On Monday, April 24th, nineteen high school students from the Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena Unified School Districts took a round-trip flight to Santa Rosa, California as part of the Hollywood Burbank Airport’s “Airport Academy.”
The Airport Academy is a career exploration and education program with five sessions that immerse the academy students into the world of aviation. The participants meet aviation personnel, go on behind the scenes tours of the Hollywood Burbank Airport and airfield, and meet representatives from different airline departments like Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), FedEx, Airport Fire and Police, local colleges with aviation programs, and more.
Seven students from the Burbank Unified School District (BUSD) were in attendance for the flight including John Burroughs High School junior, Nicholas Delgado, who had never been on a plane before. “I’m very interested in aerodynamics and want to know how things work. I want to be an engineer when I grew up,” said Delgado who joined the Airport Academy program never have flown before. “I’m pretty excited about it,” he added. “The tours talked about what was going to happen and what the procedure outline was, so this feels pretty normal.”
While the students waited for their flight, four of the airport’s “Waggage Claim” therapy dogs came by to visit and help relax the kids before boarding. The handlers provided trading cards with the dog’s picture and information to the students which brought smiles up and down the aisles.
The flight was part of their fourth session of the program and Avelo Airlines provided and booked the students a round-trip flight to Santa Rosa. The students departed at 12:35pm and arrived at the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport where they had lunch and a tour before returning back to Burbank.
To see a video of the students a the Hollywood Burbank Airport click here!
