“ I grew up with aviation . Like , my dad was a pilot … we flew from the time I was little . I always understood the commercial aviation world — how you became a pilot , how you did all these things — that , I completely understood . It never really occurred to me that it was something that not everyone understood .”
Ten years ago , when Julia was working at the Museum of Flight , in Tukwila , Washington , she met a woman named Ashley Stroupe , who drives the Mars rover , Curiosity . Julia was dumbfounded and an idea struck , “ I wanted to be able to go ! Here is all of the stuff you can do if you ’ re interested in airplanes : flying the planes , or working on the planes or commercial space . It changes so much that I just want kids to be able to get an idea and say ‘ Oh I could do that .’ And it might not be what they stick with , but just to spark their imagination .”
Julia believes the best way to go about this is to introduce teenagers to six core topics in aerospace : Aeronautics ; Airframe-Powerplant & Avionics ; Solar System ; Commercial Space Travel ; Drones ; and Robotics . ACCESS aims to introduce students to these topics by having them complete online modules and looking over careers using the Career Tree , a career exploration method developed by Mark C . Perna that encourages students to think about the lifestyle they want to live .
FALL 2023 — ISSUE NO . 04 9