AOPA recently announced the 80 high school students and 20 teachers who won scholarships of $10,000 each in the 2019 You Can Fly High School Flight Training Scholarship program. The total of $1 million in scholarships awarded to exceptional, aviation-minded students age 15 to 18, and teachers dedicated to advancing aviation education in their classrooms, was made possible by a grant from the Ray Foundation to the AOPA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The scholarships, available to AOPA members, are a component of the AOPA You Can Fly program, a set of initiatives working toward building a larger, more vibrant pilot community. The You Can Fly initiatives are getting and keeping more pilots flying by introducing youth to aviation, improving the flight training experience, supporting flying clubs, and helping lapsed pilots return to the cockpit.
You Can Fly has inspired more than 3,500 high school students through its aviation curriculum, helped launch more than 100 new flying clubs, and made it easier for more than 7,000 formerly inactive pilots to complete their flight reviews.
Scholarship recipients will be able to use the money for flight training expenses to pursue a primary pilot certificate. They must complete a flight training milestone—achieving either solo or earning a primary pilot certificate—within one year of receiving a scholarship.