Into the Skies by Kellen

Into the Skies by Kellen - February 2025 Scholarship Essay

For my 14th birthday present, my parents gave me an "experience gift" of flying in a flight simulator. We never left the ground, but I loved it, so for my 15th birthday, they gifted me an actual flight with an instructor. He even let me take over the controls, and the feel of flying was so exciting! I learned what my passion was, which is flying planes. I began taking flight lessons at a small local airport, flying about once a week.

When I was 16, I soloed my first plane, while my mom and flight instructor watched from the ground. I am 17 and now working on my private pilot's license. I found my passion of flying, and my ultimate goal is to become a pilot for a major carrier like Delta or American.

This semester in high school I'm taking a class in meteorology, and I think this will help me in college because so much of flying is affected by weather. Meteorology is a class I also need to take to graduate from UND, so by taking it in high school I will have some knowledge about it already.

I applied for the University of North Dakota, which has an aviation degree and a fleet of 120 planes for students to fly. I was ecstatic when I got in, and am looking forward to continuing to fly in my freshman year in college. I think when you find your passion, then you can narrow down your educational goals and start making plans to get there.