On January 14, Barrington Irving, the youngest person and first African American pilot to ever fly solo around the world, presented his ‘Mitsubishi Dream & Soar: Youth in Aviation’ program to students from IS-10 Middle School in Long Island City, Queens. Captain Irving lead two assemblies in the IS 10 auditorium and visited Science and Math classes. Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey serves youth at risk at its IS10 Beacon program.
“I want to share my educational and motivational message with students and to introduce them to careers in aviation,” said Captain Irving, who was mentored by a commercial airlines pilot. He founded the Miami-based Experience Aviation program, designed to build math, science, reading, and problem solving skills in young people.
Captain Irving was also honored the same evening by the New York City Department of Education at a special reception in downtown Manhattan. The overall event is sponsored by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. and coordinated by Goodwill Industries in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration.
“MHIA recognizes the benefit and need of opening up the eyes of young people to the choice of aviation as their life work,” stated Noel Takayama, General Manager for Aircraft Product Support. “America badly needs new pilots, grounds crews, engineers, teachers, technicians, air traffic controllers and workers for literally all aviation disciplines.” This is the third year Mitsubishi has sponsored Barrington Irving’s Mitsubishi Dream & Soar: Youth in Aviation Program.
MHIA Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. Aircraft Product Support Division provides ongoing support including parts, publications, and service engineering for approximately 400 MU-2 aircraft in service outside of Japan. More than 300 MU-2 aircraft are operating in North America. For more information, visit: www.mitsubishitoday.com, or www.experienceaviation.com.
Goodwill’s I.S. 10 Beacon program is located at 45-11 31st Avenue; Long Island City, Queens; 11103
Phone: (718) 777-9202
The Beacon program offers afterschool, evening and Saturday educational and recreational programs to all age groups from 6 up as well as summer camps. Among adult classes are Adult Basic Education, GED studies, English as a Second Language, computer training, citizenship preparation, vocational training and career exploration. Beacon services are available to any borough resident, whether a child attends the host school or not.