How ePathways Reignited My Passion For Aviation

My name is Alex Marino and I am a Junior at Hagerty High School in Oviedo, Florida. I have been on an Aviation Journey of sorts for the past couple of years exploring the field of aviation and reassuring myself that this is what I want to do with my life as nothing has hooked me as fast and as surely as the idea of being a pilot. This journey started all the way back in 6th grade, I was touring different magnet schools in my county and I stumbled upon Sanford Middle. More importantly, the aviation classroom at Sanford. I knew that Sanford was a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) school, and that was generally the field I was interested in. But I had no idea that aviation was a possibility for me. I went into the tour with the mindset of, “I want to see all of the interesting electives they have, maybe they have a robotics or engineering class” but this all changed the moment I sat down in the simulator.

I walked into the aviation classroom and the teacher, Mr. Griffith, who I credit with inspiring me to look at aviation as a career, sat me down first at the helicopter simulator, then at the airplane simulator and I loved it. I had the touch and understood that gentle corrections were the way to go. There was really nothing more to it than a spark that lit up inside me. Over the years this would grow and expand into a fully planned out future in aviation. I proceeded to enroll at Sanford Middle, committing to the hour long bus ride each way for three years. I took Aeronautics every year as it was easily my favorite class. I continued to discover my passion and simply put, my love for flying and aviation in general. Leaving Sanford I was a little lost. The hour bus ride each way had started to take a toll on me and with high school starting two hours earlier than middle school, I knew that Seminole High just wasn’t an option for me. This was very unfortunate as Seminole High is “the school” for aviation. It was a match made in heaven, I just wasn’t willing to commit to four years of sleepless nights and being miserable for a middle school dream. I enrolled at Hagerty with a sad heart, thinking that this dream of being a pilot and travelling the world from 40,000 ft in the air was going to merely fizzle out. I went through freshman year continually asking myself if I had made the right choice. I joined an Aviation Club that met every other week at Embry Riddle in Daytona, which was amazing. There were plenty of opportunities for me to meet people and get more involved with the aviation industry. However, similar to Seminole High, it just wasn’t very accessible to me. Begging my dad for a ride to Daytona at 8 PM every other Friday eventually got old.

Sophomore year was much of the same, me wanting to get more involved but lacking opportunities to. However, there was a glimmer of hope waiting for me once I finished my AP tests and finals where I learned about the ePathways programs in Seminole County. More specifically, the ePathways Aviation Program at, wait for it, Seminole High School. Looking into it more over the summer, I learned that it was an afterschool program that met every Tuesday and Thursday and would provide me a path to completing my FAA Knowledge Test, which is one of the two requirements for my private pilot’s license. Not only would they provide the knowledge to pass the test, but if they determined I was ready, they would sponsor my test with the FAA, saving me the funds that I would have to put in to acquire this knowledge myself but more importantly, this was the perfect program for me and reignited that spark to commit myself fully to a career in aviation. Knowing that as a junior I would be able to drive myself there after school two days a week, greatly reducing the time commitment compared to enrolling full time at Seminole High School, I talked to my guidance counselor and figured out how to enroll and did so immediately. Now that I have been in this program for almost a year, I could not be happier. It not only provides me with a path to pass the FAA Knowledge Exam, but also gives me volunteer opportunities and networking opportunities to get my name out in the world as well as give back as much or more than I have gotten out of the aviation community. This has been an amazing opportunity and has reignited my passion of flying and I am extremely thankful to have had this chance to get back into aviation and on a path to the skies.