READING 1 Barrington Irving: Flying to Inspire

Barrington Irving: FLYING TO INSPIRE1

Read the following article. Pay special attention to the words in bold. 12.1

Barrington Irving was born in Jamaica and moved to Miami when he was six years old. When he was 15, he had a job in his parents’ bookstore. A man came in one day in an unfamiliar uniform and told Irving that he was a professional pilot. Irving said, “I don’t think I’m smart enough to become a pilot.” The next day, the man invited Irving to sit in his plane. Irving knew immediately: he wanted to become a pilot. He washed airplanes to earn money for flight school.

In college, Irving studied aeronautical science2 and graduated with honors. In 2007, at the age of 23, he became the youngest person to fly alone around the world. After 97 days and 26 stops, he returned to the United States.

After that experience, Irving wanted to inspire kids to follow their dreams. If you have a dream, he says, you can do great things. But there is another important thing kids need: powerful learning experiences. If they have meaningful, real-world experiences, they’ll want to continue their education and start a career. In 2005, Irving started an organization called Experience Aviation. He wanted to develop programs to inspire students to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math. Irving says, “I want to use aviation to excite and empower3 a new generation to become scientists, engineers, and explorers.” Irving’s students are working on different projects. Some are building cars; some are building airplanes. All of them are gaining confidence. He told a group of kids in his program, “I not only believe you can build an airplane, but I’ll fly it if you do.” In just 10 weeks, 60 students built an airplane and then watched Irving fly it away. Irving continues to fly to locations around the world with his Flying Classroom project and to share information with his students on the ground.

1 to inspire: to cause to work hard or be creative 2 aeronautical science: the science of flight 3 to empower: to give someone confidence to do something