A relatively new aviation program is helping students soar in more ways than one.

Two years after the Take-Off and Grow program started at ConVal High School, two students have already earned their pilot’s licenses and three more are well on their way.

Paul Schlieben of Peterborough started the program so he could mentor high school students interested in aviation.

“It’s kind of an entree into the industry,” he said.

What the students learn through the program, though, goes way beyond the cockpit.

The students earn their wings by working at least 12 hours of community service a month. Since its inception, students in the program have contributed almost 2,000 hours to the community, Schlieben said.

Newly winged pilots Andrew Long, 17, of Temple and Edward Glidden, 17, of Greenfield logged over half of those hours.

Since joining Take-Off and Grow, Long and Glidden have each worked more than 500 hours of community service. In exchange for the community service, Take-Off and Grow provides flight classes at ConVal High School one night a week and flight training by Matt McKeon at Green River Flight School in Keene.

Long, on March 25, and Glidden, on April 1, earned their Private Pilot licenses and “U.S. Pilot” wings after successfully completing the final requirement — a check-ride with an FAA examiner, at the Augusta Airport in Maine.

Long and Glidden entered the program two years ago with interests in flying, but with no experience beyond flight simulator video games. They left not only with their wings but also with new direction.

“I plan to pursue a career in aviation. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do before this,” Long said.

The students said they had planned to go to Daniel Webster College in Nashua, however, the school recently dropped its aviation program. So they are now looking for alternative colleges with aviation programs.

They plan to join a branch of the military in which they can fly, like the Air National Guard or the Air Force, and then perhaps pursue a career as a commercial pilot.

And there are many other career options in aviation, Glidden said, including flight instruction and air traffic control.

“This was an opportunity for them to focus on career goals,” Schlieben said.

Young guns

Now that Glidden and Long have graduated from Take-Off and Grow there are three students remaining in the program, Sam Mullen, 16, Devon Skerry, 16, and Geoffrey Phillips, 15, all of Peterborough.

Mullen and Skerry plan to take the private pilot test as soon as they turn 17 this year. The other requirement is to log
more than 40 hours of flight instruction, which Mullen has and Skerry is nearing. Phillips is the newest to the program with only three hours of flight time under his belt.

Mullen said he has been itching to become a pilot ever since his first flight in a single-engine plane at Jaffrey Airport when he was 10 years old. His interest drove him to ask for a job at the airport when he was 14, and he now does everything from filling planes to mowing the lawn and setting up fireworks, he said.

Take-Off and Grow fulfills his goal of pursuing a career in aviation. “I just want to go to college. I want to see if some military branch will pay for my flight training. ... I don’t care what I fly as long as I fly. I don’t care if it’s the crappiest job in the world, as long as I’m flying.”

Skerry’s career goals are a little more defined. “My main goal is to fly helicopters. ... I want to go into the military and fly helicopters, preferably the Coast Guard, and this program is a really good opportunity to get a step ahead for getting into the Coast Guard Academy.”

Both students said the program funds a dream they otherwise would not be able to pursue in high school because of the cost.

“There are not many programs out like that. It generally costs $8,000 to $10,000 to get your license,” Mullen said.

Lessons in volunteering

The volunteer aspect of the program has also enhanced the student’s lives, they say. The students have logged most of their volunteer hours running the Monadnock Community Hospital gift shop and training dogs for the Peterborough based Canine Alert Search Team. They have also worked with the elderly in the community and students at Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield.

“It’s awesome. I love it,” said Skerry.

The volunteer work is fun, but they say it has also unexpectedly built their confidence when in the cockpit.

“I definitely used to be really shy. I’m less shy now. I’m more self-confident, which comes with flying I guess,” Long said.

“It’s a major confidence builder. You learn how to fly an airplane on your own, you learn how to train dogs and run a gift shop,” Mullen said.

The volunteer hours and pilot’s license also look good to college admissions officers, they said.

“When I was interviewing at Daniel Webster, the lady almost fell out of her seat when I told her I had over 500 hours of community service,” Long said.

Glidden, a member of the school track and cross country team, and Skerry, a member of the lacrosse team, both said juggling the flight training and volunteer work with their already full schedules has definitely helped them hone important time management skills.

“I made a lot of friends from it and I learned how to make a schedule much better. It’s helped me study, it made me a little bit sharper,” Glidden said.

The mentor

Mentoring the students through the challenging teen years has been especially rewarding for Schlieben, he said. Not only are they becoming pilots, but they are building connections to their community through volunteer work, he said. “I see tremendous growth in maturity in the students as they progress through the program.”

Earning their pilots license gives the students a boost of confidence, he said. “They’re earning their way. ... They feel like they earned it, that’s good.”

Schlieben retired three years ago when he sold his Peterborough software business, Softlanding Systems.

Starting Take-Off and Grow was a way for Schlieben to justify his indulgent hobby, he said. Schlieben took up flying in 2001. He also flies for Angel Flight Northeast, a volunteer pilot association that arranges free air transportation for charitable and medical needs.

The glitch Schlieben sees in Take-Off and Grow is that it is so expensive, he said. “That necessarily limits participation.”

Schlieben is the primary sponsor of the program. “It’s been successful at ConVal, so I’m willing to support that.”

The program also accepts donations and is looking for sponsors that would support the program in other school districts, he said. Finding other funding had not been easy, though.

“I get a lot of people that are interested until it sinks in that they need $20,000 a year for three years. That’s the kind of commitment we need,” Schlieben said.

The program could also be expanded to other industries, he said. The basic formula of fostering connections between professionals and high school students could be applied to a myriad of disciplines, he said. “Too often the world of work is isolated from the educational experience.”

For more about the program visit www.takeoffandgrow.org.

This article appeared in the April 20, 2010, edition of the Ledger-Transcript.