Women In Aviation Conference with Jazz

Recently, I was able to attend the Women In Aviation International (WAI) conference held in my hometown; Orlando, FL! My WAI chapter awarded me and four other amazing women from the chapter scholarship to attend. I was super nervous leading up to the conference, but quickly got more and more comfortable as it went on. As a junior in high school, I am constantly trying to find my ideal college to major in aviation (while still being able to play in music ensembles) and I was able to meet lots of colleges that I hadn’t even considered. I met so many inspiring people, such as Nicole Battjes, the founder and CEO of Rainbow Helicopters in Hawaii and Victoria Yeager, Chuck Yeager’s wife! I attend several education sessions on many different aviation topics, ranging from drones, civil air patrol, and the mental health of pilots.

On the first day of the conference, they had a jazz band composed of WAI members, the Jazz with Wings band, who played during the opening of the exhibition hall. Jazz with Wings plays annually at the WAI Conference. I play bass trombone in our school’s top jazz ensemble, so I wanted to talk to the bassbone player to get some tips. He was super nice and even invited me to play with them at a dance later that night at the conference! I had an amazing four hours of sight reading through around 30 tunes. Although my chops hurt bad afterwards, It was such an awesome and unique experience that I am so glad that I got to be a part of! Not only was music a great icebreaker, it was fun recruiting new members for FMA from the members of the band. Are any Jazz with Wings participants in FMA?

(Photo credits go to Andrew Zaback for WAI)