Your Chamber’s Aerospace Committee met Thursday, August 11th to discuss ongoing education efforts and grant opportunities for which the City of San Antonio is competing. Introduced by Committee Chair Frank Garcia, CEO of Land Aero Group, the meeting featured Christina Martinez, Executive Director of the Dee Howard Foundation; Eric Warner, Government and Military Affairs Specialist with the City of San Antonio Aviation Department; and Jay Battles, STEM Coordinator at Southwest ISD.
Christina Martinez presented a summary of The Dee Howard Foundation’s Summer Internship program, emphasizing the unique opportunity it granted students by allowing them to experience the aviation and aerospace industries through the lens of different companies. In partnership with SA Worx, the internship housed five incoming high school juniors and lasted six weeks. The interns were charged with creating social media content for The Dee Howard Foundation targeting a Gen Z audience through engaging videos and social media posts on platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Tik Tok.
Additionally, interns were able to experience real life working environments at various industry leader locations, including Chamber members Knight Aerospace, Standard Aero, Boeing, and Port San Antonio. The Chamber was granted the opportunity to host the interns during week three of their internship and briefed the interns on Chamber activities, the work being done by the Aerospace Committee, and the Committee’s recent AerospaceSA initiative.
Following Christina’s presentation, the committee heard from Eric Warner with the City of San Antonio regarding an Aircraft Pilot Development Program grant the San Antonio is applying for. This grant would enable the City to partner with education providers like school districts to provide proper training for students to become a certified pilot. While there are more than 200 school districts, municipalities, and airports applying for grant money, if selected, the City would have the valuable opportunity to market the aviation industry as a whole to interested students and workforce candidates. Jay Battles then spoke to some of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) initiatives underway at Southwest ISD like their Aviation program in which high school students can graduate with their Commercial Drone Pilot license.
Concluding the meeting, the Committee discussed legislative priorities being considered for the 88th Texas Legislative Session state agenda and AerospaceSA marketing and outreach projects.
To learn more about the Aerospace Committee click here and follow AerospaceSA on LinkedIn.