![]() ![]() Retired pilot Bernard Harrison, 58, can attest to Young’s sentiment. “It just makes you so much better, more focused and more skilled at everything you do.” The urgency of safely flying a plane instills diligence and drive, he added. “Having something to hang on to like aviation really allows you to discover that there are no ceilings and that you can keep growing,” he said. “I understand the road to becoming a pilot is long and hard and carries a large price tag, and we as a community have to do our part to change the numbers and give our kids a chance to be great.”Īs a former pilot, Young believes that a career in aviation is more than flying a plane. “When I learned about how outstanding the aviation program is at Florida Memorial, we at the Foundation felt the need to help,” said Figgers, the owner of Figgers Communication, the nation’s only Black-owned telecommunications company. Local inventor Freddie Figgers said he believed in the university’s plan and teamed up with Black car dealership magnate Vince Young to donate $50,000 to the aviation program. But we need partnerships with people who care.” How the local community is stepping up to make it happenĬommunity support is one of the reasons why Florida Memorial University students will have a fighting chance in aviation. We want to be a pipeline for Black pilots just like we did with teachers and principals. “We have to fix that so our students from an HBCU can join the program with ease, too. “A lot of kids who don’t look like me can come to the program because they can afford to pay for flight time,” McCormick said. McCormick noted that even for an experienced student awarded a $10,000 scholarship to the Red Tail Flight Academy, a school named after the Tuskegee Airmen who fought in World War II, that’s still a hefty price to pay. With no previous experience, the cost can be as high as $91,995, according to ATP Flight School. A flight school program for an experienced student costs $71,000. Florida Memorial owns a small plane, but purchasing flight time can be prohibitive. “But the biggest problem is that flight school is expensive,” McCormick said. McCormick is confident there are other Irvings on campus. Barrington Irving, once held the record as the youngest person, at 23, to fly the 24,600-mile trip around the world. William McCormick, chairman of Florida Memorial University’s board of trustees and a FMU graduate, proudly shared that a Florida Memorial alum, Capt. Florida Memorial is one of a few HBCUs with an aviation program. Suddenly, the small plane at Florida Memorial University he’d walked by for years as a student took on new meaning. ![]()
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