Tuskegee Airmen<\/a> jacket, she spoke about her intense training, overcoming challenges, and her academic achievements, saying, \u201cI never thought about flying a plane. I really wanted to be a marine biologist. But when I was 12 years old, my mom signed me up for a scholarship for United Youth Aviators, a program located in New York.\u201d<\/p>\nFreeland explained that two police officers started the program to provide minority children with free scholarships to obtain their private licenses. She was on the waiting list for three years and won the scholarship when she was 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went on my first flight, I thought it was pretty cool. I got to see the world from a different perspective. I flew over the ocean and saw the city. It was just so beautiful that I thought I could see myself doing this. But it wasn\u2019t until I went home, and looked up how much money a pilot could make, and when I saw $700,000, I thought, \u2018Okay, I\u2019m going to be a pilot,\u2019\u201d Freeland said.<\/p>\n
Lakema Freeland, a mother of three and owner of two daycare centers, shared her parenting philosophy, which she said helped lead to her daughter\u2019s success in obtaining her pilot\u2019s license.<\/p>\n
She emphasized her hands-on approach, her full commitment to a child\u2019s journey and the importance of limiting screen time and encouraging reading and writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people ask, \u2018What\u2019s the secret? How did you do that?\u2019 I explain that they didn\u2019t watch TV Monday to Friday. In their spare time, I made them read books and write an essay on a chapter that they read,\u201d Freeland explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cFully committing yourself to the children is very, very important. I just created a business so that I could stay home and fully commit myself to them, and it was worth it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Also speaking at the meeting was Sophie Robinson, 16, a student pilot from Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Robinson said her family\u2019s involvement in aviation sparked her interest at a young age, explaining, \u201cIt started with my mom, who worked for Delta. I was exposed to a lot of travel and the aviation world in general at a young age. My uncle was a Marine pilot for a really long time, and then he transitioned to being a pilot for FedEx.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is currently working towards her student pilot certificate and preparing for the FAA exam. Her college aspirations include schools with strong aviation programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re looking to get into aviation, I would say do it. I think it\u2019s really rewarding, even if you\u2019re not super sure that you want to become a pilot or that you even want to be in the aviation field at all. It\u2019s worth it to try it out, because it\u2019s still really fun,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n
Shelly-Ann Edwards, program director for the Staten Island Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, said the event wasn\u2019t just about flying \u2014 it was about following your dreams.<\/p>\n
Edwards said, \u201cFrom Staten Island skies to global impact, Kamora and Sophie show our youth that dreams can take flight when you dare to lead. This event empowers our Big Kids, Tweens, and Teens to see themselves in the cockpit of possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A group of Staten Island middle school students spent Saturday afternoon with two inspiring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-77021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}