If you choose a career as a pilot, you'll never be bored, waiting for 5 o'clock to roll around, Rylee Stenberg said.
Standing before a group of teenage girls Thursday inside a FedEx 727 cargo plane, the flight instructor at Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology described to the young women the excitement and empowerment she's felt every day since deciding to become a pilot. That kind of career, she told them, is available to everyone.
"The great thing that I love about being a female aviator is not only the fact that things are constantly changing, but also the fact that there are such great opportunities for us, especially in this industry," Stenberg told the group.
"Because it is male dominated, there are so many opportunities and scholarships and support for women to go into aviation."
With a father who is an aerospace engineer, Stenberg grew up around aviation, but said that she knows many girls don't get that opportunity. She donated her time to speak to the 60 young women visiting from Union and Broken Arrow public schools to help spread the word about the empowering opportunities that she said can come from pursuing careers in aerospace.
"I believe it's important for women to be exposed at an early age to aviation, not only for the industry but for their own personal growth," Stenberg said.
The students' visit to Spartan College's north campus, located on Apache Street near Tulsa International Airport, was coordinated by the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance.
Emily Mortimer, program manager for the organization that works to help students access high-impact careers in science, technology, engineering and math, said the alliance held its first Women in STEM event at Spartan a few months ago.
The day was such a success that they knew they wanted to put together another before the school year ended so that young women who had been on the waiting list would get the same opportunity.
"In November the girls walked away with their minds changed, inspired," Mortimer said. "We're looking to have that happen again today."
Women are underrepresented in STEM careers, Mortimer said, and research has shown that girls' excitement for the subjects begins to wane in middle and high school. Seeing what the female instructors and students at Spartan are achieving can be inspiring and eye-opening.
"This is all an effort to keep that enthusiasm going through their school years," Mortimer said.
Aimee Brown, chief marketing officer for Spartan College, said the school loves the opportunity to show young women the career opportunities in aviation. Currently less than 10 percent of Spartan students are female, Brown said, an improvement from the 7 percent figure a few years ago but still much too low.
"It's going in the right direction, but still," Brown said. "There is no good reason that a girl could not excel at any career path we train in."
Sarah Spriggs, a 15-year-old student at Broken Arrow's Freshman Academy, said that she heard about the event from her math teacher. She's had an interest in aerospace ever since she took a pre-engineering class last year, so she decided to sign up for the field trip.
Her favorite thing she'd experienced at Spartan so far was the unit on nondestructive testing, she said. The instructor walked the girls through X-raying an iPhone.
Spriggs said she was glad to have the opportunity to attend an event specifically focused on Women in STEM.
"We've had a stereotype claiming girls aren't always as strong" in those areas, Spriggs said. "It's very encouraging to see other girls are here as well."
