LANSING, Mich. — An aviation program that started as a club, is flying into the Holt High School classrooms and making a landing as a permanent elective.
Three years ago, Holt High partnered with Mason’s Great Lakes Air Ventures to provide an after-school program for students interested in aviation.
Holt’s director of secondary programs, Lucas Schrauben, said the club became popular over the years.
“Due to the growth that we're having in the academy, we really started to hone in on how can we make this more sustainable and part of what we're doing. And that led to two new electives,” he said.
One of the electives will be a futuristic study of aviation and AI, with drone technology. The second elective will be intro to flying, “which is essentially ground school for becoming a pilot," Schrauben said.
Victoria Ericks, an 11th-grade student, said she was part of the aviation club, and she’s excited for it to be a class.
“My dad used to be a pilot, actually. And he was pretty good at it,” she said. “And I was like, you know, that's the least I could do for him, you know, to make him proud.”
Students won’t actually be flying planes. The courses will be similar to ground school and they’ll learn from a flight instructor.
“Due to you know, liabilities, insurance, we can't add an actual flying piece into the curriculum of the class. However, for the drone side of things, we absolutely can. And so we've got a few drones that were donated by Great Lakes Air Ventures,” said flight instructor James Reif.
Reif said students will receive hands-on experience with drones. They’ll learn how to fly them and make videos with them.
There will also be a flight simulator for students to feel what it's like to actually be in a plane while working from their desk.
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