Taking off: Teens-In-Flight local gets $15,000 college scholarship

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

A local teen’s dedication has landed her a $15,000 scholarship to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

BY EMILY BLACKWOOD | STAFF WRITER

Many people don’t discover their dream jobs late in life. For Seabreeze High School senior and Ormond Beach resident Cora Rand, however, it happened when she was 7.

“My father lives in Maine, so I would go take airlines out there,” Rand said. “One time when I was flying up there, my mother’s co-worker’s husband was the pilot. He let me sit third seat in the cockpit. That pretty much did it for me.”

Since then, the 18-year-old has been working hard to achieve that dream of becoming a pilot. Enrolled in the Teens-In-Flight program, she is currently just a few hours away from earning her private pilot’s license. And thanks to her dedication, it doesn’t stop there. She was recently awarded admission and $15,000 in scholarships to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Though she had many experiences while in Teens-In-Flight, Rand says her trip to Colorado to raise money for the victims of the Aurora shooting was eye-opening.

“It gave me a sense of what it would be like to be an airline pilot,” Rand said. “I flew for crazy hours and we stopped in so many places. I just downed coffee and figured out how wired you have to be to be on an airline. It just reassured me how bad I want this.”

She also attributed many of her learning experiences to Col. Jack Howell, the Teens-In-Flight program administrator.

“He’s showed a lot to me,” she said, “how you can give back to people.”

The Teen’s-In-Flight program started with the concept of giving teens who have suffered a loss of a family member in the service of others a distraction. It has grown to include teens like Rand, who come from at-risk families. The program is no cost for students.

Howell said the program not only gives teens a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it teaches them lessons they’ll need in life outside the plane.

“For the first time in their young lives, they’re going to be held accountable,” Howell said. “Nobody is going to shield them. They are going to be responsible with major life-and-death issues. An airplane is an unforgiving machine. It’s not like when you run out of gas you can pull over on the highway and call AAA. In our business, when you run out of gas, you become highway.”

Despite the positivity surrounding the program, Howell said their biggest issue is fundraising. It takes the average Teens-In-Flight student two years to earn a private pilots license.

“We, as a pilot group, are becoming an endangered species, and that’s driven simply by economics,” Howell said. “When I’ve got a teenager in the air, and I turn the plane over to their control, once they realize they are actually flying the airplane, the expression on their face, you can’t put a price tag on that.”