Nearly 200 eighth graders from five different surrounding counties attended the STEM/STEAM Aviation/Avionics Day hosted by South Georgia Technical College and Chattahoochee-Flint RESA on the SGTC Americus campus.
South Georgia Technical College is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and aviation maintenance was one of the first programs offered at the South Georgia Trade and Vocational School when it opened in 1948. South Georgia Technical College is the site of the longest continuously operating aviation maintenance training facility in the United States. It was first operated as such in 1917 by the army air corps and since then the grounds have been used to train World War I and World War II pilots and mechanics and others through today.
The SGTC history and the aviation maintenance and avionics fields were highlighted during the 8th grade STEM/STEAM day activities held on the SGTC Americus campus. Students from Furlow Charter School, Schley, Macon, Webster, and Crisp counties were all in attendance at the event.
Jamie Guined, a South Georgia Technical College Aviation Maintenance graduate, who works at Embraer of Macon, and Laine Lee of AirMedCare were the featured speakers during the introduction session of the event.
Students started the day in the John M. Pope Industrial Technology Center, then toured the Griffin B. Bell Aerospace Center and were allowed to sit in the cockpit of planes and learn more about how they operate. Students built rockets and were allowed to launch them upon completion. Students also had their photos made with the Navy P-2 plane at the front of the SGTC campus.
“This was a great event,” said Heidi Gooden of Chattahoochee Flint RESA. She and Michele McGowan, Business and Industry Services Director for the SGTC Crisp County Center, coordinated the event with the help of other SGTC staff, the SGTC aviation and avionics instructors and individuals from Chattahoochee Flint RESA.
