NextGen Spotlight
Scholarship Event in Kenai and Visit to Mat-Su Tech
It’s important to us to support young aviators and potential
scholarship applicants all throughout Alaska, so in January, our NextGen
team headed down to Kenai! We hosted a scholarship outreach event with
the help of Kenai Aviation and their friends in the Civil Air Patrol. They
generously worked with us on giving away some fun door prizes as well!
Some lucky aviation enthusiasts got the chance to go on a 20min discovery
flight, have a full hour of both ground and flight instruction and receive
some Airmen’s Association merch! As guests socialized, they were able to
roast some chili dogs and make smores over a fire. We also had the
pleasure of meeting Kellie Reed who is a senior aviation planner with
DOWL. She enlightened us by talking about her background in airport
operations, security, management and airport consulting. One of our own
NextGen team members, Ryan Gerety, also offered advice on scholarship
applications and how they can benefit someone interested in aviation. We
are so grateful to have met many wonderful people and hopefully helped
them in their aviation journey.
Recently in Wasilla, NextGen Board Members, Aras Sirvelis, and Abe
Harman, visited the aviation students at Mat Su Career and Tech High
School. Aras and Abe shared information on career opportunities in
maintenance, engineering, and piloting, as well as encouraged them to
apply for our scholarships! Teacher, Steve Novak, and his students are
running quite an impressive operation in Wasilla! They are currently
building a Vans RV-12 under the Tango Flight program and several
students have already completed their private pilot training. The students
were very engaged and had a lot of great questions for the NextGen team
about their futures in aviation, we hope to see them again soon!
Thank you to everyone who came and supported us, as well as the
hard workers making these events happen! To learn more about our
scholarships, NextGen or organization, please visit www.alaskaairmen.org.
