As Megan Binette (’17) sat on the bed checking her emails, she opened one in particular from her counselor. The contents of said email would determine the course of her future. Opening it, she scanned the contents and then started screaming and crying. Her dad came rushing in, slipping on the wood floors as he went. “What’s wrong? Who hurt you?” he asked. When Binette shared the news, her father starting crying too. Binette had been accepted into Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

“I would like to become an air traffic controller, but after I get out of college that’s another six to nine months of schooling. I also would like to teach on the side as a certified flight teacher,” Binette said.

It all started with a envelope on a tree one Christmas. In the envelope there was a free introductory flight. Binette was able to go and learn all the basics of an airplane, controlling it for an hour. She wasn’t supposed to take off, but she did.

“After I went and took that I fell in love with it,” Binette said.

Starting the STEM program in sixth grade, Binette developed her love of aerospace. She furthered her passion throughout high school for three years.

“It’s kinda prepared me overall for the fact that all of my classes are going to be aviation based and I’ve gained study skills, I TA for the class so I get to help teach, I want to end up earning my CFI so I’m certified to teach flight so it’s helped that I have better communication skills and more confidence in everything that I do.”

Binette was accepted into the air traffic management program and the flight program at Embry-Riddle; she received the Chancellor’s Scholarship and the Woman of Excellence Scholarship, covering one-fourth of her tuition each year she is there.

“[I’m most excited that] I’ll get to be surrounded by other people who also love aviation because the only aviation here is [aerospace] and it’s the program that I want to be in. They’re both things that I love to do and I’m really happy that I get to have that as my career.”