Senior Brinnay Nickola, full of anxiety, sat in an immense crowd waiting for the results of Aviation Influence $2,500 scholarship winners. In her head, she repeated her name over and over, hoping that it would be called. The announcer spoke, “Brinnay Nickola.” It was the unbelievable moment she realized that she had earned a scholarship that could have a huge impact on her life.
Nickola started her journey to find her passion at Virginia Space Coast Scholars, a summer program with two subdivisions: space and aviation/aerospace. Nickola explained how she figured out she loved aviation, telling, “Through the program, I was able to pick topics that interested me, and I ended up realizing that all the topics I was picking were aviation related. I got to learn about scientific research missions and the aircrafts that they would use for those, and that’s what got me interested, because I knew I wanted to be an engineer, but I didn’t know that I could be an aerospace engineer, which combines both aviation and engineering.”
The scholarship is a monetary scholarship, meaning it can be used at any flight school, funded by Aviation Influence, a company that is heavily involved with the Aviation Expo where Nickola received her scholarship. Ms. Georgina Bingaman, Woodgrove’s Aerospace and Engineering teacher, loves any chance to help a student pursue their passions or career choices, and is always looking for ways to get her students involved in career-based opportunities to set them on their way. Bingaman stated that “as a freshman, Brinnay immediately told me about her desire to fly,” and Bingaman took it seriously. “Flight school is expensive, though,” Bingaman immediately pointed out, so she helped to look for ways to pay for this throughout Nickola’s time under Bingaman.
Responsible for teaching classes like Aerospace, Engineering, Robotics, Cybersecurity and more, Bingaman says that the best way to get involved on a path like Nickola’s is to “step into that world,” and get involved with the kinds of opportunities Bingaman’s environment provides, such as career options in STEM. Nickola was a “classroom leader” and eventually started to “look for some aviation internships over in Leesburg.” Especially in the aviation industry, there is a shortage of pilots and personnel, and Bingaman says that they are trying to “fill the pipeline.” This means the opportunities are there, and anyone who is interested in this field just needs to pursue them, the way Brinnay has.
The Aviation Influence Scholarship was presented to her, naturally, through Ms. Bingaman as one of her efforts to expand Nickola’s horizons. Nickola stated, “Ms. Bingaman was the one who introduced me to that [scholarship] because every year they go on this field trip to the Aviation Education and Career Expo, where they award scholarships and you learn about them.” She also added, “Ms. B works really hard, especially to make sure that girls that take her aerospace classes are able to apply for these scholarships, so she was the one that pushed me to do it.” In order to apply for the Scholarship, Nickola completed the required essay prompt outlined on the Aviation Expo website.
Finally, on the day of the Expo, the announcement arrived. Nickola stated, “I was there with my friend and I just turned around and stared at him and said, ‘Did they say my name? They said my name right?’ and he was like, ‘Go! Get up there! You need to leave!’… It is the most rewarding experience ever and just walking up on that stage and getting to see the crowd and people cheering for you. It’s surreal! You don’t think it’s happening to you and then it’s happening, I was very shocked.”
Nickola plans to use her scholarship to continue to pursue her passion at flight school, Aero Elite. She commented, “I’m just going to use it to continue flying at Aero Elite, because I want to get my private pilot’s license, and it’s a little bit of a difficult process to get it, but this money will definitely help. It’ll pay for about 10 more lessons, so that’s roughly 15 more hours, which means that I am almost done getting the required flight time for my license.”
Bingaman went on to describe that aviation is an amazing path for students to take, which is one of the reasons she is so willing to help students to pursue these types of opportunities. This is partially because it is a growing industry with not enough personnel, but also because of the “wonder” that flying has. Nickola had this natural curiosity, and so Bingaman was happy to help Brinnay pursue this innate feeling and look for opportunities.
