DS & Podcasthon - Skyward Dreams: How Aviation Education Propels Youth

Note: SpeakPipe is used so the variations in voice volumes will be heard. 

Welcome to our Podcasthon podcast! Podcasthon (@podcasthon_en)  is the biggest charity event in the podcasting world! It’s all about raising awareness for various charitable causes. We are honored to choose Youth Inspiration Nation Inc as our non-profit! Congratulations on your 100% success rate with the students in your program.

As part of our EDUCATION Dynamics month we share Skyward Dreams: How Aviation Education Propels Youth (and how you can support this) this free aviation education becomes a gateway to confidence, community, and future careers for underrepresented youth, featuring founder Zac and student Raphael and how your support will help it continue. We explore possibilities, unknowns, funding, and the seven-week path from simulator to first flight and why it would be great to donate!

• why we picked this charity and how aviation inspires and delivers STEM skills
• how a seven-week free program is structured
• values learned: teamwork, gratitude, discipline
• opening doors to aviation careers 
• bringing more girls into aviation and building confidence
• funding hurdles and how listeners can help

Links for the Show:

Youth Inspiration Nation website: https://inspirekids.us/

Link to donate directly:  https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/047a5029-36ef-4a18-9536-39695028ade5

(using Zeffy, they get 100% of what you donate, put '0' at 'fees' section throughout checkout. You can also change the Country to donate from most anywhere)

YIN Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aviationeducation4kids

YIN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AviationEducation4Kids

Support their mission however you can, (donate, share this podcast, know their success) and make an impact on the next generation of innovators and aviation professionals. Thank you in advance. Take care and happy flights! ✈️  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hello, our Dynamics community. It is your host, Mariana. Here to welcome you to the Dynamics Show, where personal development meets real life, daily life. On this podcast, we know there's no one

Welcome And Dynamic Life Framing

SPEAKER_00 0:29

size fits all path in life, which is why each episode is crafted for you to align with your own dynamic self on your terms. Our journey is filled with options, opportunities, and infinite possibilities. So let's uncover the reason you are here and explore what is possible together. We were invited to be part of a first charity event uniting podcasters worldwide. We get to have the podcast around helping with awareness from support of sharing this podcast so others can hear it. And just really coming together with podcasters worldwide picking their one charity and really making a difference from March 14th to the 20th. It's very exciting that our podcast dynamics show is a part of this as well. Thanks for being here to listen. This month was about our new dynamic, education dynamics, and this actually fits in perfectly with our charity. As always, I like to set the tone for our time together. It is more than just a podcast. We are here to remind you that flowing through each of one of us is this dynamic energy that is ours to use every single day. That's why the day in dynamics is capitalized, because it's a daily choice to live dynamically every day. So let's just take a moment to center ourselves, take a deep breath in and out and be fully present and listen with an open heart and mind, since we know that what we focus on expands. And a part of being dynamic is constantly changing, being open to new ideas, and knowing we are always becoming something.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

So I'll ask you a question.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Have you ever it's been going for a few years now. It started out with a smaller group and then now it's just expanded worldwide. And again, so excited. And so excited to invite our guests through Speak Pipe. I was using this application sending them questions

Charity Event And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_00 3:31

and them answering back to us.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

So let's start.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

First, I just want to tell a little bit of my backstory just so you understand why I picked the youth inspiration nation for the charity of my choice.

Mariana’s Aviation Backstory

SPEAKER_00 3:55

We were given a list of uh you know who we could pick from, and it just aligned perfectly. Since I was a little kid, I always love aviation. I always loved travel. I I loved anything that was in in movement and getting you from point A to point B and just the whole energy of keeping the flow going. So at age 15, I started working at an airport. Now, although that it was in a restaurant, I still had the ability to hear the planes leaving all the time, go out, watch them take off, come in, watch excitement of people meeting people when they first, you know, get off the plane and saw their their loved ones. Just the the absolute wonder that I had around different sizes of aircraft. And then you would see the smaller aircraft when people were learning how to fly, and just a pure joy and excitement that I had personal and up front at an early age. And so that led me into going into the travel and tourism and hotel management and transportation side of my career. I got the bug way back then. I got the opportunity before I retired to work for an airline and not only be in the aircraft flying back from place A to place B. I also oftentimes when I spent my last uh three plus years as a flight attendant, sometimes you were able to sit in the cockpit if there wasn't enough seats, as long as you had the proper authorization card. I did, and I actually got to sit several times inside the cockpit, see how the plane as you took off and you landed in between what they did, how they did it. And I would always remember that conversations that I would have when I was in that flight deck because I was always intrigued as to why they picked aviation and what their journey was to get to that point where they were flying for a commercial airline. So I heard some really great stories. And on the other side of that, anyone that's been with me on this podcast for a while knows that I created a kids program when my daughter was very well, actually I think I was pregnant with my daughter at the time. So she's been with me with it right from the beginning. And it was a kids program about empowering them, about giving them choices, about knowing their worth real early in life. And you can see that at dynamicsseries.com or kiddynamics.com. I thought bringing those two together with the youth inspiration nation, which is them offering courses to empower them more in the aviation field. Which combined two of my great loves together. So let's get to the questions that we had sent to them and get a feel for what it's all about. So the first question to Zach asked to introduce himself and share part of the program, and that we were always interested in knowing what initially inspired the creation of Youth Inspiration Nation. Because I always want to know where that passion come from, where why? And just note that we will have all the information to reach out to them, including the website, email, and a donation link at the end of this in the show notes. Welcome, Zach.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Hello, everyone. My name is Zach OneSam. I am the founder and executive director of Youth Inspiration Nation. We are a small nonprofit that teaches fifth through eighth grade students how to fly using static and

Zach’s Origin Story And Mission

SPEAKER_02 8:40

full motion flight simulators. I founded the organization in 2017, but you know, this really comes back to when I was a kid. I went to my first air show when I was seven years old. I saw the jet screaming by, and I was like, oh my gosh, I want to do that. So that stuck with me all through my childhood. And when I was 17, I was actually able to go take my very first flight lesson, and that was amazing. And from then on, I was hooked. But unfortunately, later on that year, I was the victim of a violent crime, and I was struck in the face with a baseball bat, and an eyeball popped out of my head, and it was pretty bad. It took me several years to recover from that injury. And of course, when I went and applied for the Air Force, because that's what I wanted to do, they told me that since I didn't have 2020 vision, flying a jet was not going to be something I was going to be able to do. I just moved on with life. I ended up getting married. I had a daughter. And when I was in my 30s, I decided, hey, I'm going to go and start flying helicopters. And that's what I did. I went down to tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum and I started flying with Mr. Robin Petgrave. One day we're coming back from our training flight and we're landing, and I see all these kids out in front of the hangar and I ask them, what's going on here? And I come to find out that he was running one of the first nonprofits in the country that was actually teaching kids how to fly, but he was using real aircraft. And it's an amazing program. I'm watching these kids, and all these kids are excited to be pilots. So slowly but surely I started to realize that instead of, you know, wanting to become a full-time pilot, I wanted to be like Robin. I wanted to be the person to inspire kids using aviation. And that's basically how it came to be. And I ended up stopping flying helicopters. One day I came home, my wife says, Hey babe, I'm pregnant. That was that. A couple years down the line, I ended up founding this organization, and we just never looked back. I knew if I put my heart and my soul into it, if I just dreamed bigger than the next guy, that we would create something truly special, which is exactly what we have done. I mean, we run the most unique aviation program for kids in the country, second to none. You have to come in and see it for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Thank you, Zach. I love hearing people's journeys to where they how they got from where they were to where they are now. I'm sorry that you had to have the experience. But then it just led you to what you're doing now, very passionate work with such meaning and such gifts to these students. And you can hear the passion in your voice. I'm sure that the students really appreciate that, you and everyone involved in this. So thank you very much. The next question that we sent to Zach was already answered a little bit, but I'll just share what the question was. Why choose aviation STEM as a focus for empowering underrepresented

Why Aviation STEM Inspires Youth

SPEAKER_00 12:10

and economically disadvantaged youth?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

So our program is primarily working with students from Title I schools in age ranges from nine to 14 years old. Why did we pick aviation? Because flat out aviation is inspiring. If you've ever been to an air show, it's one of those things where you hear and feel and see the power of these aircraft. And the way we teach it in our classroom, we go all the way back to the beginning. You know, we're starting with before the Wright brothers when people were building gliders and we've shown the progression of where we are now being able to launch aircraft into our solar system. So in our classroom, we teach our kids that, you know, the sky is not the limit. The sky is just the beginning. We haven't, sky hasn't been the limit since July 20th, 1969, when man first walked on the moon. So the way that we inspire these kids is showing, showing them every aspect of aviation, the jobs behind the scenes. Not everything in aviation is about being a pilot. So we want them to know about all the different jobs from ramp agent to flight attendant to aircraft mechanic. And all of these are high-paying jobs. Our classroom is very unique. It's a very unique environment. We have big screen projection and very dynamic surround sounds. So everything that we do in there, you feel it and you get to see it. When done correctly, we use that to implement all the things that these kids need to be successful. The discipline it takes to become a pilot. I always tell my kids the number one prerequisite for any of these jobs, okay, you have to go to school. You have to learn. You have to take the time. Being young is the shortest time of your life. Don't waste this time. And it seems that the way that we have put this program forward towards the kids, when our program is done, all of these kids are changed. They are different. They are stronger, they're more resilient, they have really worked on teamwork. It's a lot of work that they have to go through in our program. And by the way, our program is seven weeks long, two hours a day, Monday through Friday. We have static inflow motion flight simulators in our classroom, but we have two field trips. So our first field trip is to iFly Ontario, where it's one thing to learn about the science and the physics, but it's another thing it's in the wind tunnel, and they're flying around and they're they're feeling the aerodynamic forces all over their body. It's an eye-opener. And then our second field trip is an actual flight. So every single one of our kids has the opportunity to fly a real airplane with a certificated pilot, but he's actually a flight instructor. It's a very emotional day. They're all nervous, but they have practice and they have worked so hard in the classroom to get to this point that I have a 100% success rate. That means every kid that has completed my class has flown an airplane. And a lot of these kids, when they start the program, they're like, Mr. Zach, I'm scared of heights and other things. And we are able to work through and work past those fears. And when this program is over, they are so much stronger than when they started.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Thanks, Zach. I can relate to that when you go to an air show. Loved it. And and just being up in that aircraft, both small engine and commercial, is just there's such a freeing feeling, and it it's beautiful. So thank you for sharing the answer to that and explaining that to our audience. I'm sure the more that they understand about your charity, they will want to support and assist. There's so many moving parts. Again, working for an airline, I understand that way better now. See what he had to say.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

I joined the aviation after school program because of my dad convincing me. At first I was reluctant and didn't want to do it. But then later found out it could have been one of the best things that I've done in my life. I found new friends and I found new passions

Student Perspective On New Possibilities

SPEAKER_01 17:13

for aviation. Though I don't have a specific goal in the aviation field, this opened a bunch of doors using this program. I'm very happy for it.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Thank you so much, Raphael. I am sure that it does open a whole bunch of doors, and there's so much more to what possibilities there are now. So from there we moved over back over to Zach and asked the question how do you ensure that the program stays engaging and exciting while teaching complex aeronautical and STEM concepts to students

How The Program Stays Engaging

SPEAKER_00 17:54

of this age group?

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Let me tell you something. Two of the most difficult things in the world to do is to get and to keep a child's attention. For us to do that in our classroom, it's done through many levels. And the first one is the classroom itself. The classroom, when you walk into my classroom, it's like stepping into a different world. Everything you're just consumed with aviation, pictures, posters on the walls, the lighting, and then we have our 150-inch laser projection, uh, incredible surround sound. But then we also have our five simulators. One, six degree of freedom, full motion flight simulator, four static simulators. That means that they don't move. All those simulators were built by hand by myself. And now my simulators mimic the inside of an actual aircraft, you know, touching the knobs and everything. Every detail is there. And that's what makes our program so engaging because everything is in your face. It's unique in the fact that I don't put flight books like the training manuals in front of the kids. Everything that we do, we do on the big screen, and all the lessons that they do, they write down on a in their notebook. And I want them to write it down because it helps keep that retain that information in two different parts of the brain. And that's what we want. We want them to retain that information. Then every day is repetitive, but it's different. Every day starts off with a little movie about aviation. That's how we start our day. Our kids come in, they get their snacks, they sit down, they watch something inspiring. But that's what's beautiful about the program because things are always changing. There's new footage, new things you find on YouTube, and you bring that into the classroom. So it can always change. The music changes. Yes, there's lots of music in our class. And then when it comes time to sit down on the flight simulators, it's five students sitting down as piloting command, five students technically sitting down as co-pilots. And they get to watch each other stress out. And then, you know, about half an hour, 40 minutes in, they trade spots, and then, you know, they're flying and the other person is laughing while everything is falling apart. And that's fun too. Being able to make incredible mistakes in our classroom is also part of the fun. No harm, no foul. If we can instill some of the basics, not only are we saving future pilots time, we are saving them money as well. And we're keeping it exciting from day one to graduation day. It is a full throttle adventure. And I think my parents feel like they are long for the adventure because every day the kids come home from class and then they just go off and they got to tell them every single thing that happened. And then the parents come back and tell me, oh my God, my son or my daughter is so excited to be in your class. And that's how we know we did our job. You know, everybody's happy. When my parents leave reviews, they don't leave sentences, they leave paragraphs. They call me all the time. And I right now, I currently have, I believe, six students in flight training. The oldest is 15 years old. And these are all graduates of our program, and they are now an actual flight training. So we're pretty proud of that.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Congratulations. That's something to be proud of is having that great feedback of the students enjoying it. Sometimes we don't always like the unknown stuff, and you might be a little afraid or scared or or or nervous about things, but sometimes when they get into it and get involved, like Raphael said, the best thing that you could not even know that you needed at the time. Makes me want to go there and check it out and be in engrossed in all of that. That would be so exciting. So congratulations. So now we went back to the student Raphael and said, What does this mean to you to be in this program? And outside of the course, what other values

Lessons Beyond Flying For Students

SPEAKER_00 22:20

is it teaching you personally?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Do this program means a lot to me as it helped me make new friends that went through the same thing as me and taught me how to care for those friends along with my community. One value I learned from this program was that the things that you use in your everyday life was forged by the people before us. Take example, our pilot checklist that was made through generations of people that have suffered and learned from it. And they put all of that on a piece of paper so that we can be safe. This affects me by making me feel grateful and understanding a lot more and having a deeper connection with everything in the world. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

That sounds very evolved. I appreciate your answer and thank you for taking the time of being on this dynamic show. So how are we doing, audience? How are we doing, listeners? Isn't this interesting so far? It's just fascinating to actually see and feel and hear real life experiences of what happens just the passion that is behind it. Then like I said, the links will be down at the bottom of the show notes. The next question presented to Zach was with only 21% of the participants being female, how do you work to break the gender barriers in aviation and STEM fields? No, I don't know that personally

Bringing More Girls Into Aviation

SPEAKER_00 24:05

because it used to be a really big deal when I was a flight attendant when you had all female crew. Like they used to put it sometimes in the newspapers or internally in our airline stuff. People would take pictures of that. I really appreciate it because I was in an all-female crew once. So it was just an exciting thing. So, Zulu, Alpha, Charlie, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

One of the biggest things we're working on is really trying to get more women into aviation. When I go to these schools, we go to schools, we do presentations for hundreds of kids at a time. But when they hear aviation, it's literally a boys' club. Boys just jump up, yeah, I want to be pilots. And so when we get young ladies in the classroom, the vast majority of them are very unsure of themselves. They don't know if they can do this. They don't even know if they want to do it or if they will like it. And the truth is, they all love it. At the end of the day, they can't believe that they learned this new skill. They can read all the gauges on an airplane, they can they can talk on the radio like a pro. And that's fun. They all got to learn their phonetics, you know, Alpha Bravo, Charlie Delta Egg, all that good stuff. And they learn it all. And they feel so empowered at the end of our program. And that's why we really try and focus on getting more ladies in there. Of course, we can't force them to come on in. A lot of parents surprise their kids and be like, hey, you're in an after-school program, and that's how they find out that they're in our program. We we really need to work on getting more women in aviation. And I have a lot of people, I have teachers and retired teachers on our board of directors, and we're actively approaching more and more young ladies and saying, hey, you got to give this a shot. We show them videos of our past alumni who have gone through the program and how proud they are to have graduated, and that's gonna help.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Well, I think after those that will hear this will again feel the passion, understand what you're offering them during this program, and really introduce that. I think it is getting more open to having that, especially in the commercial side of things as well. So yeah. Let's go, young ladies. So the next question they want to get to, and I understand by creating a program myself, that sometimes there's challenges that come up. So

Funding Struggles And Staying Resilient

SPEAKER_00 26:54

the next question to Zach was what's one of the biggest challenges you faced as a nonprofit, and how have you shaped your organization's growth and resilience because of that?

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Our organization has faced some significant challenges over the past couple years as far as funding goes. When I started this program, I wanted to make sure that number one, it was completely free. I didn't want finances to be an issue why a child couldn't join our program. So I wanted to make sure that the program remained free. And in order to do that, I've had to up late, late nights writing grants. I wear every hat in our organization. And I don't, there's really not a lot of help when it comes to you know grant writing and funding. We're a small organization, we don't have money. And so I have to do it all. These last couple years have been extraordinarily brutal. I'll tell you a quick story. So K-Cal 9, they came out and did a story on us in October of 2024. Guess when that news story aired? During game one of the Dodgers World Series. So at the end of the day, nobody saw that news story. A couple people did contact us and they said, hey, you know, we want to help you out when the new year comes and our funding and our budget's reset. We're going to try and help you out a little bit. I said, All right, great. So 2025 rolls around and California is on fire. And everybody did the right thing. They reallocated their funding to the people who needed it most, but we just never recovered from that void. Every month it feels like we're going to have to close our doors. And so funding is the number one thing that we have to work on. I need to find somebody who can help me fundraise more effectively, or I need to find bigger partners. That's why we're appreciative that we have the opportunity to do this podcast with you, because we want people to hear what we do. And we want people to know how hard we have worked to bring this to our community and how much we have sacrificed. And I mean on a personal level, I have really sacrificed my personal finances all to keep this nonprofit running. And, you know, even my family agrees. We have built something that is so special, we can't believe that we're fighting this hard to keep it open. But we know that one day something big is going to happen and our program is going to take off. And hopefully we can get this program reproduced and in classrooms nationwide.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Wow, yes. I hear your challenges and I understand some of them on a different level. And yes, I love that vision of nationwide. And we uh have to hold on to visions that we have and know that it will unfold in perfect time. Now you know that we have to ask Raphael, the student, what is his biggest challenge around this that he's had to overcome.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

The biggest challenge I had to overcome in this aviation program was flying the real plane. I was an expert in the aviation simulations. And when it came to actually doing it in real life, I was scared. I had a fear of planes at the time, and I was

Facing Fear On A Real Flight

SPEAKER_01 30:34

really nervous. So I eventually went on the plane and I eventually flew it. And once I finally took off, it was all the stress and all of the nervousness went away as I saw the beautifulness of the sky and the ground down under. And I I would do it again every time. And it's one of the best lessons I've learned in my life. I love that. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

It's that unknown moments that we could have in any part of our life, but especially going to fly a plane. And I think that's a that's a pretty awesome example and and how you overcame the challenge by just going through it.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Now we're gonna go back to Zach for our last question.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

So we are posting your website and link to donate to this program. How else can our listeners support your program along the way? We really appreciate your heartfelt personal

How To Support And Closing Challenge

SPEAKER_00 31:41

experiences and people I know for myself can really feel through you sharing what it means to you guys.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

So how can we help?

SPEAKER_02 31:56

If you're interested in learning more about our program, please check us out on Instagram or Facebook at Aviation Education, the number four kids, aviation education for kids. Check out our website at inspirekids.us. And please, if you guys have it in you, please donate. I believe that you guys will have the link to our Zeffi platform. Zefi is absolutely amazing. Whatever you donate, we get 100% of that donation. And when you check out, if you don't want to pay fees for your donation, you don't have to do that either. You could just click other, click zero, and you just pay your donation and we get 100% of it. I hope you could hear how hard and how much love and work that we put into this program. So please reach out to us if you'd like on our social media and please donate on Zefi. We appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Yes, thank you, Zach. We do feel that and hear it. And again, all of the information of how to reach them, social media platforms, donation link will all be in the show notes. Thanks very much for that. Now that wraps up our episode. We are so happy that we got to do that. We thank both Zach and Raphael and everyone involved in that non-profit youth inspiration nation.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

And we know and wish you all the best.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Now, listeners, just take a minute to reflect around how they're living a dynamic life every day on the subject of education dynamics. That part of their education is so dynamic and so interesting, and just having that opportunity to share both that is very I'm very honored, and I'm was very honored, and we were very honored to be invited to podcast on. Thank you, thank you, thank you on all levels. So what now? We challenge you to take action, share this episode with someone, and explore our past recordings to keep the discussion alive. Your dynamic journey never ends here. There's so much more waiting for you. We invite you to follow, subscribe, share, support, shift, and go to dynamicshow.info or dynamicsseries.com to dive into some of our resources as well. Keep in mind all materials on the show are copyrighted and are meant for informational purposes only. So again, thank you, thank you, thank you for our guest on, for the invitation to be part of this, for everyone involved that's made this happen, and for us being able to share our passion with you as well. Align with your dynamic well being every day and make it a dynamic day. Thanks so much. Bye for now.