Embry-Riddle Plans Women in Aviation Day Program

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Embry-Riddle Plans Women in Aviation Day Program

Daytona Beach, Fla., March 17, 2003 -- More than 500 female middle-school and high-school students from Volusia County will learn about aviation and aerospace at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University during the annual Women in Aviation Day program to be held Wednesday, March 26.

The girls, along with school counselors, will participate in activities designed to educate, motivate, and encourage female students to pursue careers in aviation and aerospace.

The day of the event, student registration will be held at 9 a.m. in the university's ICI Center, 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd. Dr. Thomas Connolly, presidential chair in aviation and associate dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus, will give the welcoming address.

Natasha Kraus, a 1998 graduate of Embry-Riddle, will be the guest speaker. As a solid rocket booster trainer at United Space Alliance (USA), Kraus oversees training and standards for the technicians and engineers who work directly with the booster hardware. She joined USA in 1999 as an aerospace engineer in the International Space Station Programs office. Her other work at USA has included astronaut training for the International Space Station Command and Data Handling Systems.

Kraus spent the summer of 1996 in Russia, where she studied at Moscow Aviation Institute and underwent preliminary cosmonaut training in Star City. She holds a BS in Aerospace Studies from Embry-Riddle and is working toward an MS in Aeronautical Science, also from Embry-Riddle.

Starting at 10:15 a.m., students may tour the Embry-Riddle campus and learn about career opportunities in such aviation and aerospace fields as air traffic control, engineering, professional pilot, maintenance, and meteorology. Students will also learn more about aviation and aerospace through such hands-on learning activities as airplane, flight, and robotics simulations, and navigation exercises. Embry-Riddle students and volunteers will conduct the tours and will lead hands-on, make-and-take activities.

Middle-school winners of the Women in Aviation/Aerospace Essay Competition will be announced during a noon luncheon. The first-place winner from hundreds of entrants will read her essay to the audience and will receive a $250 cash prize and a $5,000 scholarship to Embry-Riddle. The second- and third-place winners will be awarded Embry-Riddle scholarships in the amounts of $3,000 and $1,000.

Support for the event is provided by Embry-Riddle's Admissions office.

Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates more than 25,000 students annually through the master's level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 150 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.