Aviation Learning Community honored for real-world experiences

Tour of Grissom Air Reserve Base

The instructors of the Aviation Learning Community at Purdue University were honored recently with the Real-World Experience Award for the aviation-related activities they completed with their students.

The Real-World Experience Award recognizes learning community instructors who plan events that offer an introduction to a variety of opportunities within their academic fields.

The Aviation Learning Community instructors with their awards.On campus, the Aviation Learning Community engages with Purdue and regional organizations focused on aviation and aerospace. The instructors also include social and fun activities that introduce the first-year students to campus resources.

The field trips, especially, helped show students the aviation industry from many perspectives. The learning community visited Grissom Air Reserve Base and toured its museum and flight operations as well as the Alcoa and GE Aviation facilities in Lafayette. The students were also able to interact with professionals in the field during luncheons with air traffic controllers, airline pilots, airport operators and the Purdue University Airport fire department.

Even though the Learning Community experience is over for this academic year, “many of the students continue to have group activities, and they all look forward to their next few years at Purdue,” said Stewart Schreckengast, limited term lecturer and one of the instructors. The other learning community instructors are Todd Brewer, aircraft maintenance technician, and Brian Stirm, air operations technical specialist.

We look at our database of all submitted Learning Community events and look at the different connections students are able to make,” said Justin Hamman, assistant director of Purdue Learning Communities. “We believe that the consistent programming of high quality events for the Aviation Learning Community was deserving of this award.”

See the full list of Learning Community award recipients.