Introduction

     I started to have an interest in aviation probably a lot later than everyone else. I’ve always enjoyed traveling when I was younger, especially when I got to fly to places. It always interested me and I always found it so fascinating how everything worked. I never really thought about an aviation career until I was a senior in high school. I was applying to college and my dad was talking to me about what I wanted to do when I was older. I really wanted to study criminal behavior, but my dad talked to me about really researching jobs that I could get. He continued to explain to me how I don’t want to come out of college with a lot of debt and not be able to get a job. I would struggle to pay back student loans and possibly have to go back to school or work a job I may not want. He continued to tell me about air traffic control and their need for employees. I realized that there were limited jobs, but I still wanted to try anyways. It was something I was always interested in for a long time. My freshman year, I decided I would take classes for a criminology major, but also try out an aviation course. I realized that the criminology major wasn’t what I expected and I found the aviation course really interesting. I decided to take another course the following semester and I really enjoyed it and I stuck with it ever since.

     I am currently an Aviation Management major and I am expected to graduate April of 2016. I am very close to start working in the aviation industry and I am still kind of unsure of what I want to do. I have had the thought of doing Air Traffic Control for the past two to three years, but recently I have found an interest in the business side of aviation. I wouldn’t mind staying in the business side and working as a manager. I think if I were to stick with ATC, I would love to be at a larger airport somewhere out west or maybe even more east, but still staying in the United States. I want to get out of the Midwest area, so I wouldn’t mind working at McCarran in Las Vegas or working at Denver International Airport. I have been looking more into staying on the management side of things, but still applying to become an ATC. If I were to get accepted, complete training and become certified, I would try it out to see if I like it. If I were to find out that it wasn’t for me, my goal would be to become a manager or work in management for either an airline or for the airport itself. I usually fly Southwest and I really like their customer service and their love for their job. If I could pick any airline to work for, I think I would want to work for Southwest.

     Areas of interest that I would like to be represented by guest speakers would probably be ATC or anyone in the management side of aviation. For the management side of aviation, this could be in relation to an airline, a small or large company, or anyone working for an airport. Two current aviation topics that would be of interest to me would be stress on air traffic controllers and ways to try to limit that stress. Another topic that would be interesting to talk about is the UAVs. We talked about this in the regulations class last semester and they never came out with their final regulations by the time our class was finished, so it would be interesting to finish that conversation. I have seen some things online and on the news about it over break, so it would be interesting to talk about the regulations regarding them.