The She Fly's Aviation Program for Girls is Benefiting The Youth

Barbara Ellzey has been exposing the city’s youth to aviation careers for the last two years. Her commitment to mentoring and leadership spans more than a decade. In 2022, she launched She Fly’s Aviation Program for Girls. The mission is to expose black and brown youth to the world of Aviation and to create career pipelines.   

“No one is sharing information with them,” Ellzey said. “Our knowledge of aviation, even for some adults, is limited. Mine was limited. I had no idea you could go into the medical field, be an attorney, work in the food industry, or do dental — everything we see in our daily lives normally is also in the aviation (field). They offer all these professions.”

Ellzey has partnered with Georgina Johnson-Hopkins, a program analyst in the Aerospace Medicine division of the Federal Aviation Administration. 

“Aviation is an untapped market,” Johnson-Hopkins said. “Transportation is everywhere, but we are literally the 1% on the job.”

Ellzey and Johnson-Hopkins have launched community efforts that include free programming at local high schools, seven of which the women visited this year. 

“We want to be able to offer a different level of exposure,” Ellzey said. “I want them to see people that look like themselves.”

The duo has partnered with groups like the Tuskegee Airmen, Tuskegee NEXT, and aviation programs at Lewis University, the University of Illinois Chicago, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Olive-Harvey College, the National Guard and the Air Force.

On June 28, Ellzey and Johnson-Hopkins were featured partners in a Community Aviation Expo held at New Life Covenant Church’s Southeast campus.

With groups like Tuskegee NEXT, the Chicago Department of Aviation, and other aviation organizations on site. Students had a chance to talk with experts firsthand. 

“When people hear about the Chicago Department of Aviation, they only think of pilots, flight attendants, and maybe mechanics,” said Rena Neely, assistant commissioner for workforce for the city’s aviation department. “But what they don’t realize is the Chicago Department of Aviation is a city job and we manage the day-to-day operations of both Midway and O’Hare.”  We even have a real estate department that seeks and manages the land around our airports. The options with us are endless.”

Visit www.reachlpg.org to learn more about this exciting program.