East Haven middle-schoolers can explore careers in aerospace as part of a new program announced this week in partnership with Avelo Airlines and the Boy Scouts of America.
The new Aviation Career Exploration program is the first middle school-focused curriculum of its kind in the country, according to an announcement.
Students from East Haven’s Joseph Melillo Middle School and East Haven Academy visited Tweed New Haven Airport on Tuesday to help launch the program as part of an “Exploring Aviation” open house.
The program will last five months and be offered to boys and girls, with up to 50 students accepted per session. The curriculum includes afterschool classroom instruction, guest speakers, interactive learning experiences and local and out-of-state field trips including a visit to the Avelo Inflight Training Center in Orlando, Fla., and tours of local Connecticut aerospace manufacturing facilities, including Sikorsky’s factory in Stratford.
Avelo Airlines Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy said, “I’m confident this unique business-education partnership will create life-changing pathways for these students to achieve their aviation career dreams — many of whom I look forward to calling fellow Avelo crewmembers in the future.”
East Haven Mayor Joseph A. Carfora said, “We welcome this business-educational partnership to our school system. It is important that we provide our students with real-world opportunities to learn and to grow.”
Carfora vowed earlier this year to fight the expansion of Tweed’s facilities on the airport’s East Haven property, deemed vital to Avelo’s continued growth in New Haven, its East Coast hub.
Since its first flight from New Haven in November of 2021, Avelo has flown more than 5,500 flights carrying nearly 700,000 passengers and invested more than $100 million in its Tweed-based operations, according to the airline.
Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.
