SBCSC students soaring into aviation careers through CTE program at SBN

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - - As the U.S works to fight staffing shortages across the aviation industry, local students are working to get a head start on the well-paying careers!

For the past 7 years, students at South Bend Community Schools have had the unique opportunity to watch their careers take flight from the South Bend International Airport, through a CTE program.

Three students walked ABC57’s Jackie Bauer through a flight landing on a state-of-the-art simulator overlooking the runway at SBN.

These students aren’t just learning to fly planes while still in high school, they are building one too!

Through the STAY Indiana program, local students are mentored through building an aircraft, before teaching them to actually fly it.

It is instructor, Tom Savchick’s 3rd year instructing the course he thought would only be a temporary position, before it soared into a new passion.

"I'd love to see this aviation program grow. I’d love to get an aviation maintenance program rolling, that’s going to help fill some of these critical career paths, but frankly for me it’s just getting these kids an opportunity they didn’t know they had and showing them, they can do things they didn’t think they could do,” said Savchick.

One student in his second year of the dual credit program, Brayden Johnson, hopes to use what he’s learned in the course to become a pilot.

“This class definitely is, in my belief one of the most important classes that the CTE program has to offer because of the demand for aviation that’s both current and upcoming with the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a decrease in the amount of pilots that are available to fly and it’s gonna continue to decrease up until pretty much the lowest point is predicted to be about when I’m scheduled to graduate college,” added Johnson.

More information and other programs offered by SBCSC can be found on the South Bend Community School's website.