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DOAV Participates in Summer Transportation Institute Program at VSU

The Virginia Department of Aviation participated in the annual Summer Transportation Institute program at Virginia State University. The purpose of the program is to create awareness and stimulate interest in secondary school students to take maximum advantage of the opportunities that exist in the transportation industry.

Public Relations and Education staff Betty Wilson and David Halstead worked with the 14 ninth to twelfth grade students over the course of four days to provide a variety of educational aviation opportunities. Wilson taught a classroom lesson on how airplanes fly and discussed various aviation careers with the students.  DOAV staff provided Delta Dart airplane kits and helped the students throughout the
process of building the airplanes. Once construction was completed, a contest was held to determine which student could fly their airplane for the longest period of time. Prizes were given to the winners and all students received a wooden balsa airplane.

The ICON A5 Introduction to Flight team also traveled to Virginia State as part of the Summer Transportation Institute program. Halstead led a presentation about the aircraft while each student had the opportunity to sit in the ICON A5 and operate the controls. Transportation Operator and Presenter Kim Anderson worked with the students in the flight simulator that is located in the back of the transit van.

As part of the final day of the program, Wilson and Halstead traveled with the group to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum’s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport. The trip served as a great immersion experience for the students to see thousands of aviation and space artifacts, including the space shuttle Discovery and a Concorde.

DOAV was proud to serve as a partner with the Summer Transportation Institute in both funding and participation.

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