Students hear from women in aviation

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Outside an airport drop off area with a watch tower in the background and a larger truck on the right of the photo. — Outside of the North Peace Regional Airport. (Jordan Prentice, Energeticcity.ca)

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Students had a chance to listen to local women talk about their careers in aviation on Tuesday during an Elevate Aviation event at the North Peace Airport.

Over 40 students listened to a couple of local women talk about their careers in aviation and, after lunch, toured the airport’s facilities.

The students heard from smoke jumper Chelsea Marshall, Carolyn Turner, the airport managing director and flight specialists Taylor Moskowitz and Regina Prost.

A picture of four women who spoke at the Elevate Aviation event. — The four speakers at the event. (Elevate Aviation, Facebook)

Elevate Aviation host and pilot Becky Grimsrud said the students did not hesitate to ask questions to learn about the various roles available.

“A lot of interest in all the different types of careers in aviation,” Grimsrud said.

“People typically think of the pilots and engineers, but there’s a wide range of other career options that maybe people hadn’t considered before. So we get to open their eyes to a few of those.”

The attendees comprised of students from high school, middle school and those who are home-schooled.

Grimsrud said it is important it was to get the word out about female roles in aviation.

“That’s just not something that’s really pushed on them or thought about very often,” Grimsrud said.

Elevation Aviation is an annual event, but whether or not it comes to Fort St. John again next year is to be determined as Grimsrud said, it depends on her personal workload and if she’s willing to take it on every year.

Elevation Aviation, an Edmonton-based company, will travel to 30 cities total between March 14th to 23rd as part of its 7th annual Cross Country Tour in 2023.