This article originally comes from Fox News on October 28, 2024
More than 130 female students traveled to St. Louis Downtown Airport for a special event to be inspired about the aviation industry.
The annual Girls in Aviation Day event is meant to inspire young women by giving them exposure to the different aspects of the aviation industry and hopefully encouraging these girls to venture into this field.
For Riya Srambichira, a certified flight instructor at Saint Louis University, this event is personal, having experienced a similar program in Houston when she was in high school, encouraging her to become a pilot.
It was a really awesome event where I got to see first-hand what it was like to be a woman in this industry,” Srambichira said. “And nobody in my family is a pilot, and so this was my first really introduction into this career field.”
She wants to show these girls that the aviation industry is a huge world that they too can be a part of.
“It’s not just for pilots. It’s for aviation all around. Engineering, air traffic control, airlines, military, and corporate aviation as well,” she said.
She knows that just like her, the event has the ability to chance someone’s path.
“Such a small event like this can have such a big impact on someone’s life and I can personally attest to that because, you know, six years later, I’m here. I’m a flight instructor,” Srambichira said. “I teach other students to fly and it’s such a rewarding experience.”
For St. Louis native Major Alicia Canetta of the United States Air Force, Monday’s event was a full circle moment.
“It’s been 15 years since I started the flight program here at SLU, so being able to bring in my airplane that I’ve been flying here for a while and bringing it back to where it all started definitely means a lot,” she said.
Canetta wants to inspire young women to pursue their goals.
“These girls are ambitious, and it definitely shows that they are dreaming big and have a lot of goals, so I’m just telling them to keep those dreams in mind and trying to help them figure out their way as they try to reach those goals,” she said.
And wants to assure them that anything is achievable.
“If you can see it, you can be it; that’s huge. So, showing these girls that where I was 15 years ago and where I am today is definitely something they can do as well,” Srambichira said.
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