Tailwinds Academy of Aviation<\/a>.<\/p>\n“I’m getting one step closer to becoming what I want to be,” Suarez said in 2020.<\/p>\n
![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pkg-wb-stl-tailwinds-academy-frame-459.jpg#.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a0Jonathan Suarez<\/p>\n
CBS Philadelphia<\/p>\n
Tailwinds Academy of Aviation was founded by Howard Cooper in 2019. The nonprofit introduces young people to careers in aviation and helps them see opportunities they may have never imagined.<\/p>\n
“We saw this opportunity to use aviation to open doors for young people,” Cooper said.<\/p>\n
With support from the School District of Philadelphia, Suarez became one of the program’s first students to begin flight training. Now, he is helping other students follow the same path.<\/p>\n
“As a first-generation American, it stuck with me how aviation connected people worldwide,” Suarez said.<\/p>\n
Cooper said the program is about more than flying planes. Students must be accepted into the program and maintain their grades, learning discipline, responsibility and confidence along the way.<\/p>\n
“The knowledge that they have succeeded at something very few people have,” Cooper said. “Self-confidence that I can do this.”<\/p>\n
For Suarez, that confidence helped change the course of his life.<\/p>\n
![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pkg-wb-stl-tailwinds-academy-frame-651.jpg#.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Jonathan Suarez (right) working on a plane with a fellow student<\/p>\n
CBS Philadelphia<\/p>\n
“I went from being that kid in Philadelphia to being a professional pilot,” Suarez said.<\/p>\n
Recently, Eagles cornerback and new Philadelphian Jonathan Jones, who is also a pilot and plane owner, stopped by Tailwinds Academy to encourage students to chase their dreams and remind them their future has no limits.<\/p>\n
For Suarez and the students following behind him, Tailwinds Academy is proof that with the right opportunity, big dreams can take off.<\/p>\n
\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n
In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At just 20 years old, Jonathan Suarez is already a certified pilot and flight instructor. For Suarez, operating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,7523],"class_list":["post-213641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-spreading-the-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}