Airport Academy at Hollywood Burbank Airport aims to launch interest in aviation

Hollywood Burbank Airport launched a new educational program for Burbank Unified School District students this week to hopefully spark an interest for them to pursue aviation careers, officials said.

On Wednesday, a mix of 25 students from Burbank and John Burroughs high schools attended the first class of the Airport Academy, a five-day course that teaches students how an airport functions and what it takes for it to operate smoothly.

The courses, with one class held per month, will touch on the various aspects of Hollywood Burbank Airport. The students will get a chance to hear about its day-to-day operations from police, fire and airport personnel, learn about the roles of the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration and talk to pilots and flight attendants in the airline industry, said Lucy Burghdorf, spokeswoman for Hollywood Burbank.

“These kids have an airport right in their backyard, and there are so many career paths you can take in aviation,” Burghdorf said. “So we have this wonderful resource here, so why not share it and expose our young people to careers in aviation.”

During the class on Wednesday, each student introduced themselves and why they decided to sign up for the academy, which is held in conjunction with Burbank Unified’s career technical education program.

Many of the students said they were generally curious about how the airport operates. However, there were a handful of them who are in the process of getting their private pilot’s licenses or were looking to major in aerospace engineering in college, which was a surprise for Burghdorf.

“I was shocked and thrilled, and it reinforces the fact that the reason we’re doing this is very beneficial to the students,” Burghdorf said. “Maybe this will solidify more of their desires to pursue a career in aviation.”

Beth Wilke, a senior at John Burroughs, was one of those students who said they are looking to get their pilot’s license, and was actually slated to take her test a few days after the inaugural academy class.

Wilke, who aspires to become a commercial airline pilot, said her love of aviation was solidified when she and her family were in Belize. They were taking a small single-engine plane from the mainland to an island, and the pilot asked Wilke, who was 12 years old at the time, if she wanted to sit in the co-pilot’s seat during the short flight.

“I got to see the crystal blue waters underneath us, and it was the coolest experience,” she said. “Ever since then, I was really interested in aviation, and it wasn’t until my sophomore year that I decided that this was the field that I want to go into.”

Adrian Hernandez, who was also a senior at John Burroughs, said he wants to pursue a career as an aerospace engineer.

Fascinated with how things work, Hernandez said he grew up playing with different erector sets and Legos. When it came time for him to decide what profession he should pursue, he narrowed his decision to something in engineering.

“I then gravitated toward aerospace engineering because it’s always been a mystery to me how planes, these big hunks of metal, fly through the air,” Hernandez said.

When asked what they hope to get out of the Airport Academy, both Wilke and Hernandez said they hope to network with the people at the airport and airlines.

“The aviation industry is such a small field that you could meet people that could help you later on,” Wilke said.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio