Introduction

     My name is Jeffrey Phillion, and I am in my Senior year here at Eastern Michigan University. My pathway to the aviation world is an unlikely one and an interesting one. I grew up bouncing between Michigan and North Carolina, and have always wanted to be an automotive Mechanical Engineer. From a very early age, I have been fascinated with cars, racing, and all things grease monkey. I had always viewed flying and planes as a cool occupation and a nice dream, but only ever just that; a dream. It wasn't until 2 years into my college career that I uncovered an aviation career as an attainable and desirable goal.

     I graduated high school in 2010 from Northern Guilford High School in Greensboro, North Carolina. At the time, all I wanted to do was become an automotive mechanical engineer and join a race team. However, I also wanted to get out of North Carolina really badly. Thankfully, a grant was available to me through Michigan Technological University that allowed me in-state tuition, despite coming from out of state. I elected the ME route through Michigan Tech.

     Plans changed after 2 years at Michigan Tech, however, mainly due to the supplemental 2 summers I spent in an automotive engineering internship. Learning what the real world application of mechanical engineering was proved to me very quickly that I did not want to become an automotive engineer at all, especially given the low chances of actually getting on a race team that would pay me anything sufficient. After swallowing this tough pill, I found Eastern's Aviation program on a Google sidebar ad (believe it or not) while searching for new potential schools, and finally began to realize just how attainable an aviation career could be.

     Now in the final year of my Aviation Flight Technology degree here at Eastern Michigan, I have high hopes for these last two semesters of my college career, as well as my progress in the cockpit. I look towards the future excited to earn a living and realizing a dream of mine all at the same time. Although I haven't given an actual career a ton of thought beyond wanting to start out as a Flight Instructor, I would love to end up flying a 'fun' job that doesn't necessarily require plug and play IFR, plane-flies-itself routes. Doing something like Bush piloting supplies into rural Alaskan villages would be an amazing job that I would love to do, as I already love the outdoors, and I love the thrill of not ever being fully in control.

     As far as guest speakers go in this class, I'm excited to see all of them and experience just how diverse the aviation industry is. If I had to pick though, I would love to hear from someone who does something like agriculture, bush piloting, aerobatics, or other flying jobs along those lines. Someone in specific that I feel would be a blast to hear talk would be guys like Sean D. Tucker, Kirby Chambliss, Paul McLeod, etc. Hearing from someone who makes a paycheck doing something that people don't always think of when they think of aviation could be eye opening for even our class, as it seems like the most common end goal is "Delta Captain". I don't disagree that this is a wonderful goal to have, but I feel like there is so much more to aviation, and we, as the next wave of students to graduate, are in the prime position to explore it all.