Aviation Courses Lifting Students to the Skies at Steubenville High School
Trending
Taking to the skies is a dream achieved by some local students, and Elexis Martin is an example.
Since 2016, Steubenville City Schools has offered courses in aerospace engineering and aviation through Ohio Career and Technical Education.
Harding Middle School students started participating in these courses through an after-school program while some Steubenville High School students took daily aviation coursework to meet the CTE aviation training requirements.
The high school offers several other Ohio CTE programs to its students.
In seventh grade, Martin took advantage of the opportunity. During Martin's eighth-grade year, Natalie Campana, the high school's aviation instructor and certified flight instructor, offered NASA's after-school program.
Martin took an interest in these opportunities, and she said she learned a great deal about many topics, including flight training, aerospace engineering, meteorology and aviation business.
Today, as an 11th-grade student at Steubenville High School, Martin continues to work toward becoming a pilot. She was the winner of the Eastern Central Ohio Pilots Association scholarship for an essay she wrote. She is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association and the FAA Wings program.
More flying curricula became available when Martin reached high school. She became an ambassador for the program, which provided an open door to greater opportunities, and she became a member of the You Can Fly program run through the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
She enrolled as a student at Pier Aviation at the Geary A. Bates Jefferson County Airpark in Winterville. The SHS aviation program provides a Redbird TD2 flight simulator to the students, and Martin's training benefits substantially from the simulator.
She prepares for her flying lessons by practicing a variety of flying techniques, including the private pilot flight test requirements.
In November, Martin took a 106-mile round trip to Morgantown. The scheduled flight duration is 45 minutes, and Martin hit that time on the dot.
Martin now has 7.6 hours of flying time. She is waiting for the winter weather to break to continue working toward her private pilot license.