[00:00:00] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network, produced by off the Walter media.
[00:00:10] Sheryl: Welcome to hearts of gold. Today we have pepper with us. Hi pepper.
[00:00:15] Pepper: Hi.
[00:00:16] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:19] Pepper: I started my gold award project. I think like the senior, my senior year of high school And around like the fall.
[00:00:26] So basically what the intention was is to bring aviation into my community for young women. So I started flying when I was about 10 years old through a program called the Experimental Aircraft Association which is a predominantly male program that consisted of like a lot of older gentlemen that were like giving opportunities for young people to get a chance in an aircraft and to see what that’s like.
[00:00:50] And so when I was 10, I took my first flight with the A. A. And it was a super cool experience. I always, it’s really cheesy, but I like to say, like, it was my love at first flight or whatever. So that basically, like, really ignited a passion for aviation. And so I continued in that program. And I, you know, really, my, my parents were super supportive and I joined the civil air patrol as well.
[00:01:15] But a lot of those programs are being male dominated. And so, as a part of my, and I didn’t really have any, like, female role models as a young, like, pilot, especially, like, when I, in my teen and, like, when I started flight training when I was 15 and so, I wanted to give young women in my community, like, an opportunity To number one, get introduced to aviation.
[00:01:35] And number two like develop resources and like meet a woman, pilot and other woman pilots. ’cause not only me, but I also brought in some women from my community, which I’ll talk about to talk to the girls as well. So in order to do this, I coed a series of three workshops. In different areas around my community, which was Southwest Florida.
[00:01:55] So I’m from Fort Myers. And so I hosted programs one workshop in Fort Myers, one workshop in Naples, and then one workshop in Punta Gorda. I know those were all like 30 minutes from each other, an hour or so. And so I wanted to move to different areas to like you know, expose different young women and, you know, try to reach as big of an area as I could.
[00:02:17] These workshops were about like half a day. Where the girls did a variety of programs. I taught a lot of the lessons were led by me. So I taught them about, like basics of flight for forces aerodynamics, Bernoulli’s principle, like, how lift works tell them about the parts of the aircraft flight, how to flight plan, and then, like, how to get their pilot’s license and or, like, the 1st steps.
[00:02:41] And then we did a couple activities. For example, 1 of the programs. Or each of the workshops, there was like, they got to build their own airfoil, which is pretty cool. So they got to like, use some word working, like tools, and they got to like, build their own airfoil, which is basically just like a cross section of a wing.
[00:02:58] So they got to build that. They got to flight plan themselves. They walked them through how to, you know, plan a flight from KFNY to like, Okay. And like, how far that was, how much fuel you need which is a lot, a lot of the kids, because they range from like anywhere. I think my youngest was like 10, although I aimed for like middle to high school students, but I think I did have a 10 year old that one of mine.
[00:03:22] It was a little bit, Much for a lot of those younger kids, but, you know, they still did it. And I think it was a great learning experience. And so, yeah, just like a variety of activities as well. And then I brought in some women speakers in my community, for example, from the 99s, which is a all women’s organization, which I’m a part of.
[00:03:40] And so I brought some of my colleagues from there and they talked about their experience, how they got into aviation anywhere from like corporate, you know, pilots, commercial pilots to like private pilots and just people who fly for fun. So yeah. And I like giving that, that range as well. So I had those three workshops and then I had a, what I call a fly day.
[00:03:59] I can go into this more later in the podcast, but. The Girl Scouts used to have a aviation program that got discontinued due to like, several reasons that aren’t really explained very well, but mostly legality issues. And in that program, they actually could, Girl Scouts could fly in these aircraft and like, get their pilot’s license, which is pretty cool.
[00:04:21] Obviously regulations change, you know, the FAA is now a thing, which is the Federal Aviation Administration. So a lot of more, a lot more roadblocks in the way. But I partnered with the 99s, which again is an all women’s pilot organization Paradise Coast 99s, which is the chapter in my area. I partnered with them and some of my pilot colleagues like my mentor, his name is Bob DiGello incredible man, he’s great.
[00:04:44] So I had a couple of my 99s friends and him. Take some of my girls up flights. So overall, I think about, like, 40 girls in total what attended the workshops and about 30 of them got to go to the fly day and got to experience being a small aircraft. So and again, that’s what really got me started in the whole aviation thing.
[00:05:04] So I think exposing them to that was just cool to begin with, because I think that’s really like where you see a few, you Or into aviation and I was like, you’ve got to be in the plane, you know but yeah, and so those were like, that was the hands on aspect of my project. And then aside from that, I also created in a petition and a advocacy letter, a proposal, basically, for GSUSA or the Girl Scouts of the USA, and that basically just outlined why I believe that there should be more aviation oriented programs in Girl Scouting.
[00:05:31] Because we have other programs like cyber security. We have a very little engineering actually, but we do have engineering. We have a tech. We have coding. We have chemistry, science, and they’re really big advocates for stem and business and everything and exploring different career paths. But aviation is just 1.
[00:05:51] that was kind of neglected. Even though it was, you know, a program in the past, so I basically outlined an advocacy letter of why I think that they should reinstate such a program or at least have an aviation badge, you know, that maybe doesn’t like explicitly, you know isn’t having roles like cross have liable for any flights.
[00:06:10] But it’s encouraging young women to like explore that career opportunity. So that was like basically the entirety of my project. A lot of aspects, all the components, but yeah, it was definitely something that I was really passionate about aviation. I’m a pilot, so that was definitely like what propelled me to do this project, but, and it was super awesome seeing all the girls and how interested they were in all of the concepts and activities that we did.
[00:06:35] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your experience in how you first started taking pilot lessons, what it was like when you did that first solo and got your official license and up till where you are now, because you just got another certification recently?
[00:06:56] Pepper: And again, neither my pilot, excuse me, neither of my parents are pilots.
[00:06:59] So it was really just like a weird, like one off thing that I did. And, but my parents are super supportive. So I took that first flight. When I was 10, I loved it. It was amazing. I felt like, you know when we took off, I could, I could feel my stomach kind of rise, you know, or like butterflies because of like how cool it was.
[00:07:17] And it was just like a crazy, crazy experience that I was never used to, you know, you don’t just normally go over a plane. And so, but again, it was like a mix of scared and like, you know, Excited and nervous. It was like a lot of things, but I knew that this is like something that I was really, that was super cool as a 10 year old.
[00:07:35] And I was like, this is pretty sick. And so again, like I said my parents encouraged me to continue with this and that they’ve always been encouraging, which was awesome growing up. Especially since I didn’t have many female mentors until I was older. I joined EAA. I joined civil air patrol, which is, which is a more military based program.
[00:07:54] Cause one of my options was. Going into the Naval Academy or like the military to pursue aviation, which is a great option. It just didn’t end up being for me. However, I started with Civil Air Patrol. I worked my way up in the ranks really quick in that. And I was able to attend like Glider Academy, which is a program in the Northeast region which is in like Vermont.
[00:08:14] Area. And so I got to fly I got a scholarship for that, which I got to fly for like a Glider, which is a non-powered plane. So again, a lot of super cool opportunities in those kind of programs. And EA again, I got another small scholarship to go to, like a camp that was like aviation based in Lakeland, Florida.
[00:08:30] So yeah, a lot of small programs that like kind of propelled me, kept, kept me going. And then when I was 15 you, you can get your pod license since at 17. And so that’s, like, the youngest you can be when you obtain your like, powered license. And so power single engine. And so when I was 15, I decided that I wanted to start training officially because a mentor of mine, as I mentioned before, his name is Bob.
[00:08:53] I met him through the Experimental Aircraft Association, and so he was basically mentoring me from, like, the age of 12 to, like, And he was like flying with me pretty regularly. He had like a small single engine, like really tiny aero truck, which is a light sport plane, super light, fiberglass windows.
[00:09:11] So like entire doors, like glass or like fiberglass. It’s super beautiful aircraft, but he was basically mentoring me, not teaching me the basics. And then I started flight training when I was 15. One big barrier for me was finances. Cause actually, I mean, it does not come from money or anything.
[00:09:28] So I applied for a lot of scholarships to try to like, you know, allow me to pursue this. And I ended up getting a scholarship through AOPA, which is the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. And it was specifically for high school students, which is pretty cool. And so that was in 10, 000.
[00:09:45] And so I was able to put all of that towards my private pilot trying again, I didn’t do it in high school. So like, that was also really hard doing it while I’m studying and, you know, in difficult classes because I’m also an engineering major at college. So I wanted to go into engineering, like, yeah, I just, it was a lot but I switched to dual enrollment, which is like college classes in high school.
[00:10:09] So at my local, like state college. And so I was able to do that and fly. My first solo was for your first solo, basically, all you do is you take off solo being you fly by yourself for the first time you take off, you do three laps in the pattern, which is just like you do a box around the runway, and then you come back in the land.
[00:10:30] And that’s like, that’s it. And so I thought it was super cool. It felt really weird being in the plane by myself. It felt lighter, right? Cause you have one person than if two. And so yeah, just like a super surreal experience. It’s also like a big confidence booster, because like, I was scared that, you know, like, am I going to be able to do this like on my own, despite all the training that I had and I had a lot of roadblocks leading up to my solo, like, there’s this one part of landing that I was having a really hard time with, called the flare, which is like right before you land, you have to pull back on the on the yoke a little bit, and then you touch down so that your front wheel doesn’t hit, because the front wheel is really fragile basically, on like small aircraft.
[00:11:06] very much. And I had a really hard time with that. So my solo was kind of nerve wracking. So it’s like, can I do this? Like, am I good enough? I did it and it was fine. And it went great actually. So, and then you can do a couple more things to achieve your palatizing. So you do your solo, your cross country solo.
[00:11:25] Which is like 50 miles or more. Which that was good story because it was very windy that day and I probably shouldn’t have flown, but I did. And it was super good learning experience. But that was every nerve wracking. So I did solo cross country solo. And then when, when I was certified by my, by my instructor to take my exam, you take an oral portion, which is like sit down like they test you on like scenario based stuff and like knowledge.
[00:11:53] And then you take a practical. And before those 2, you had to take a written exam. So it’s a lot of like exams at the end. And so, and it’s basically the format for all of it, for all of your pilot license and ratings and stuff. So yeah. And I even failed my first practical exam because I was so nervous.
[00:12:12] And I had to retake a portion of my practical. Definitely a lot of roadblocks in the way when I was getting my pilot license, but I eventually did it at 17. A couple of months after my birthday, which is pretty cool. So freshly 17 and I was able to complete it in March of 2021. I think I think either 20 2022.
[00:12:31] I think it was 1 because I was a junior in high school. Yeah, and then recently I completed my instrument flight rating, which is basically an add on certification that allows me to fly in inclement weather. So, like, in clouds, rain, fog, low visibility, that kind of thing. And so that is a rating, that’s actually one of the harder readings in aviation because the, it’s a lot more information.
[00:13:01] And it’s a separate trial mean. Like your basic private pilot license information. So it’s like all new and it’s all like supplemental to all the stuff you learned in your private pilot training. So like you do all of it, like without being able to see outside. So super crazy stuff. But I took that exam this past summer.
[00:13:21] When I was in Alabama, because I was at space camp as a camp counselor for their aviation program. So I did that at the same time, which is pretty cool. But yeah, so I love flying and I’m glad that I’m grateful that I still get to do it. Mostly with the help of like scholarships and just like sheer willpower.
[00:13:40] Because I think a big misconception about aviation is like, and that’s the thing that I tried to introduce to the girls that I was teaching was like, Aviation is much more than just flying. It’s also really big academically. You need to study to like, have a lot of grit academically so that you can memorize, study, and like, be able to comprehend, like, pretty advanced concepts about weather, about The mechanics of the engine about electrical systems and like be able to analyze maths and yeah, there’s a lot going into it, a lot more than just flying the plane, but flying the plane is the fun part.
[00:14:20] Sheryl: I’m really glad that you brought up the scholarships. Not only is flying itself an expensive hobby, in addition, I believe I understand that because you have this interest and because you’re a female pilot, and like you’ve said, there’s not as many female pilots and the work that you’ve done with your gold award and just all your training that you did before you graduated high school, you are eligible for other scholarships.
[00:14:49] So can you talk to us both about how. I mean, you talked a little bit about like some of your camp scholarships and such, but can you talk about the costs that go into your training and then the opportunities even outside of the scholarships that you got directly for those trainings and where, where it’s taking you?
[00:15:09] Pepper: Aviation is so expensive. That’s why it’s predominant, like a lot of the men that I was surrounded, were people I was surrounded by. Growing up in like pursuing this field or either career pilots that like are going strictly towards commercial aviation. Like they did it out of high school, they took out loans and that’s what they want, like that’s directly what they want to do, which is a great path or they’re retired pilots who people who had a career, retired, had money and then use that to get their path.
[00:15:39] Like at an older age, that’s what a lot of the EAA gentlemen were which they were great mentors, but they were not young women in high school pursuing their path. So definitely way different demographic for sure. Which is why it was hard for you. Cause I didn’t really know, like, can I do it this young?
[00:15:58] Like nobody else around me is doing it this young. Like, is this okay? Like, is this normal? Am I doing anything wrong? You know? And that’s why the 99s is super important to me is because it was just like a lot of younger women and older women, but people who had completely different career paths, different lives.
[00:16:16] A lot of them were just either just recreational pilots or they were career pilots. A lot of a good mix. So yeah, super diverse group of women. It was great. And they also had a lot of scholarships. There’s, and there’s tons out there. My pilot pilot license, since I’ve been in high school, it took quite a while because I was it took about a year and a half for me to complete it.
[00:16:36] Again, I had a lot of roadblocks and I also had a lot of, like, mental blocks, just like, because I was a teenager, and, like, again, I was doing school and, like, a lot of different extracurriculars and stuff. So it was hectic. In total, my past exams was about 16, 000, which is a lot. And again, 10 of that was from the AOPA scholarship.
[00:16:55] 10, 000 which was gifted to me. And then I have another, like, it’s a weird scholarship called Jack Kent Cooke, the Jack Kent Cooke Youth Foundation, and they helped pay for the other 6, 000. And that’s basically just like a program that allows, I got it when I was in seventh grade and basically like allowed me to pursue different extracurriculars towards like, My collegiate application.
[00:17:19] So, so basically they helped me look good for college is what it is basically. And so, and then like sponsored things as a student in high school, which is great program. I also highly recommend that for anyone who’s younger, like 7th grade or does have a college scholarship as well. And then a little bit was out of my parents in my own pocket by far completely out of my own pocket.
[00:17:42] Which honestly, because I didn’t think it alone. So, but a lot of people do, you know? So again, for any like young people watching loans are scary, like money is scary, look for the scholarships. Cause there are so many, especially for women and especially for young high school women, especially those like introductory, like pilot pilot instrument rating, they love to see young women and they love to see who are eager and they love to see women who.
[00:18:11] Like, have goals in mind, like career aspirations right now, I think I would be an engineer, but with like, that teaches people how to fly, so like, kind of like a side hustle thing, like as a certified flight instructor, but for a long time, I wanted to be a commercial pilot and for a while, I even wanted to go into the military.
[00:18:29] That was a crazy trajectory, but, and obviously it changes at least for me it did, but yeah but there’s also opportunities like military that will pay for your pilot’s license, will pay for you to get all that but in return you just have to, you know, do a certain amount of time in service.
[00:18:47] Which I think is a decent trade off and since I got my POS license so young, I felt like I don’t have to redo all of that in pilot training for the military. So, which I didn’t really love but I, I think especially if you’re like an older, you know, high schooler who wants to go into the military or you see that as a trajectory for you, then getting your POS license through the military is a great option.
[00:19:09] And you can fly fighter jets, you can fly cargoes, it’s great. Yeah, they have a good gig out, a good gig out there for sure.
[00:19:16] Sheryl: You’ve talked a lot about how much you had to balance during your high school. How did you do that balancing act?
[00:19:27] Pepper: I was just used to it from a young age, because I was a very ambitious middle schooler and a very ambitious elementary schooler.
[00:19:33] And I had a very ambitious mom and dad who wanted the best for me. I was a very extroverted kid. And so, I loved talking to people. I loved being, I loved doing everything. I was really interested in everything. I was even like, when I was little, I didn’t like to dance and cheer for a while. I did cheer until I was like 11.
[00:19:51] And then I did theater for a lot of my life and I did aviation and I did cheer and lacrosse in high school. And yeah, so. I was very involved, but I think a lot of it was number one, my Google calendar. I love my Google calendar. And then I get a big part of like my junior and senior year, which were super busy was like knowing what priorities I wanted.
[00:20:12] And then also switching to don’t romance, at least for me with a big deal, because then I had, I only had like a couple of classes a day, like two, two to three a day. And I had that morning time and I had the evening time where I could go to school, do extra papers, or I could fly really early in the way.
[00:20:27] Or I’d be fine on weekends as well. It was really difficult, but I don’t regret it at all. I don’t regret pushing myself because I feel like that also prepared me really well for college. Because I do a lot here at Rice as well. I attend Rice University in Houston, Texas. And. As I said, I’m an engineering major, but I also want to do like astrophysics as well, which is super interesting to me.
[00:20:47] And I’m on the bike team and I’m still trying to fly a little bit. You know, I’m trying to be involved in my like residential college. So like there’s a lot going on, but definitely like that perseverance and like motivation I had in high school definitely helped me here. Because again, it was like time management and my Google calendar and like, but it was also how much I wanted it.
[00:21:09] And like, the grit and the motivation that got me there, because like, I definitely had goals and I really wanted to achieve them. So that definitely helped as well.
[00:21:23] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your conversations with GSUSA and getting aviation back into Girl Scouts? What you did during your project and then where that is at today?
[00:21:36] Pepper: I had a meeting with programming actually, because I sent my puzzle to them with the petition that I created and took a while. I decided to a couple different people to get a response, but then actually set up a meeting with me with their program council, which is pretty cool and or, like, their curriculum council as well.
[00:21:55] And basically what they said in that meeting was. Number one, there’s a lot of logistical, like, legal stuff that goes into that which I understand from a, like, aviation standpoint, because, of course, like, aviation is a big liability. There’s people on planes, of course and, like, especially young children, that, that is definitely a concern.
[00:22:15] However, they, they do have a lawyer that they’re talking to right now and Deputy handles a lot of those legal things. And it looks like it’s just more of like a battle of seeing if it’s possible for Girl Scouts to like, be able to sponsor those type of activities, because then Girl Scouts will be liable for anything that happens like under their programming.
[00:22:36] However, I think I definitely advocated that there should still be some sort of aviation badge that encourages girls to pursue those opportunities and like connects them with resources like the 99s, like EAA, like Civil Air Patrol. Because right now there’s not, and there’s councils that are encouraging us and like there’s partnerships with the Women in Aviation International or WAI which is, which is great.
[00:23:02] But I feel like there’s not enough in itself. And so that’s what I was basically advocating for in that meeting. And they’re definitely making progress on it. They said that they project sometime between 2025 and 2030 that they expect to have a bad release or some sort of programming for aviation. But again, it’s a lot of like, with Girl Scouting, there’s a lot of, like, small committees that things have to go through to be approved, especially for like, big badges like that and like, additions to their curriculum.
[00:23:36] So, Unfortunately, it is a while before something like that is created. But again, there are a lot of, like, councils that are making patches and programming within themselves to encourage aviation. Like, in the San Jacinto Council here in Houston, they had an aviation day at the Lone Star Museum. And I had the pleasure of, they invited me out there.
[00:23:58] I connected with them and they invited me out there to talk to some of their kids who were at that program, which were all, like, middle to high school age girls, which was really awesome. It and some even younger, and I got to talk with him about, you know, what got me into aviation and why it’s such a great career field and why they should pursue it, and basically how I got there.
[00:24:15] But it’s those kind of councils who are doing those patch programs and like, encouraging it now, it’s awesome. And I hope that GSUSA in the near future can follow in those councils footsteps.
[00:24:28] Sheryl: Do you have any special memories from when you were working on your gold award project?
[00:24:33] Pepper: Fly day. That was definitely really awesome.
[00:24:35] The girls were super excited. I didn’t, I think that they didn’t really know what to expect. I also had a lot of young women at the fly day who wanted to like sign up for IACRA, which is a program that it’s like the federal aviation program that allowed them to Like, get, and get approved for their student pilot certificate, which allowed me to start training.
[00:24:55] So, there’s a lot of girls who were like, super eager about that, and I loved it, but I loved collaborating with the 99s on that, that was awesome. I got to see all of my like, awesome lady pilot friends, they were all great. But yeah, definitely seeing those kids, like, get in the plane and come back and be like, have the light in their eyes that I did, you know, when I first went out.
[00:25:13] So that was definitely awesome. And also getting that opportunity to meet with the program council and the curriculum council at GSUSA. Because I think this. awesome to like see that they were actually like serious about it, you know, and they actually wanted to talk to me and not just like, oh, they see an email and they’re like, okay, you know, like, oh, whatever.
[00:25:31] It was like, they actually care, you know, and they want to create those kinds of programs, but I understand that it just takes time. But that was definitely super awesome getting to meet with them.
[00:25:40] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:25:43] Pepper: It was definitely a time commitment.
[00:25:46] I probably spent over 120 hours on my project when the minimum was 80. Because I wanted, I wanted to make it really engaging and comprehensive for the kids, for the workshops. And so that went into a lot of, like, we created, like, we laminated, like, sectional maps and we printed out stuff and we I connected with different organizations.
[00:26:03] I had to contact all of the The FBOs to make sure that I could use their facilities, like the airport facilities, to like host these events. So yeah, definitely like the prep was definitely difficult and making the time and like blocking out how much time everything was going to take. Because it was such a time consuming project but it was super rewarding as well.
[00:26:23] So I don’t, I don’t regret at all any of the time that was put into it. I loved every second of it, but a lot of like the cutting and laminating got a little tedious. So I think definitely just reminding myself of what like the end goal was and, you know, who this was going to affect and like, you know, young women could get inspired to pursue aviation like I did.
[00:26:42] Sheryl: What else would you like to share with the audience?
[00:26:44] Pepper: To try everything, to get a little taste of a bunch of different career paths I think one thing that, because if I had never been exposed to aviation, I would probably be on like a medical track or something which I know that I would not have enjoyed.
[00:26:58] I regret, even now in college, that I’m not, that I have, because I’ve been on, since I started aviation, I’ve like been on that like very narrow path. But now in college, I’m able to experience different, I’m able to take different classes like philosophy and like, you know, a religion class, or I think I took, I’m taking a psychology class right now, you know, so being able to experiment in that way, and I’m finding that I have, that I’m interested in psychology and like the study of the brain, but like, I didn’t, I was still like focused on aviation and like engineering for a while.
[00:27:36] They’re like tasting other paths wasn’t really like an option, but I’d say definitely sample everything because again, I didn’t get in the, in the aviation and was until my mom and I like went to a meeting and flew and I flew a plane for the first time. Like, it’s very spontaneous, but I think take those spontaneous risks, you know and try new things because you’ll never know what you might end up pursuing is like an actual path.
[00:28:01] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:28:02] Pepper: I always burn my marshmallows. I want black on the outside with two nice thick grain factors and a nice thick piece of chocolate. Sometimes Reese’s.
[00:28:13] Sheryl: Well, thank you for joining us today.
[00:28:15] Pepper: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so happy to be on here.
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[00:28:24] Power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:28:28] Walter: Thank you for listening. If you’d like to be on the show to share your story of how you earned your gold award, reach out and send an email to growandshare@outlook.com
[00:28:39] be sure to catch up on our previous shows on any of your favorite podcasting platforms, as well as view the full video versions at youtube.com/SherylMRobinson.
[00:28:51] Thanks again for listening. And we’ll see you next time.