Teens-In-Flight program: Free Flight and Aviation Training for martyred personnel children

Filed in archive Education on January 19, 2010

If you are pessimistic in life you definitely need to go through the old red dictionary placed on Jack Howell desk. Now you must be surely scratching your head as to who Jack Howell is and how the old red dictionary can help you. Let me tell you, Jack Howell is a retired Marine Corps colonel (not just a retired officer anymore) and the old red dictionary I talked about earlier does not contain any negative word. You must be wondering how could that be possible in a dictionary but Jack Howell made that possible as he went ahead and crossed out every negative word he came across.

This is what he wants to instill in youth of today and went ahead and started Teens-In-Flight which made a humble beginning as a Jacksonville high school magnet program in 1994 and since then has grown into a nonprofit aerospace education corporation. Today the course has fifteen students in its batch with two of them being autistic. The Teens-In-Flight program offers free flight and aviation training to teenagers whose parents died in combat, teenagers from low income families and at risk kids.

It all started from scratch but has traveled leaps and bound to stand where it is today. Even though the program operates out of two room suite with a small classroom and its front office doubling up as training room but still the students love it. The program has got a donated flight simulator and aviation instructors volunteer to teach the students nuances of aviation ranging from aircraft components to map reading to cockpit instruments and how to land a plane if caught in crosswinds. Students are also exposed to hands on experience on a small Cessna which Jack purchased for training.

Jack has spend all his earning in the program having contributed around $30,000 into the program whereas the rest of the money needed comes from donations from local flight schools and national magazines, grants and student staffed plane washes. The program has got recognition too and its students have got 100% acceptance rate in colleges and with such an encouraging response he plans to take the program across the country.

I am really overwhelmed by the selfless efforts of Jack Howell and would like to meet him someday in person and learn from him.