Dreams Do Soar!

By Jill Meyers

All young girls and boys dream of what they want to be when they grow up. Some want to be a doctor. Others want to be a firefighter. And some even dream of being a pilot. When Shaesta Waiz was a young girl, she thought her future would be to marry at a young age and have a large family, like the generations of women before her. But once Shaesta discovered her passion for flying at the age of 18, she set her mind on a career in aviation and never gave up. Shaesta went from being born in an Afghan refugee camp to becoming the first certified civilian female pilot from Afghanistan, and the youngest woman to fly solo around the world in a single-engine aircraft. Shaesta and the nonprofit organization she founded, Dreams Soar, Inc., are here to show the world that dreams do come true!

Shaesta and her family fled to the United States when she was barely a year old to escape the Soviet-Afghan war. She and her five sisters grew up in Richmond, California, where they mostly spoke their native Afghan language at home. They attended school in an underprivileged district and Shaesta recalls the challenges of her childhood. “I struggled in school. I couldn’t read a chapter book in English until 10th grade,” she says. “Substitute teachers, sharing textbooks with classmates, and watching friends drop out of high school was the norm.” Though she is highly intelligent (one of her middle school teachers remembers Shaesta vividly and recently described her as being “brilliant”), Shaesta didn’t apply herself to school due to her situation and assumed path of growing up to be only a wife and mother. She didn’t believe she needed the education, so why work hard to study geography and math, for example, classes she didn’t believe would help her in life?

Then, at the age of 18, Shaesta took her first ride in an airplane to visit family in Florida. It was during that cross-country flight that she discovered her passion for flying, and for the first time, she thought about becoming a pilot. Shaesta gathered the confidence and strength to pursue her own dreams, rather than settle for a life without a professional career. “I realized it didn’t have to be that way,” she says. “After a while, I stopped listening to people who told me that Afghan women can’t do certain things. There were others who would tell me ‘you’re not smart enough [to be a pilot]’, but flying was my passion. I couldn’t escape how empowered I felt by being in an aircraft, so I fought for it and persisted.”

After doing research on where to get the best aviation education, Shaesta set her targets to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. But first she had to enhance her skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), skills that are critical to becoming a commercial pilot. She attended community college for a brief time to increase her knowledge in STEM subjects and was then accepted to Embry-Riddle. As a student, she founded the Women’s Ambassadors Program to increase female student enrollment at the university, which she and her team did successfully, raising the female enrollment from 13 to 22 percent in three years. The Women’s Ambassador Program still exists today, providing support and mentorship to female students studying aviation and engineering. Shaesta graduated from Embry-Riddle with three diplomas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics; a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in General Aeronautics, Aviation, Aerospace and Technology; and a master’s degree in Aeronautics with a specialization in Management and Operations.

While at Embry-Riddle, Shaesta heard about a man named Barrington Irving, a Jamaican-born pilot who flew around the world in 2007 in a custom-built Columbia 400, setting the world record as the youngest person to fly solo around the world. It started Shaesta thinking about doing something big like that to inspire young children, especially girls, all over the world. If someone like Shaesta could start out life in an Afghan refugee camp, work hard through school and flight training and obtain her commercial pilot license in America, how could she be a role model for other young girls? Shaesta set her mind to figure it out.

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The initial plan was for Shaesta to fly around the world in 90 days, but Mother Nature had other ideas. Due to three major weather delays (and one aircraft maintenance issue), the trip ended up taking 145 days. Shaesta’s first official stop on the Global Flight was Columbus, Ohio, the hometown of Jerrie Mock, where Shaesta was greeted by a group of aviation fans including Jerrie’s sister, Susan Reid. She then continued on to Montréal, Canada, location of the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the governing body of civil aviation worldwide. ICAO’s support of the Global Flight was instrumental in coordinating the logistics of the Bonanza arriving in and departing from the international airports.

Shaesta departed Canada from St Johns, Newfoundland in early June for the 2-part Atlantic Ocean crossing. The primary flight across the blue water lasted 9 and a half hours, and Shaesta landed at Santa Maria, an island in the Azores, owned by Portugal. Jerrie Mock had landed there as well during her solo flight, so this stop was very

meaningful to Shaesta. After a day of rest, she flew almost 7 and a half hours to Madrid, Spain, the first European stop with planned Outreach events.

After several route changes due to weather, Shaesta’s Global Flight in the Bonanza took her to Cagliari; Italy; Athens, Greece; Cairo, Egypt; Manama, Bahrain; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Muscat, Oman; Mangalore, India; Columbo, Sri Lanka; Phuket, Thailand; Singapore; Bali, Indonesia; Darwin and Cairns, Australia; Magenta, New Caledonia; Nadi, Fiji; Pago Pago, America Samoa; Kiritimati “Christmas Island”, Kiribati; and to Honolulu, Hawaii. From Hawaii, Shaesta completed the last leg of the Pacific Ocean crossing, flying 14 and a half hours nonstop to Hayward, California, close to the city where she grew up. After a brief rest and some routine maintenance on the aircraft, Shaesta continued across the U.S. to complete her circumnavigation. She finished her solo flight around the world by landing back at Daytona Beach International Airport on October 4, 2017. By the end of the Global Flight, Shaesta had flown just under 25,000 nautical miles (approximately 28,500 statute miles) with 30 stops in 20 countries across five continents.

Since every cloud has a silver lining, some of these delays resulted in the ability to add more stops and more Outreach events. Shaesta also flew on commercial flights to London, England; Mumbai, India; and Kabul, Afghanistan during her trip, to meet with children in those countries, even though she was unable to reach those cities in the Bonanza. Dreams Soar held 32 Outreach events in 14 different countries, and Shaesta personally inspired over 3,000 young children and college students, introducing them to STEM education and careers, and talking about her journey to becoming the first female certified civilian pilot from her home country of Afghanistan.

Each of the 30 stops was unique, and the Outreach events were managed by a local team including Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies, and often leaders of local Women in Aviation International (WAI) chapters. Spending two days in Afghanistan had significant and deep meaning to Shaesta, as she returned to her home country for the first time, meeting with President Ghani and his staff, and also having the opportunity to speak with hundreds of young girls and women. When speaking with students from all different cultures, Shaesta’s message remains the same – “work hard, never give up, and continue to follow your dreams”, just as she has done.

Shaesta has received several honors since completing her flight. She is the recipient of the National Aeronautic Association’s 2017 Katherine and Marjorie Stinson Trophy, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s 2018 Trophy for Current Achievement, and the Royal Institute of Navigation’s 2018 Certificate of Achievement.

“Inspiring 3,000 children worldwide was a great accomplishment for Dreams Soar, however we still have a long way to go with our efforts,” Waiz said when the global flight officially concluded. “The biggest lesson I learned on the flight is that women need more role models in STEM and aviation to prove that we can be successful in these exciting fields.” Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly into space, once said, “Young girls need to see role models in whatever careers they may choose, just so they can picture themselves doing those jobs someday. You can’t be what you can’t see.” Dreams Soar, Inc. is proud to be continuing their efforts to inspire the next generation and to provide role models to young girls around the globe, encouraging and empowering them to let their dreams soar.

For more information about Dreams Soar, Inc. visit dreamssoar.org.