Aviation class soars in popularity

Holt High School offers a new opportunity for students interested in aeronautics

A high school with options. Holt High School offers a unique opportunity, the aviation program. A chance for students to find their calling to the skies.

This class is very important to its members. It brings new experiences and possibilities for the future.

Junior Peyton Chamberlain explained how these new experiences benefitted her.

only dream of.

“We went to Western Michigan to their AVH School of Aviation. So this is where Mr. Warren, who helps coteach this class with me, that’s where he went to school,” said Aviation teacher Aaron Smith.

These field trips offer learning experiences that make an undeniable difference for the students.

“With the field trips we have done

“To me, it means a lot. It opens up new opportunities for me and allows me to do more with my future after high school, and that’s really important to me,” Chamberlain said.

This aviation class also has a lot of hands-on activities that the students enjoy doing, such as flying drones when the weather permits.

The aviation class offers a break from the day in and day out life of students and allows them to do something that they really enjoy doing.

“I’ve enjoyed it a lot. We’ve done a lot with drones, especially with the first semester,” Chamberlain said.

The class also has simulations to which students have had a quite favorable response. These simulations are usually on days where they are not permitted to fly drones.

“I’d like to say it’s a lot more interactive than most classes and that it’s more tuned to you as a person,” Collard said

With these options for the class, they found that it is a course that can mold to what the student wants to learn. Which can provide motivation for students to do their best and succeed.

“Overall, you kind of choose what you want to do,” Collard said.

Students also get a feeling of speciality because of this being a class that is so rare to see at a highschool. Senior Jamison Collard is one of the students who feels this way.

“Flying drones [is] really fun. And it’s something that nobody really gets to do,” Collard said.

The aviation class also has options of field trips to aviation schools for learning experiences some would this year, I have seen amazing growth in my students,” said Smith

This class also has students taking a test over winter break to become commercial drone pilots.

“The exam costs $175 and is paid for with grant funds as part of the aviation class being a Career Technical Education (CTE) program, free to the students. They just need to apply what they have learned in class and study for the test,” said Director of Secondary Programs

Lucas Schrauben

All these factors have made the Aviation class special. They have also featured in multiple news outlets, such as WILX 10, WLNS 6, and even The Detroit News.

“This class has blown up in popularity due to all the social media coverage this class has been receiving,” said Schrauben

The aviation class has been something in the making for years. It started as a school club, but as the event of COVID made it nearly impossible for them to do their club activities so, through hard work, this fun club became a class available to all.

“This class used to be a club that we organized, but due to the effects of Covid and the social distancing be a class if we wanted any hope of keeping the dream of aviation going for our students,” Schrauben said.