Liberty University School of Aeronautics - Unique

This is a great time to be entering a career in Aviation. It's a great time to be in training and the reason I say that is because the airlines are hiring, they're going to be doing so for the foreseeable future - for the next 15-20 years. In fact, the demand for pilots both in the United States and internationally is greater than the capacity to produce them. Well, we have a very unique opportunity here at Liberty University, not only do we have a fully accredited 4-year aviation program, but in addition to that we own our own fixed-base operator, or FBO, as it is more commonly referred to. It is a full-service aviation company. We offer aircraft charter service, aircraft rental, fuel sales, aircraft maintenance - just a variety of opportunities that are afforded to our students in several ways. One, just the peripheral experience - I call it "osmosis," Just because they're exposed to the operation on a day-to-day basis, they learn a lot that they normally would not have the opportunity to do in another program. But beyond that, it offers employment opportunities. We have several of our graduates who are flying our charter aircraft, working in our aircraft maintenance, and even while they're students they can instruct as flight instructors in Freedom Aviation as well as at Liberty University School of Aeronautics and they have opportunities to work in the FBO management, so they learn a lot, they make money, and it better prepares them when they leave here and go to other careers. We have a bridge program right now that's set up with Express Jet and also with American Eagle, where our graduates, if they commit to working for them, they are guaranteed an interview. They have to go through a little bit more training. They have a little bit more strict GPA requirements, but if they pass all of these requirements and also take our advanced jet simulation course, they're able to be guaranteed an interview and have a great opportunity to work at one of the two largest regional air carriers in the nation. We have an initiative and we're calling it "Flight Training Affiliates" where we, Liberty University School of Aeronautics are partnering with Flight Training Schools around the country to provide the academic courses that a student would require in order to receive a college degree in aviation while the flight training school provides the flight training. The benefit of this is what we, the university, can bring to this unique relationship is using financial aid, both for the traditional student as we think of them, and as well, those that are veterans and those that have veterans benefits. This is a tremendous advantage that has not existed before and we're starting our first operation at Newport News, Virginia. And we see the opportunity to spread even further around the country. So for anyone who is interested in aviation, it's a great time to come to a school like Liberty University and we encourage anyone who has a bent for flying or would love to be up there in the air to come take a look at us.