With the 2016-17 academic year fully under way, ALPA pilots are reaching out to students of all ages to relate how their love of flying has translated into a fulfilling career. For decades, ALPA has worked to pique the interest of new generations of aviators with the goal of ensuring a strong pilot workforce for the future.

Recently, ALPA played a key role in organizing a joint effort with the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA), ExpressJet Airlines, and the Indiana State University (ISU) to bring together nearly 200 pilots studying at five universities for NIFA’s regional competition. At the event, ALPA pilot volunteers gave students an inside look at a day in the life of an airline pilot. Our pilots also flew an ExpressJet Airlines EMB-145 to the competition to give the students a chance to get an up-close view of the cockpit of a working aircraft. We appreciate NIFA, ExpressJet Airlines, and ISU for working together with ALPA in exactly the kind of industry-wide effort that is needed to draw and keep the next generation of aviation workers.

ALPA pilots and collegiate aviators pose with an ExpressJet Airlines EMB-145 at the regional NIFA competition

As many pilots will tell you, their passion for flying is a part of their earliest memories. For that reason, ALPA volunteers are more active than ever this year in connecting with elementary, middle, and high school students. At one recent preschool event, an ALPA pilot volunteer helped four and five year olds “build” an imaginary airline flight experience, complete with a ticket counter, security checkpoint, passenger seats, and cockpit. The students’ eyes sparkled as they asked the Education Committee volunteer questions about a pilot’s life.

ALPA Education Committee volunteer Capt. Pete Szyszkowski (Air Wisconsin) recently visited preschool students to talk about how to become an airline pilot

It’s difficult not to feel energized by these exchanges with young people and new pilots. While there are other measures that the North American airline industry must also take, reaching out to these students is one important action to help our industry foster a strong supply of professional pilots for the near and distant future. The work of ALPA’s Education Committee volunteers is just one more way that ALPA is strengthening the pull of the piloting profession.