Yewon Lee has been recognized as the 2022 WMU Presidential Scholar representing the College of Aviation. On April 8th, 2022, she was one of just 50 scholars who were chosen from a class of over 5,000 seniors to receive the Presidential Scholar designation. This is the highest academic honor that WMU can bestow upon its undergraduates.

Christopher Myrick can offer salient advice to young folks who bury their faces in a video game or cell phone when on a family vacation by car. They might be missing some valued and career-shaping experiences. Just ask the 2014 graduate of Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti, Mich. "Growing up," Myrick says, "I would constantly be driven past the Detroit metro airport to see my grandmother in Detroit. I remember always looking up and seeing the planes fly over (interstate highway) I-94 to land. They were so big and it always fascinated me."

Keaton Jeffrey is among the very few WMU College of Aviation students who not only fixes airplanes, he jumps out of them.  Or at least he soon will be.  The sophomore majoring in aviation technical operations joined the WMU Skydive Broncos shortly after arriving on campus.  "I wanted to get out of my comfort zone," Jeffrey says, "and jumping out of planes was the best way for me to do that." 

Philip Kroll's life experiences fly in the face of author Thomas Wolfe's premise in his novel "You Can't Go Home Again." Not so for Kroll, a 2010 graduate of the WMU College of Aviation with a degree in aviation management and operations.  He has -- in effect -- come "home" as the assistant director of the Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field, which is also the home base of the College of Aviation.  And he returned to his career's genesis with some impressive credentials. 

From disc jockey to throttle jockey to -- maybe -- desk jockey to stunt jockey.  Welcome to the career path of one Helen Hoffman. Now in her senior year at the Western Michigan University College of Aviation, Hoffman is pursuing a double major in aviation flight science and aviation management and operations -- with a minor in general business spliced into her academics.

Pilot-spouses Katie and Aaron Mohnke (pronounced Monk) might assess their aviation careers so far as being "the best of times and the worst of times" -- with a majority emphasis on the former.  Since their graduation from the WMU College of Aviation with degrees in aviation flight science in 2016 and 2015, respectively, there has been a period or two when they wore the same airline uniform; but other times -- including right now -- they have been flying for different enterprises. 

College of Aviation students who share class time with Charles Helmer receive a bonus in their instructional knowledge and perspectives. So do the folks in the front of the classroom or lab. Helmer, a senior majoring in aviation technical operations, is able to offer what he learned about the profession during his five-year stint in the Marine Corps and what he is currently being exposed to on the payroll of nearby Duncan Aviation.