their weeklong deployment is designed to challenge students from 7th through 12th grades in problem solving for simulated real world situations, with a concentration on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills and emphasizing team work. They will live and work for 6 days in a multi-story, 102,000 square foot simulated aircraft carrier (CVT-11, Ambition), surrounded by advanced technology, flight simulators, and virtual reality games that ignite imagination and encourage learning.

This scholarship program was conceived by members of the Friends of Fernandina Aviation as part of their charter to introduce local students to aviation and its associated career fields.

The Friends of Fernandina Aviation (FOFA) is a 501c(3) non-profit, aviation oriented organization. The goal of FOFA is to promote the understanding of and appreciation for the importance of aviation in the local community through volunteer-staffed programs such as aviation education, orientation and training, youth scholarships, community outreach, and cooperative efforts with other local area, civic-minded non-profits. Membership includes both aviators and non-aviators who want to be actively involved in giving back to the community.

More information about The Amelia can be found at: www.ameliaconcours.org
More information about the National Flight Academy is at: www.nationalflightacademy.com

 

 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)

Through our free education program that injects STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) in the classroom, students learn how an airplane flies. Interactive demonstrations based upon physics and scientific principles explain how airplanes are designed and constructed. FOFA volunteers introduce students to some of the tools that pilots use to plan a flight and set a course, and then navigate the aircraft from the point of departure to the destination. They also learn about a pilot's requirement to interpret aviation weather when planning a flight, and they are shown the aviation community's method of communications which is aimed at keeping aviation safe for everyone. Interspersed at various points in the presentation are references to specific aviation-related careers. Students are encouraged to participate and ask questions of the presenters who are more than willing to share their own personal career paths and experiences.

Each school year Friends of Fernandina Aviation participates in school career fair activities to help students become aware of the wide array of aerospace/aviation related jobs that currently exist, and to provide information about future career opportunities that may be available to them in Aerospace and within the wider field of Aviation. Students have the opportunity to interact one on one with individuals who have "been there"¯.