RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Students at Richmond Heights Upper School are literally taking it to another level, by teaching kids to fly, with the all black World War Two military pilots Tuskegee Airmen as their inspiration.
Seventh grade student AJ Adio says he learns something every day.
“I’m learning the different controls, how to land and how to like takeoff,” says Adio
Students not only learn about the Tuskegee Airmen; they meet with real pilots and work with them on flight simulations. Richmond Heights Local Schools Superintendent Dr. Renee Willis says students recently spoke with two black pilots who spoke to them about the start of black military aviators.
“They talked about the challenges that those pilots had back then, but then they also talked about the challenges of being underrepresented even today now as a pilot even with a major commercial airline and the students just sat there with amazement,” says Dr. Willis.
As part of the ‘Maker Program,’ the aviation afterschool classes took a field trip where students got the opportunity to fly a real plane with a flight instructor. Eleventh grade student Josephine Gates had never been on a plane before the trip to Kent State University to do a test flight.
“After that field trip I was like ‘Oh my gosh’ I need to look more into this, like I want to do this. So that’s when I started searching careers on what to do and how to get into it,” says Gates.
Superintendent Dr. Renee Willis says the goal of the afterschool ‘Maker Program’ is to expose students to various career fields. Even though the classes are in a makeshift area right now, when the new school is finished being built at the end of this year, there will be a dedicated area for students to learn how to fly and a bigger area to honor black aviators.
“I think it will be manifested in our new building which is under construction as the entire library is going to be dedicated to the red tails, the Tuskegee airmen,” says Dr. Wilis.
Students tell 3News they love the opportunity.
“It shows how much they really care how we want to be successful in life growing up and it gives us more options in what we want to do,” says Adio.
The Maker program also offers afterschool opportunities in manufacturing, design and media. But for now, the opportunity to incorporate black history into real life flying lessons is something all the students say they love.