The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Foundation has received a $498,000 grant from the FAA to build on its You Can Fly High School curriculum. The aid was among the $10 million that the FAA awarded through its congressionally funded  Aviation Workforce Development Grants, which help students prepare to become pilots, aerospace engineers, or drone operators and support the related professional development of teachers.

AOPA Foundation’s You Can Fly High School program offers a free STEM curriculum that is designed to help foster the pipeline of pilots, technicians, and other aviation professionals. 

The program, which has reached more than 49,000 students since it was launched six years ago, currently involves about 16,300 students in 43 states. AOPA said 70 percent of recent graduates of the program report they are actively pursuing aviation careers. Further, the association added, half the student participants are from minority backgrounds and one-quarter are female.

AOPA plans to use the grant to train educators through in-person sessions to ensure they have the necessary professional development for the You Can Fly High School initiative.

In addition, two high schools using the You Can Fly program received grants, AOPA said. The School District of Philadelphia was awarded funds for private pilot and unmanned aircraft training at Frankford High School. And the Fulton Leadership Academy in East Point, Georgia, received funding in partnership with the Aviation Institute of Maintenance to create a dual-enrollment aviation maintenance technician program.

Also, a partnership between the AOPA Foundation and the Commonwealth of Kentucky received a grant for an initiative to help prepare Kentucky high school students to become aircraft pilots, aerospace engineers, or unmanned aircraft systems operators through You Can Fly.