On Oct. 5, a Delta plane took off from Salt Lake City, Utah, bound for NASA in Houston, Texas. The plane was filled with 120 Utah girls enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs, and was a part of a company promotion for International Girls in Aviation Day. The fifth annual promotional flight was part of Delta’s Women Inspiring our Next Generation (WING) program.
"We know representation matters. At Delta, we believe you have to see it to be it," said Beth Poole, General Manager - Pilot Development, who helped start Delta's WING Flight in 2015 and has helped plan the flight ever since. "We're taking ownership to improve gender diversity by exposing girls at a young age and providing a pipeline so that 10 years from now, they will be the pilots in the Delta cockpit inspiring generations of women who follow."
According to Women in Aviation International, women make up only 7% of the pilot corps in the United States. When the young women got to Houston, they were given a tour of NASA’s facilities. Delta’s website posted, "’I never would have thought I would have had this experience. I'm really grateful for my parents who have made this possible and inspired my love of aviation,’ said Karyanna H.,16, an 11th grader at Jordan Technical Institute. ‘It's such an exciting time to be in STEM. There's so much left for us to discover.’"
One student said that seeing the real-life work of women in STEM fields on the job made a career in the industry seem like a more realistic possibility. There is still a lot of work to be done in creating an equal society and workplaces accepting of people based on their person and not their gender. But the more images and the more real life experiences supporting the world we all want helps to bring us that much closer to achieving that goal.