Scholarship Goes to Aviation Educator from Chesapeake, VA

The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) recently awarded a $1,000 scholarship during the Women in Aviation International (WAI) Conference held in Reno, NV. SAFE Chair Doug Stewart announced that Julie Anne Charmes was the recipient of the 2011 scholarship.

A flight instructor at Tidewater Flight Center in Chesapeake, VA, Charmes came from France in 2006 intent on an aviation career in the United States. By 2008, she had earned her Commercial Pilot and CFI certificates, and had graduated cum laude from Florida Institute of Technology in Aviation Management with Flight. She also acts as Safety Officer for the Hampton Roads Chapter of The Ninety Nines and started a local chapter of the IMC Club for instrument pilots. According to Charmes, “I’m so thankful to SAFE and WAI for making this scholarship available. The funds will go toward my multiengine instructor rating.”

The SAFE scholarship is open to WAI members who are aviation educators, and is used to further the instructional credentials, knowledge, or skills of recipients selected by a committee of independent judges. SAFE represents more than 550 of the industry’s top aviation educators, including numerous local and national General Aviation Award winners in the flight instructor, aviation maintenance, avionics, and FAA Safety Team categories. SAFE is also chairing the GA Pilot Training Reform Symposium in Atlanta, GA on May 4-5, 2011.