Tag Archives: women ambassador

Springing into the Semester & Meet Maddie!

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Happy spring semester all!

I would like to begin my first blog by introducing myself! I am from Castle Rock, Colorado (in-between Denver and Colorado Springs) and a sophomore studying Aviation Business here at Riddle! My passion in life is traveling, hence why this is the perfect school for me! On campus I am in the Honors program, an RA (Resident Advisor) in the New Residence Hall for the Honors Living and Learning Community, Associate Justice on the Student Government Student Court, secretary for Women in Aviation, ambassador for Women Ambassadors, a Business Eagles member, student assistant in the Office of Development, ambassador for the Orientation Team, a sister in the sorority Theta Phi Alpha, and now, a student blogger! Needless to say, I keep busy on campus!

With all this involvement comes a lot of time management practice. This time of year we are all rebooting since our schedules have changed so much! The past few weekends I have spent in training or at retreats. I love that the activities you partake in during college are mainly student-run. All organizations must have an advisor, but the students run the show! During RA training all meals are catered, so a lot of good food (even though you have to come back a week early from break)! Since RAs are meant to be a resource for students, we do a fall and spring training to keep the most up-to-date and as reliable as possible. The Student Government Association and my sorority also held retreats. Good food is provided here too, of course!

One of my favorite things about being on campus is all the activities that we have! Clubs range from skydiving — to the Microgravity Club that is currently working on a project with NASA! There is truly an activity for everyone to get involved with. Not only does this help your resume, but it’s a great way to make friends and take a break from school. Not sure what clubs to join? There is an Activities Fair in both the fall and spring where the campus is teeming with students checking out what all clubs have to offer!

While the activities are fun and all, classes have also begun. It is always a little nerve-racking to start again, but our professors are so interesting! One of my professors is an attorney and another was in airline marketing before changing over to teaching! I have learned lots about long-haul low-cost airlines and alliance codeshares in the past week. Learning things like this make going to my 8 am a lot easier!

I hope everyone is starting their semesters off strong!

– Maddie

Theta Phi Alpha

Women Ambassador

Orientation Team

Business Eagles at a Southwest Camp

Women in Aviation Tour

Women in Aviation Conference

 

 

 

Spotlight: Women’s Ambassador Program

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As some of you may know from my previous blog posts, I am a member of the Women’s Ambassador Program at the Daytona Beach campus. The Women’s Ambassador Program is a program which is underneath the Admissions Office. Our mission is to encourage young girls to become interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), as well as support women who are planning on attending, and already attend ERAU. We accomplish this mission through several different activities.

One of our passions is to help younger girls to become interested in aviation, science, and engineering. We realize that those fields are male-dominated, and want to encourage girls to strive for their dreams, even if they think that they are “boy jobs”. Throughout the year, we go to local schools to host events for the students. At these events we have the kids participate in activities that utilize science. Last year, we had them make catapults, and then had a competition for whose catapult could get the marshmallow the furthest. The kids really enjoyed the friendly competition, as well as getting to create their own mechanism. Earlier this year we went to a Girl Scouts event in Boston, where we made Goo for the girls to play with. They were all very interested in how it was made, and how they could create their own at home. It’s events like these, where we get to interact with children, that really motivate me to continue to be a Women’s Ambassador. I love to see young girls get excited about STEM fields.

In order to encourage women to attend ERAU, we reach out to accepted high school seniors. We do this by calling them once a week, as well as emailing them in the spring. During the months that we get to communicate with the girls, we learn a lot about them. Our job is to be a mentor or a big sister for each girl, so that they feel comfortable coming to ERAU. We want everyone to feel welcome, so we create friendships with the women, and meet them when they get to campus in the fall. This is one of the most rewarding parts of the role, since you feel a sense of pride when a girl you talked to makes the decision to attend Riddle. It is an even better feeling when you get to see them everyday on campus once they start classes. I see a few of my students from last year around campus, and it makes me happy to know that they are doing well, and enjoying ERAU.

Another way we are able to encourage women to attend ERAU is through Admissions events. We travel with the Admissions team to different ERAU receptions around the country, talking to the prospective students. I love that I am able to interact with students and their parents on a face-to-face level. The passion for the industry, that the prospective students have, blows me away. It is a rewarding feeling when a student I met at the reception ends up attending Embry-Riddle. Just the feeling that I was able to help them through part of the process is what makes being a Women’s Ambassador such a great position.

As the Spring semester is reaching its peak, I am excited to get in contact with more prospective students, both over the phone and in person at receptions. The Women’s Ambassador Program will continue to work hard to help new students find their new home at Embry-Riddle.

Until next time,

Lindsey

Go Girls!

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Last weekend I had the privilege of traveling to Dallas, Texas for the Women in Aviation, International (WAI) Conference. Every year the conference brings together almost 5,000 aviation professionals from all over the world. The purpose of the conference is to promote women in the aviation field. I have never seen so many women pilots in my life. It was awesome!! The conference consists of an exhibit hall (where all of the companies get their own booth), opening receptions each morning with keynote speakers, education sessions with speakers, interviews, and the closing banquet on the last night. Besides bringing professionals, the conference also attracts many students from the WAI Chapters all over the world.

The journey to get to Dallas began at 3AM on Thursday morning. The ERAU WAI Chapter got together and drove to Orlando (MCO) to catch our 6AM flight to Atlanta. Our flight ended up having electrical problems, so we had to wait inside the plane for 40 minutes while it was being fixed. This put us an hour behind schedule and on track to miss our next flight in Atlanta. Luckily, due to a lot of snow on the taxiways and ramps in Dallas, our flight from Atlanta to Dallas was also delayed by an hour! Miraculously, we made it to Dallas. Once we got there we went straight to our hotel, which was HUGE! I guess it really is true; everything’s bigger in Texas.

It’s a good thing the hotel was massive because the conference was huge, too! I didn’t realize how many people attend the WAI Conference every year. It really was a great opportunity to network with some very experienced aviation professionals.

Each day I attended the opening reception, the exhibit halls, and a few education sessions. The opening reception was filled with women and it was a wonderful chance to go sit with someone new and connect with them. Every woman I met was very willing to share her story and her love of aviation. The exhibit hall was very intimidating at first. It was comprised of hundreds of booths, all with very powerful companies in the aviation industry. Once I got used to it, I talked with many companies and made some great connections. Lastly, each day I would attend at least one education session. These were smaller lectures about a specific topic. Some of the ones I attended were about the Women of The Boeing Company, how to find business fraud, and an education session about 9/11 from the experience of a fighter pilot. Overall, the business side of the conference was amazing. I met so many interesting women who were eager to talk to me as a student. I am definitely planning on attending next year in Nashville, Tennessee!

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Myself and one of the Tri Sigma Eta Tau alumna in the hotel!

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Me at the ERAU booth in the Exhibit Hall

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ERAU Alum whom I really connected with

 

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Part of the ERAU WAI Chapter at the closing banquet

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Crystal and I before the closing banquet

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ERAU Daytona Beach and Prescott Chapters before the closing banquet

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Kim, myself, Crystal, Lillian, and Kim before the closing banquet

 

Now for the exploration side of the conference trip! Of course, since I was in Dallas, a city which I had never been to before, I wanted to go explore the town. We found the best burger place in Dallas, Rodeo Goat, and realized it was just a few minutes walk from our hotel. One afternoon we went and had lunch and it was awesome! I believe in never eating somewhere while you’re on vacation that you could eat at while you’re at home, so Rodeo Goat definitely fit my mantra.

One night, the entire ERAU WAI Chapter went out to eat at Medieval Times. If you are not aware, Medieval Times is a dinner show where you eat everything with your hands while watching knights on horseback dual for the princess. The dinner experience is like no other. We cheered on our blue knight as we ate the dragon scales (potato skins), baby dragon (chicken), and drank dragons blood (tomato soup).

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Myself, Cevera, and Crystal at Medieval Times

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Jincy, Myself, Crystal, and Helen at Medieval Times

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Dragons blood and a baby dragon for dinner! Yumm

 

The last night of conference, a few friends and I went out to downtown Dallas. Downtown Dallas is not very active at night since it is a business district, so we went to Uptown instead! It was crazy! The restaurants all along the streets were packed with people out having a good time. Later, we went to a small TexMex restaurant and had the most delicious shrimp tacos I have ever had. It was great to get out and explore some of what Dallas has to offer.

In closing, the 2015 Women in Aviation, International Conference was well worth the travel and missing a few days of class. Although very tiring, it was my first opportunity to experience a business conference and network with people. I recommend attending at least one time, even if you are not a pilot, or a woman for that matter! You will be able to take away so many great connections and memories from the conference.

Until next time,

Lindsey