As the Port Authority transforms John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) into a world class gateway to serve the next generation of air travel, 125 students from communities surrounding the airport in Queens spent the summer preparing to lead the next generation of aviation.
For the second consecutive year, the JFK Redevelopment Aviation and Aeronautics Academy at York College held a six-week-long summer session for students in grades six through 12 who aspire to careers in an industry that previously seemed out of reach.
The academy is a collaboration between the Port Authority and York College , with the support of the JFK Redevelopment terminal developers – New Terminal One, Delta Air Lines, JFKIAT, JFK Millennium Partners and American Airlines. The aim of the program is to provide opportunities for local youth in science, technology, engineering, and math fields related to aviation, aeronautics, and airport management, as well as to introduce them to leadership and career opportunities in the aviation industry.
“Many of our students are the first generation of their family who are on track to go to college,” said Dr. Nazrul Khandaker, a professor at York College, who helped to design the Aviation and Aerospace Academy. “This is an opportunity to show them that there are career opportunities in aviation they may not have known were available to them.”
In addition to summer classes, the academy also offers Saturday sessions that each enroll up to 350 students in grades one through 12 during the fall and spring semesters. Altogether — fall, spring and summer — roughly 1,500 students from Queens have gone through the academy in its first two years. During the 5-day-a-week summer session, high school students receive a $1,200 stipend and are eligible to earn college credits.
The aviation STEM program is one of several initiatives identified by the JFK Redevelopment Community Advisory Council, chaired by Rep. Gregory Meeks and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. Launched by the Port Authority in 2018, the council serves to ensure that the communities near JFK share in the benefits, not just the burdens, of hosting an airport that is undergoing a $19 billion redevelopment program.
“As we redevelop JFK into a world-class airport, we are equally committed to investing in the young people who will one day lead this industry,” said Rachelle Antoine, manager of external affairs and community outreach of the Port Authority’s redevelopment of JFK. “The aviation academy is more than a program — it’s a pathway for Queens students to see themselves in aviation, to gain hands-on experience, and to build the confidence that their dreams are within reach.”
Fahon Tavir, a research mentor for the academy’s summer session, knows how impactful the academy can be. He said that his passion for aviation and physics goes back to an earlier STEM program that York College hosted in partnership with NASA. “I didn’t know anything about aviation when I came here in 2021 as a high school senior,” said Tavir, who graduated from Columbia University this year with a degree in applied physics, an achievement that he credits in part to the York STEM program he attended while in high school. “It definitely helped me get into college.”
On a recent weekday, the second-floor corridor at the York College Academic Core Building was filled with the sound of drones buzzing through an obstacle course set up outside aviation instructor Omar Anderson’s classroom. Anderson, a certified drone instructor, challenged his students to fly the drones though the obstacle course as a means to develop their skills in what is a new and rapidly growing sector of the aviation industry.
Afsa Fatema, another student operating a drone, said she chose the academy because she has an interest in “anything that flies in the sky.”
In a classroom near the drone obstacle course, Dr. Billy Metallinos was mimicking the movements of a plane with a model airplane as he asked his sixth- and seventh-grade students to describe the plane’s movements using the same terminology pilots use. In the rear of the classroom, students were busy getting a feel for what it’s like to pilot a plane on one of the college’s two flight simulators.
Nicholas Lame, a student in Dr. Metallinos’ class, said the program opened his eyes to the possibility of a future in aviation. “I wasn’t considering it before. But aviation is really interesting,” he said.
Nicholas said he’ll get to put his newfound knowledge to use once the academy is over and he travels with his family on vacation. “I’m flying with my family to Antigua. Now, while I‘m in the passenger cabin as the airplane changes position, I’ll know exactly what the pilot is doing in the cockpit.”
